Hi guys,

I am after abit of advise so I know what I am speaking about when I contact our builder. In our shower water seems to be leaking from behind the shower base into the wall.

The grouting has come out from the last row of tiles were the join the shower base. I have heard that Australia Standards requires that sealant is used for the joins do to the potential movement of the walls / base where as grouting will just fall out as it has.

Is this the case? As in both bathrooms there has been no sealant used at all in the showers or baths.

The tiles around the bath started lifting and when I pulled them off I noticed they had used chipboard around the bath to lay the tiles on and this chipboard had started swelling. The builder has agreed to redo the bath as he agrees that chipboard should not have been used.

I now want to get him on the sealant not being used and get him to fix that but not sure that they have breach Australian Standards or not. The house was built in 2003.

Thanks guys.

I can put photos on if that would help.

Look forward to your response.

Regards,
Greg

Chipboard?? Oh God help us. ..(Although this would not be the tilers fault, poor bastard would have been rather worried tiling over that)

Frank on here is good with the Standards, I'm sure he will give you the most up to date answer..

the WALL and base should have also had a waterproofing membrane. There is different ways of doing this, some people use felt paper and cement screed above and some use a paint on one, or some both, plus the grout needs to be sealed in a shower with grout sealer. Silicone should have also been used.

I was a loss adjuster and have seen many many leaks through walls, my questions are:

Is the wall a brick wall? also what height on the other side of the wall does the water/damp go too? Is it the same wall which also has the shower plumbing? On the connection to the shower rose did they use a plastic threaded pipe? (These pipes plumbers use now are crap, they split because you are screwing a metal shower thread to a plastic pipe, seen it a lot, usually it splits a little and while you are using the shower it sprays into the wall cavity, I recommend steel pipes and teflon tape on everything. (Could be a burst pipe)...

Water will always find the lowest point, when it cant go down (Brick Walls) it will soak the area of porous material and make it expand, it will then also travel towards dry air.. In this way it may come directly through to the other side.

Photos would help, it seems like a rather big leak from grout breakdown, and a lot of movement in the home in a short time, considering the way you describe it sounds as though it has been done recently.

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your detailed response. Just to clarify I do realse that the bath was not the tiler and as you say poor tiler when he found chipboard. Not bad a for a big building company like we used beginning with M

The wall is plasterboard and it is leaking right at the bottom, I have attached three photos which should give you a good idea of the setup. Please let me know if there is anything else you need to assit me in getting the builder to cover this or if I have no grounds really.

bathroom1.jpg
bathroom closeup.jpg
outside shower.jpg

I just wrote a big reply and lost it!@!!

So I am just gonna dot point it:

TOPIC 1. Reason I think its leaking:

I dont think it is from the grout line between the bottom row of tiles and the base. The base most probably has a lip that extends up under the first row of tiles, which you cant see.

I think it is from the shower screen, even around the hinge area where these always leak in my experience. (10 Years Property Loss Adjusting)..I must say that I am surprised someone used grout on a shower screen??

First thing is first, get some Liquid Tracer Dye and turn on shower, read the instructions and you will find out pretty quick where that water has been getting out of the shower to the skirting board.

TOPIC 2. Legality / Claims

From the photos, it looks like it has been happening over time, as in it is a gradual deterioration, your length of time in letting subsequent water damage occur has prejudiced you claiming ability, be it to a builder or a home insurance company. (Plus most home insurance excludes gradual deterioration) , it is not of a 'sudden and unexpected' nature. Therefore its not really a home insurance claim.

Builders Claim it may be, but for how long does your builders warranty cover you? Seems like it was a while ago the home was built?

After a certain amount of time, I am pretty sure the Builder is held harmless. (Check it out though because I worked in Property Damage and Liability, not Builders Warranty stuff)

As a civil case, well, thats how deep are your pockets? and is it worth it for such an easy and cheap thing to fix?

I had a very similar problem with a home I recently bought, my advice:

1. get the dye
2. find all leaks
3. silicone and stop leaks
4. remove old grout (Be careful not to damage tiles)
5. dont use shower, let it all dry out
6. get builders bog and sand back the skirt and you can rebuild the skirt out of this 2 part bog before painting, (Thats what I did, same issue)
7. Paint Skirt
8. Keep receipts and hassle the hell out of the building company for money, but dont bother spending money to go legal, you may just get a wimp in there that will cave in and send you the money for your receipts.

How is that plasterboard? totally shot? can you use another shower in your house for a while?

The affected wall is adjacent, so there is no leak to the reverse side of the wall the shower contains? because under those tiles there should be a waterproofing membrane, so although the internal corner you say is grouted and not silicone, it may have nothing to do with the leak. Silicone vs. Grout in a corner has been a topic of debate here before on the Tiling forum, some tilers grout corners some silicone, I used to grout them, because it looks better and I was trained to use silicone as well as grout in a corner, I have since stopped and now only use silicone after Frank on here kicked my butt into line.. :-)

PS: When you remove the grout, you have to get rid of at least 3mm deep in order for your regrout to stick.

Tim thanks so much for your help on this - I will follow your clear instructions and get it fix.

Appreciate it again.