Sealing shower for 3rd time

[Haymish Pupkin]

Hi

I'm sealing a shower cubicle tray for the third time in as many years. Last time I used silicone sealer all around the tray and placed a right angled shower sealing strip (from focus diy) all around the tray above the silicone for good measure. The silicone has now come away from the tray so when the shower was aimed at a particular corner, the water goes behind the plaster under the cubicle and emerges downstairs out of a wall mounted light fitting immediately below - wondered why the fuse box kept tripping.

This time I have some plumbers mate putty I used to seal a sink waste outlet. I was going to push this into the gaps around the tray before I tried sealing it; does this sound sensible? Will it stay where I put it and maintain a leak proof seal or will it pull away like silicone always does?

What should I do after I have used the putty? I assume silicone sealer will not bond to it so would it be OK to just stick a decorative trim over the top of the putty and hope that the putty will maintain a seal on it's own?

Thanks

Haymish

[Wingedcat]

It sounds like the shower tray is moving slightly in use which is causing the silicone to come away from the tray/tiles. This is most likely your underlying problem, and explains why you have had to redo the seal once a year for 3 years. What you want to do (instead of messing about with putty, plumber's mait, sealing strips etc) is to get the shower tray absolutely rock solid, which may mean taking it out and reinforcing the base.

Also get the shower tray as close as possible to the tiles against which the seal will be made. The idea is to have the smallest possible gap to seal.

Then get everything scrupulously clean, and apply the best silicone seal you can find (Unibond "35 year" (!) type works for me...).

I won't go into the rights and wrongs of silicone sealer application technique as this has been covered many times before!

[Haymish Pupkin]

Thanks Wingedcat

The last time I sealed the shower tray it was rock solid, the silicone sealer would not have been really cheap stuff but I wouldn't have used top of the range stuff either. I can see where it has shrunk / hardened and split from the tray. I will try to use just silicone again but the best stuff. It just upsets me to have to pay £10+ for something that would cost

50p to make.

The back of the tray is the main bit that is leaking, this is also where the biggest gap is. It's about an inch away from the wall at it's widest. What would be the best way to fill that gap prior to using the silicone? As I said, I could fill it with plumbers mate putty but would the silicone stick to this then or would I only need to the silicone sto stick to the wall and the side of the tray? Or should I stick a piece of wood there or a strip of tiles?

Once I have done it, I don't want to have to do it again for a good long while.

Thanks

Pete

[sm_jamieson]

An inch gap ? Sounds like the install is a bit of a bodge job. Any chance of a photo ? Silcone would only be used to seal up to 5mm gap really. Is the gap vertical or horizontal You could fill the gap with something like WBP ply, tile it then seal it. Simon

[Wingedcat]

I agree, an inch is far too big a gap for silicone seal, and indeed any seal, to cope with. From what you say the tray is a full inch away from the wall at one point. So you'll either have to move the tray so it is closer to the wall (might be rather complicated), or bridge the inch gap with something solid. Then a thin bead of silicone each side of the bridge.

[PeteZahut]

Pete