silicon

the silicon around my bath and shower is degrading rapidly after only 12 months, in fact the shower is gone altogether. can anyone recommend a suitable replacement that will last linger than 1 year ?

Les

Reply to
in2minds
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It would, as it's an extremely brittle material.

You need to use silicone. ;-)

If it is silicone, in which way has it degraded? It certainly tends to get dirty quickly, but should still function for many a year.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

I used SILIRUB 2/S a neutral silicone by Soudal when I fitted my bathroom/shower six years ago, still looks like new.

Brad.

Reply to
Cerberus

SiliconE?

:-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

it seems to have shrunk and lost it's grip on the tiles/bath/shower base

Les

Reply to
in2minds

You'll have to razor blade what you can off and get the finish as smoth and clean as you can. You probably had grease or something on the places you applied it. There are different grades of mastic for batrooms, some of which are not silicon and there are a variety of "modules" that describe how it functions. You want one that is fungicidal as well as quite hard when set. The acrylic ones go fairly hard. They are not considered as good as the silicon ones though. I'm not sure there is a good reason for that.

Reply to
Michael Mcneil

Sounds like one of two possibilities - either the product you used last time was not "real" silicone and an inferior "mastic", or it was not installed correctly. Correctly installed silicone should last for at least ten years.

Things to remember when installing - Firstly, surfaces want to be clean and dry and free from grease. Secondly (and the most usual cause of failure) is not observing the limitations of the product - it is only supposed to work when the total movement between the sealed surfaces does not exceed 10% to 15% of the total sealant thickness. So if your fitting is able to move 1mm with respect to the wall - then you would need a 10mm bead of sealant to be able to repeatedly absorb the movement without it failing over time.

One trick that can help (especially with baths) is to fill them with water before sealing, and keep them full until the sealant is set. That way the sealant is unlikely to be stretched as much under use, and will spend most of its time under slight compression. So with a shower tray you could pile in a few bags of sand or something else heavy into the tray before sealing.

To remove the original sealant you can get a "silicone eater" product from Screwfix that will help (but only if the original sealant was real silicone)

Reply to
John Rumm

Anyone tried germanium? :-))

Reply to
dave

Presumably you mean germanione ? I wonder if it exists ?

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Are they annuals or perennials

Reply to
geoff

Doesn't sound like it's shrunk, sounds like you have had movement of the bath and shower tray

Reply to
Simon

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