Hi All
I am installing a new shower tray and the waste it comes with has a very thin washer that goes on top of the tray and underneath the waste fitting. Is this enough to seal the top or should I silicone it on to the tray? Or I guess fit it and silicone around it?
Would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks
Lee.
don't think those thin washers provide the seal .....
Lee Nowell expressed precisely :
Put some Plumbers Mait around the sealing points, plus long the threads too, to be sure of no leaks. It's none setting, so comes off easily where it squeezes out or if it needs to be disassembled later.
+1 Plumbers mait, I just fitted a sink waste and had small leaking issues Plumbers mait resolved it.
Video clip on how to use it and seal a waste:
If I remember rightly I don't think the washer on top *is* an important sealing point, as the metal part is open underneath. It just stops water bypassing the plug, and a slight ooze does not matter. The seal is to the underneath of the tray, and this is where sealant is best used.
Except that we're probably thinking about sinks with integral overflows, and maybe shower trays and baths don't have plugs or integral overflows, so the seal on top may be more valuable, It still looks messy having sealant on top, but if you don't then you need to seal the threads of the back nut as well as the face.
So I withdraw my comment.
Roger Hayter was thinking very hard :
Plumbers Mait can just be wiped off.
I think the issue is with single layer fittings (no integral overflow) the seal *can* be at the top and without the need for any sealant on the thread.
With a shower where you don't have a built in overflow, even though you might never use a plug and therefore don't need to seal the tray as such, water going under the top flange may still leak past the lower washer / threads but the difference is you *only* need to seal the top flange in that case.
Anything with an integrated overflow generally means you *will* have water around the outside of the waste below the primary surface and therefore the threads and lower nut-to-basin exposed to water, hence the need to seal both top (water bypassing the plug but not leaking out of the system) and bottom / threads (leakage from the system).
I must admit I was surprised to learn that you had to seal such things with sealant (rather than just rubber washer washers) 'these days'.
You might be able to get a straight mechanical seal where the waste fitting is designed to match the (say) basin where they could have an expanding seal [1] on a plain (not threaded) tube.
Cheers, T i m
[1] Like the rubber bushing you get in the bolt up BNC connectors and the like.
Where I need a sealant for *plastic* threads, or plastic to metal, I've found Fernox LS-X is much better than PTFE tape, which tends to extrude itself from plastic threads.
I would be interested in what people use to seal the waste to the top of such things as shower trays. Plumber's mait can be gradually washed out if the edge of the waste is cleaned too fastidiously, and can look smeary if it isn't.
I'll check that out.
I think I've generally used clear silicone, masking the area prior to application helping give a clean result (tape down first, cut round with a scalpel, remove fitting and inner tape, seal, fit and trim / peel outer tape when it's cured slightly).
If the hole is recessed enough and the outer diameter of the flange pretty close, I might just silicone up to the hole / flange.
Cheers, T i m
Jim GM4DHJ ... formulated the question :
but a bodge which works..
Roger Hayter submitted this idea :
It only washes out from where it is visible, it doesn't wash out from under flanges where it really matters.
As you say, without an overflow *I* reckon the rubber washer is the primary seal. I had a shower develop a leak after everything was boxed up because the plastic nut underneath evidently jumped a thread, leaving the metal part slightly loose. Not wanting to hack into the ceiling underneath, I dried everything out as well as I could and used warmed-up araldite to re-seal the metal to the tray. This has worked fine for 20 years or so.
Plumbers mait is OK on the traditional locations but personally I find the somewhat thinner boss white better in many places.
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