water under tiles

[gozilla]

hi there!

we have a 4 year old walk in shower that has always had water sitting in the corner by the drain (can't seem to convince family members to push water into the drain after use). it has been installed with a schluter system. i think pink mold calcite or something has been building along the edge and no one has cleaned this. my wife noticed that the caulking has started to disappear. there doesn't appear to be any water under the subfloor or in the crawlspace.

thinking i just needed to dry out a little crevice to replace the caulking i find a whole role of paper towels filling with water when squeezed against the edge. is this normal to have an amount of water under the tiles with the schulter system? can i just continue to try and dry this out, clean out the calcite and re-caulk? or do i need a professional tile guy!?

thanks so much!

 

[havasu]

I'd try a color match caulk, but only after that seam is dried completely. It may take days to dry out.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Standing water in a shower isn’t good

 

[gozilla]

i remember our installing it as instructed here and filling with water overnight. it seems that there is room for water to seep through the grout and eventually out the drain. i will dry as best i can around the failure area and re-seal.

these are the products that were used. the silicone really doesn't seem like a good product. is there something else that someone can recommend?

 

[breplum]

1. If you have improperly sloped finished pan, it is a DEFECTIVE installation.
2. That caulk is NOT silicone. "siliconized", is a latex caulk and not suitable for full-time water contact...so it will go bad as often as you try.

100% Silicone caulk is the proper material to use for intersecting planes, but only if applied to completely dry surfaces.
I am not a tile professional.

 

[Joe-H]

Who built the shower pan?

 

[gozilla]

the pan is a pre-sloped Schluter foam piece.

 

[Joe-H]

Nice looking shower. Have you put a level on the floor to see which way it slopes ? If you want some advice from tile experts have a look at John Bridge tile forums. Ceramic Tile Advice Forums - John Bridge Ceramic Tile - Powered by vBulletin

 

[sawguy]

Your shower valve is right above where the water is seeping out. I might take the trim off and check for a leak.

 

[havasu]

Your shower valve is right above where the water is seeping out. I might take the trim off and check for a leak.

Good eye!

 

[RickFlorida]

Yeah it has the fancy infinity drain so that's unusual if the shower pan itself was not leveled or designed correctly for draining.
It's going to be so expensive to fix this if you hire someone said so my instinct would first be to see if sealing the crap out of the tile and grout would help or like someone said, make sure you don't have a leak behind the wall on the valve.

This brings me to something I have learned over the years (as a homeowner, I'm not a professional plumber by I have gutted bathroom and rebuilt them for myself and with family).

Here in humid Florida, I actually prefer to use the cheap acrylic shower/but kits instead of tile but I spend a lot of time and effort installing large mud beds when I do the final install to make the acrylic shower/tub feel solid and I got it down to where it doesn't make a sound or feel different from porcelain at all.

The best part of using the cheap acrylic tubs/shower kits is that you don't get any mildew on the grout to clean and everything fits together easily and well so I don't get any leaks.

Tile looks way nice, I do like the look of tiled showers. I tile my whole house and love it. But here in Florida, the grout gets mildew stains that seem impossible for me to remove. So if you do have to hire someone and redo it.... I like the cheap acrylic kits because it's SO easy to clean.

 

[sawguy]

I'm a firm believer in one piece shower bases. The onyx collection has so many different configs. and colors to match your tile. No dirty grout from feet to clean and no leaks!

 

[sawguy]

I'm a firm believer in one piece shower bases. The onyx collection has so many different configs. and colors to match your tile. No dirty grout from feet to clean and no leaks!

These are not plastic.