Shower leaking

[paulmag]

I recently replaced my shower stall and retiled the shower but now there is a leak from the corner of the shower tray. No cracks are visible but water appears to leak from under the tray on the same wall as the electric shower is fixed. Am keen to get some flooring down in the bathroom but cant until I get this leak fixed. Tiling done by father in law and fairly sure we just tiled straight onto plasterboard which I reckon I am goign to get laughed at for. Just to clarify the water spreads out from the shower tray ontop the hardboard flooring.

TIA

Paul

 

[gcol]

Hardboard flooring? Do you mean chipboard?

 

[roughcaster]

Could it be a small leak from the the water supply to the electric shower unit ..... or...... could water be running down behind the electric shower unit and into the wall,coming out at floor level as the "leak"?

If the tiles have been cut around the water supply pipe to the shower, or the electric cable, and not been cut say, "accurately" and gaps have been left around them, water will run down behind the shower unit, and into the cavity of the plasterboard wall. It is always important to cut and tile "neatly" around pipes and cables in a shower, leaving enough play for connection,and then seal with silicone. Check the tray and new enclosure are well sealed as well.

Roughcaster.

 

[paulmag]

gcol - its thick plywood

roughcaster - cheers for that I think there is a good amount of silicon on the inside of the shower which makes me think it must be coming from higher up on the fall and trickling down to that point. cacking myself at what is behind the tiles

 

[gcol]

Usually when shower problems occur it's down to movement in walls or floors. The movement cause cracks or splits in silicone or grout.
If you're sure the floor is sound and not flexing and if you're sure the silicone and the plumbing are ok, then you're really looking at cracked grouting. Water will get through quicker than you think. It'll then run behind the tiles to the floor.
Unfortunately for you Paul, if this is the case then you're a bit knackered. If water is running behind the tiles then re-siliconing will do little to solve the problem. The water will soak into the unprotected plasterboard and work its way down. This is why I always recommend tanking walls in showers. If the grouting fails then you still have a waterproof barrier that will keep water away from the walls.
My first step would be to replace the silicone seals - that's the easiest thing to sort. You did seal the vertical corners with silicone didn't you?

 

[paulmag]

gcol - yup silicon everywhere, my first thought was that I had missed a spot so went over it all again up down left and right then didnt use it for a couple of days to make sure it would set properly. FIL is on hols till sat night so will call him on Sun just to double check what we did. He is pretty good at tiling and the more I think about it I can't believe he wouldn't have put some sort of barrier in place. However there is leak from somewhere and it looks as if tiles are gonna be coming down