[mpnicholson]

My upstairs bathroom shower is leaking. It is a fiberglass neo-angle with glass walls and a door.

It leaks where the glass and metal wall meets the fiberglass on the bottom left side.

We have caulked, after cleaning and drying it. It still leaks. It doesn't leak a lot, but we have 3 kids and it is their shower. I plan to live in the house until I die and want it to stop.

Looking at the design, the metal wall just sits against the fiberglass insert. It isn't grooved or anything - only caulk keeps it from leaking.

We are debating. Should we rip out the unit and put in a tile enclosure or she we get a better designed insert? Or are we missing something about sealing the leak?

Any advice is welcome.

Melissa

[massplumber2008]

Melissa...

I think you said magic words here...DRYING!

I would remove the caulking that is present now and let it dry for a couple days. Then take a little rubbing alcohol and clean the entire area and let it sit for another day (alcohol will evaporate most of the remaining moisture)... then I want you to use a hair dryer to finish this 100%... let sit another day or so.

Then you caulk... ;)

It is all about DRYING TIME!!

If there is any moisture trapped in any way under the metal... and there is... caulking can't dry!

You could make this happen faster... but don't. Let things dry and you should have successful outcome.

Let the new caulking dry an extra day or two, too... can't hurt. Otherwise, you are spending thousands to replace... right?

MARK

[mpnicholson]

OK - we have done all of that except the hairdryer part. I am confident that it was dry in there- it was over a week since it was used and 2 days since the alcohol was applied. We have used this method twice now.

I feel like it is a design flaw- there is no flange connecting the glass wall to the bathroom wall.

I guess it is worth trying again before we rip it out.

Melissa

[massplumber2008]

Hey Melissa...

I had a customer turn on the water for just a second or two like 5 hours after installing the caulking... then I tried all the things I mentioned... NONE WORKED here either.

I actually had to remove the caulking and the doors and clean and dry everything off before I could reinstall and recaulk everything so it finally stopped leaking.

I hope this is not going to be the same for you... but be aware that it may just be the best option in this case.

Almost all shower doors today simply rely on a bead of caulking for final seal (and screws holding the metal to wall)... so nothing abnormal there... ;)

Good luck!