Silicon for shower tray and cubicle

[gingergeordie]

hi
i fitted a shower tray, and cubicle, to a newly ceramic tiled bathroom, stone resin tray, mapei grout and adhesive, unibond sanitary Silicon, after about 6 weeks there is a leak around the shower tray, i find the Silicon has not bonded to the grout , is ok on the tiles and tray , any suggestions as to how to fix this , and has anyone had this problem ,
thanks gingergeordie

 

[Stu Lilley]

hi..remove the Silicon and apply Mapei primer FD followed by Mapei Silicon....sometime Silicon does not adhere well but apply the primer fd which will give the Silicon a great base to adhere to

 

[gingergeordie]

hi..remove the Silicon and apply Mapei primer FD followed by Mapei Silicon....sometime Silicon does not adhere well but apply the primer fd which will give the Silicon a great base to adhere to

thanks again stu, will the primer discolour the grout,(verticals)

 

[diamondtiling]

When you applied the Silicon was there a gap between the tile and the tray? There should have been no grout in that joint otherwise the Silicon cannot do its job which is to seal and allow for expansion. If the joint was grouted you need to remove the grout and allow to dry completely before applying a good quality Silicon.

 

[gingergeordie]

thanks , grout has been removed, but will the wall dry out and tiles remain stuck once it has dried out , the ingress of water was at the bottom of the plaster board wall ,and has soaked up the wall about 30in, this is a stud,wall and i removed a section behind the tiled wall to check where leak was

 

[diamondtiling]

30 inches is a lot, plasterboard just blows when it comes into contact with water. I take it there is no tanking membrane in place behind the tiles? If you seal it all up now you are just sealing in damp plaster and that will not work, the customer will be on the phone to you shortly saying the tiles have fell off. Did you do the tiling in the first place? If not then the original tiler has made a boo boo. I would be inclined to replace the sodden plasterboard with new, applying tanking now will be too late as it will only be on the lowest 30 inches.

 

[gingergeordie]

no it is not tanked,if it is not sealed will it dry out ok, the bottem of the paster is damper , higher up it is discoloured but does not feel damp, this board has aluminium membrane on the back

 

[diamondtiling]

Do you have any pictures? How can you see the plasterboard if it has tiles on it?
Pictures help loads.

 

[gingergeordie]

sorry no pictures , this is a stud wall, and i could not detect where the leak was, i wanted to check to the pipework at the shower mixer,and the easiest way was to remove the other side of the stud wall , as this was being renovated as well, as it turns out the Silicon was not bonding to the grout (verticals) at the shower tray but sealed onto tray and tiles

 

[diamondtiling]

To be honest with you GG, you are trying to fix someones mistake, sealing in damp plaster is a no go area, I would be cutting out and replacing with new.