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Hi,
Water is leaking from the shower frame at the bottom door hinge. The other shower does the same so I’m thinking that this is a design flaw in the shower screen setup and the hinges need to be moved (perhaps to the side of the glass door rather than top and bottom). Any advice is much appreciated, thanks.
Hello @JB3
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about your leaking shower frame.
If the leak has only recently occurred, there is the possibility that the silicone seal inside the front of the shower frame has failed. In order to plug up the leak, I suggest using Selleys 100g Clear Ezi Press Wet Area Silicone Sealant inside the frame of the shower. However, if the leak is occurring from the door hinge and is tracking down the front of the frame to your floor, odds are water is getting splashed in that direction and is causing the water to gather and drip out that area. One way you can test this is to redirect your shower head away from the shower door. If the leak stops, then that could be the source of the leak.
I suggest doing a process of elimination. Is the hinge assembly broken? Is it allowing water to pass through the hinge assembly cover and out the shower? Is the drip strip too close to the hinge and causing water to bridge on the hinge and drip out? By reducing the likely causes of the leak, you'll get to the point where you'll actually discover the source of the leak. Unfortunately, there is no foolproof method of immediately stopping the leak. I recommend testing and finding the source, and once you discover the actual cause you can then apply a remedy to stop it.
Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing the shower leak stopped.
If you need further assistance, please let us know.
Eric
Thanks for your assistance @EricL
The water is running down the outside of the frame right where the plastic insert meets the hinge setup.
I tried moving the drip strips further away from the hinge cover but the leak was still there. I ended up using sealant along the edge of the hinge cover and to fill the tiny gap between it and the drip strip which seems to have worked but not sure if this is a long term solution.
Any suggestions? Cheers
Hi @JB3,
@EricL will be back on the site this evening, and I trust he'll add to the conversation if he has any other tips.
If you've stopped the leak at the moment, it might be a wait and see type of situation.
Does your shower head spray directly onto the glass? If so, that's quite a bit of water running down the screen, and it will try to find any route to escape. It would have been nice if the drip trim had been cut at an angle to fit the contour of the hinge snuggly. If your fix fails, then that would be the next step.
Please keep us updated on the situation. If it isn't resolved, don't hesitate to let us know.
Mitchell
Hi @MitchellMc
Thankfully the shower doesn’t point towards the door so it is just spray running down the glass. Thanks for your idea about the drip trim. I’m thinking that a different style might be worth a go - the current trim has a ledge to direct water back into the shower so maybe a trim without this ledge would allow the water to drop straight down rather than being forced between the trim and hinge cover then over the front of the shower frame.
Cheers
Hi @JB3,
I suspect the inadequate amount of silicone on the top edge of the trim allows water to enter the C-channel. It is effectively bypassing the trim and drip lip completely. The trim is acting like the gutter on your house. It's funnelling all the water directly to the end and hinge. Once it hits the end of the trim at the hinge, it's finding its way out the door. The amount of water on your floor appears to be more than just residual spray making its way past the hinge. By adding the silicone where you have, you've likely sealed the gutter or escape route.
If the problem persists, I'd remove the trim and add a nice thick bead of silicone in the bottom of the channel and stick it back on. This will solve the gutter phenomenon.
Mitchell
