All great except Silicon!

[ck-]

Hi all, This is my first post on here so please be gentle!

I am a reasonably competent DIYer (although I suppose everyone says that) so I decided to have a go at an upstairs wetroom. Actually it's more of a shower cubicle, but wetroom sounds more fashionable, and it's rather an unusual shape, so cubicle just doesn't do it justice.

I think I did everything correctly:
- Reinforced the joists. Everything so solid that jumping up and down on the floor hurt my feet there was so little flex.
- Made sure all floorboards fixed down.
- Fixed exterior grade plywood over the top of the floorboards.
- Used flexible adhesive to fix the custom built floor. This has the correct falls in place, and a trap.
- Used tape (rubber and mesh) to bridge the gap between the floor and the walls. Sealed this with rubber sealant - specified for wet room tanking.
- Fitted non-slip porcelain the floor tiles, having carefully cut them to follow the fall lines in the floor, using Bal waterproof adhesive (I can check the exact details if necessary)
- Fitted wall tiles also using waterproof adhesive. I believe both adhesives are cement based.
- Grouted the walls
- Grouted the floor.

And here is where the problem is. I understand that to get the best possible seal, you should not grout into the corners, but instead should use silicon sealant. I have done a reasonable job of it neatness wise using tape to get a clean edge, and smoothing it into place with a finger dipped in water and washing up liquid, but the silicon just won't seem to stick to the floor tiles, and water gets behind it. It doesn't go anywhere because of the tanking, but I'd rather it wasn't happening.

So my questions after all that are:
Why is the silicon not sticking to the porcelain floor tiles - it seems OK on the ceramic wall tiles?
Should I try a different silicon (I used clear unibond shower and bathroom sealant) or should I just take all the silicon out and grout into the corners?

Thanks ever so much if anyone has any ideas. I can send some photographs if that would help.

 

[Gazzer]

As Dave would say " we love photographs" so yes please.
I would get some decent Silicon firstly, Bal or Mapei are great. Mapei have a great colour range and its good stuff to use.
Maybe you should remove all the Silicon and use CornerTape
All the best and dont forget the piccies

 

[ck-]

As Dave would say " we love photographs" so yes please.
I would get some decent Silicon firstly, Bal or Mapei are great. Mapei have a great colour range and its good stuff to use.
Maybe you should remove all the Silicon and use CornerTape
All the best and dont forget the piccies

Thanks for the friendly first reply :yes:
Attached are some piccies. Note that the final grout is not in place on any of these. They just show the tanking taking shape.

I'll take one of the finished grouted floor and add that later.

 

[ck-]

And two pictures of the sealant. Looks worse on the photograph than it does in real-life.

 

[Gazzer]

Get some Mapei Silicon to match either tile or grout. It will look a lot better.

 

[GazTech]

ck-, we have an anti bacterial sealant the same colour grey....this would suit better....Gaz
BAL Microseal

A unique, high performance, waterproof and mould-resistant Silicon sealant especially formulated with built in Microban® antibacterial protection, to inhibit the growth of black mould and bacteria, such as Listeria, Salmonella and E-Coli. For interior and exterior use. Bonds to glass, ceramic, acrylic, fibreglass and glazed or painted surfaces.

 

[gonk31]

some tiles now have a waxy coating sprayed on prior to being boxed to prevent scratching that generally needs cleaning off after laying if this is the case then it could be that the Silicon is just sticking to the wax and not bonding to the tile, not sure if this is deffo the case but it is a possibility. But i do agree that a decent Silicon like the mal micro stuff sill stick better and has great antifungal properties to prevent the all too common black Silicon

 

[GazTech]

Does the Q-rock porcelain need any wax removing prior to grouting Stuart ?

 

[DHTiling]

Also make sure the area being siliconed is dry and free from contaminants such as grout haze etc...this will hinder the Silicon sticking......

 

[ck-]

Also make sure the area being siliconed is dry and free from contaminants such as grout haze etc...this will hinder the Silicon sticking......

OK, Thanks everyone for your advice. So I'm going to remove all of the selant that's there and try cleaning the tiles thoroughly - probably with wire wool? before having another go. I'll use coloured grout this time - the clear looks a bit rubbish.
I's annoying because wherever else I have done sealant - round bath etc - I have usually made a reasonable job of it, but this is just awful.
I think gonk31 could have a point about wax - certainly something is making this stuff not stick properly. Come to think of it, wherever I have scraped away the grout, cleaned up with wire wool and re=applied the Silicon, it stuck much better, which would support that theory.

Thanks all for being so helpful and for resisting the temptation to laugh at the quality of the tiling. :yes:

 

[gonk31]

yes gaz qrock has got a wax coating on it that needs cleaning off ideally with fila residue remover

 

[wetdec]

I would say the first question is who said you need Silicon ? If you have done as you say and the joints from what I see look to be ok why Silicon them.


tiler

..

 

[ck-]

I would say the first question is who said you need Silicon ? If you have done as you say and the joints from what I see look to be ok why Silicon them.


tiler

..

Well in part, because I was expecting to have to silicon them, I left gaps in the grout between the wall and the floor..

I'm thinking that I might be as well to rake out the grout and re-do it between wall and floor. I have Bal flexible waterproof floor grout.

After all, I have a very thorough tanking underneath, and so the water will eventually find its way to the drain, or just evaporate back out through the grout.

I have wondered whether putting sealant in there actually makes things worse!

Thanks again for all the advice.