Shower tray cracked and redoing the installation

[acharnley]

Hi all,

Depressing day, I've found my shower tray has cracked. The installation is a few months old. I paid a plumber with an excellent reputation to install it and I'm sad to see he made a mistake. See if you can spot it...

I've taken the floor up and found water in the mortar underneath around the mounting holes for the glass. Looking around the internal there's small area on the mounts where the silicone was missed, the same on both mounts, and water has run down the hole into the mortar below where it has weakened and has started to flush out on the side with the crack.

The items are Aqualux which is now out of business. Having done much of the house myself over the past 6 months I'm now competent to do this sort of work myself and now don't really trust anyone to get it right anyhow. Time for research.

So given the picture of the room should I continue with a tray replacement? I found out later these curved trays are a nightmare to 'tile up' to, or cut anything accurately. If I refit the same I'd want to tile first and place the tray on top. The glass though is an absolute pain to keep clean.

Or I could think about a walk-in with a square edge which would allow me to drop the height, perhaps even making a flush job. The space is pretty small and I think it would still be restricted to a 900^2 tray, or 900x1000, but glass could still go on the one side and being less of it would mean less cleaning. There'd be holes in the tiles on the other side where the existing glass would no longer be required.

Just after some general ideas and thoughts on how to proceed.

Cheers!

Andrew

 

[Koolpc]

Def rip up and replace. Bad preparation and attention to detail.

Check out 'Skill builder' on youtube. Roger goes into installing shower trays thoroughly...

 

[acharnley]

Yes, Roger is really excellent.

The prep I think was good, marine ply floor, mortar levelling. It's just the tiny bit of missing siliconing (why!!!) which has allowed a little water to get down. Few months later and...

I've managed to source the same tray again despite Aqualux being no more meaning the trap is in the correct place. I've not fitted one before but will the tray come up easily enough, I then repair the mortar and build it back up?

I don't think a square tray would work the bathroom is just too small, even if it were flush you'd be skipping over the edge to get to the sink.

 

[acharnley]

Alright I'm leaning to buying the same tray, removing the mortar and ply and dropping it 18mm, something the plumber didn't do.

This means the glass will have to drop. I reckon the sides will be on some sliding mechanism where the bolts go, new holes at worst, but the top supports aren't and I may need to make some sort of metal adapter to drop them 18mm. It can be done though.

 

[drives]

They are expensive but we opted for a steel tray for the current shower room I'm redoing, to eliminate this risk. Really nice and simple installation system as well- polystyrene inserts that fit inside the perimeter, and then glued to sub floor- absolutely rock solid now with no movement.

I have also installed a stone resin tray (on legs) in our other bathroom but in retrospect, as I don't want to be doing any of these renovations again, I would have gone for steel in that one as well. Just putting it out there as an option to consider, but for sure stone resin properly installed shouldn't crack, and all that....

 

[acharnley]

Mine's a quadrant so I don't have that option.

I spoke to the plumber today and he recommended trying to fix the crack with epoxy. It's going about 10cm across the tray now.

He did mention the mortar is actually tile adhesive. I suppose as long as it was left to dry it would act the same, but if it wasn't in order to press it down and get it level then would it stick?...

 

[acharnley]

Inspecting it further. Two large screws clamp the top all the way down to the ply. The tray couldn't really move if it wanted too. It can't be coincidence the crack goes through the hole.

I tried finding the installation pdf for 'Aqualux Aquarius 8' but could only find it for the 6. The bracket for this model doesn't use a hole at all.

I'm going to inject both holes with mortar to try and fill the gaps up as I attempt a recovery! Silicone would be a lot easier but would act against the tray being free to move.

 

[drives]

I completely agree that is not a coincidence.

Why don't you call him back?

 

[acharnley]

I did, he doesn't want to know.

 

[drives]

I did, he doesn't want to know.

Oh dear.

I feel your pain. Plumbers in particular we've had loads of issues with. Hence why I now do my own plumbing and bathrooms and use this forum if I need any tips. I actually find it less stressful.

I'd just start again with a new tray, if it were me. Looking at the first photo I don' t see any reason why I square one wouldn't work, if you did want to change it. Adjusting waste etc wouldn't be too tricky.

 

[acharnley]

Square one won't work with the bathroom, it's an awkward size typical 80's house where there isn't a spare edge. A square one would mean a manoeuvre to get to the sink!

I'll try to recover first, I have epoxy and white additive in the garage so may as well give it a shot. There's a lot of silicone to scrape away otherwise...

 

[opps]

I wish you luck, but I am not (sure----edit) that an epoxy resin will hold up with such a thin crack. And how will you polish it back?

 

[drives]

Mine's a quadrant so I don't have that option.

Having another look, Bette do a quadrant. They are a bit eye watering price wise so depends if forever home or not I guess.

I can't really think what possessed the plumber to secure a screw through the tray into the subfloor when it clearly isn't designed for that. I assume it is some kind of (optional?) fixing hole for the enclosure trims that sit on top? Any person with the slightest degree of practical knowledge can tell that is going to end in tears when torqued down. I'd be considering my options taking that further if he refuses to rectify or compensate; money claim online or chargeback dependent on payment method.

 

[acharnley]

I was looking at the bracket again, it's designed to float on the top which is how the tray would still be able to move. Once the enclosure trims are installed with the silicone the screw design becomes optional at best. They should have kept it like the 6mm glass version and not bothered.

That he drilled the hole too large weakening the tray top and then overtorqued the screw. The other side had a smaller hole and wasn't torqued down. The water going down the same hole hasn't helped, complements of missing silicone around the trim.

Epoxy is in progress, it won't look great but neither will replacing the tray and redoing all the silicone.