sealing a shower enclosure All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[jbaldwin]

I'm in the process of fitting a new shower suite. The shower tray is in and I have tiled over the edge of the shower tray. Now I need to fix the enclosure and seal it.

I have heard many different ways of doing this.

The instructions tells me to silocone the tray first, then fix the shower enclosure, then silocone round the outside of the enclosure. However, I was under the impression that silocone doesn't seal to silocone, so how would that make it water tight where the tray meets the enclosure?

Any advice or tips would be much appreciated!

[bobplum]

hi
silicone tray,offer enclosure to the wall mark the screw points,assuming its being screwed,apply a bead of silicone on the enclosure uprights so that when its placed into postion there is silicone between tiles and uprights screw into place then as per instructions run the silicone up/down the upright,when you get to the tray you just run the silicone to the silicone on the tray,you can either stop on top of the silicone on the tray or just go over it,it will stick
i always then run a bead of silicone along the uprights on the inside of the shower enclosure,but if the instructions dont say this then they normally have a reason for it
bob

[swidders]

I usually silicon the tray to the wall (having sealed the plaster or whatever substrate is there) first - this hasn't got to be neat since tiles will cover it and will be the main way of preventing water getting down the back should the final silicon fail over time.

As for the base of the enclosure, you only silicon the outside to allow for water that gets trapped to escape into the tray. When the manufacturers advise you to "silocone the tray first, then fix the shower enclosure", they are trying to prevent any gap at the bottom of the wall rails. - Don't put the bead on too thick and do use masking tape (laborious but well worth the effort) which you should remove immediately after you have applied the bead and smoothed off/pushed into gap with a wet (surgical gloved if you don't want to be peeling it off your finger for a few days) finger.

Silicon will seal most dry things, including itself - if you do the base of the tray first as they suggest, let it go off for a few hours first to avoid irritating smudges and dust from the screw holes leaving their mark.

Finally, unless you have already bought it, don't go for the superexpensive silicon from b&q - i tend to use sanitary sealant at about half the price. Never had any complaints nor leaks yet!!

Good luck

[swidders]

I usually silicon the tray to the wall (having sealed the plaster or whatever substrate is there) first - this hasn't got to be neat since tiles will cover it and will be the main way of preventing water getting down the back should the final silicon fail over time.

As for the base of the enclosure, you only silicon the outside to allow for water that gets trapped to escape into the tray. When the manufacturers advise you to "silocone the tray first, then fix the shower enclosure", they are trying to prevent any gap at the bottom of the wall rails. - Don't put the bead on too thick and do use masking tape (laborious but well worth the effort) which you should remove immediately after you have applied the bead and smoothed off/pushed into gap with a wet (surgical gloved if you don't want to be peeling it off your finger for a few days) finger.

Silicon will seal most dry things, including itself - if you do the base of the tray first as they suggest, let it go off for a few hours first to avoid irritating smudges and dust from the screw holes leaving their mark.

Finally, unless you have already bought it, don't go for the superexpensive silicon from b&q - i tend to use sanitary sealant at about half the price. Never had any complaints nor leaks yet!!

Good luck

[jbaldwin]

Ok, Thanks for the tips guys.

Have already run a bead round the tray prior to tiling as a 'back-up' if you like. I just wasn't sure if if there would be a good seal between the dry seal around the tray and the new stuff i run on the outside of the uprights. Anyway, you are the experts so thanks very much.

[TheDoctor5]

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