Leaking shower recess

Leaking shower recess can be caused by 5 different reasons

1) Leaking taps or water supply pipework

2) Leaking waste water pipework

3) Subfloor structural movement resulting in a cracked membrane and cracked tile joints

4) Subfloor structure having no waterproof membrane at all with cracked and leaking tile joints.

5) Leaking shower screens with water penetrating around door jamb through carpet and into floorboards

Leaking showers for these reasons can be difficult when it comes to determining the cause of the problem.

In a lot of cases the problems are built in and to determine the cause it is best to use the process of elimination

Starting on the taps and pressure testing the pipework is useful, however not guaranteed that there is no very tiny concealed long term drip causing the

dampness.

The waste water is checked as best as possible, but in most cases covered by a gyprock ceiling.

If necessary an inspection hole is cut underneath the shower to look for traces of water from either the waste pipe or the ceiling joists the hole can be

covered back by a snap in vent if a proper repair is not necessary. This will also help with some airflow underneath the shower area.

If all these points seem to be OK the remaining situation will be the absence of or a damaged waterproof membrane underneath the tiles.

The property owner has to choose whether to chop up the tile floor and lay a membrane and then retile or install membrane over the existing tile floor

or treat the floor tiles with a water proofing agent such as epoxy.

Retiling with a new membrane will cost approx $1000.00 and is of course the most permanent fix however not the most popular as for the cost.

The most popular fix is to use epoxy with seems to have a fairly good track record these days.

This process of ceiling the shower base tiles is OK providing there is no further movement of the timbers, and costs $450.00 but does not include

the repair of other shower related plumbing procedures involving fixing the problem.

The cement sealing chemical would comprise 1/2 of the $450.00

If after a period of time the shower continues to leak it will unfortunatly be a situation of looking for a slow water pipe leak which can mean chopping out the tiles n the shower recess and continuing to expose the pipework untill the leak is found.

This can be a situation where the plumber can stumble straight onto the leak or it can also result in the total destruction of the shower which would not

please the property owner and should be treated as a last resort.

Cost of this is not known however $700 to $1500 is common but does not include retile restoration.