Resealing shower tray

Destination · 6 Jul 2013 at 16:27

We've been in the house a year, but have only ever used the bathroom which has an electric shower installed over a bath.
I've resealed this today, with no issues.
The ensuite is a slightly different matter.
It has a shower tray, tiled walls, small 2cm*2cm tiles, and between the wall and tiles are a plastic piece which looks like it is designed to be stuck down with silicone to seal the tray.
Clearly in the past it leaked at some point, and someone then took a tube of clear silicone and plastered the entire area with silicone in order to reseal it. Works fine from a water point of view, but the lower tile is also covered, and as the grout is somewhat porous, black fungal stains have creep down the micro surface between the wall and the grout and the silicone making it look dirty and black.

I am slowly, very slowly stripping back all the clear silicone, seeing where it extends to is hilarious in parts, clear trickery, must have looked nice when first done.

The plastic device, is this likely to be embedded under the first layer of tiles, or stuck in with two layers of silicone, the first to embed it, and then a second under the lip, which is then squashed to seal it?

The second layer is certainly there, it can be removed but only with great difficulty on access, but I wonder can I remove and replace this plastic thing, or will that pull a whole heap of tiles away?

Destination · 6 Jul 2013 at 16:51

Here we go, this damn thing, how is that inserted into the wall?

Destination · 6 Jul 2013 at 16:57

From this daft diagram, brown is the wall, black is the shower tray, blue is the tiles stuck to the wall, the red bit is what I can see of this plastic insert.
I am wondering, is there a pink bit to this insert, was it attached prior to the tiling?
The green is an obvious silicone position, and this will need to be replaced, but how was the thing insert in the first place?

Destination · 6 Jul 2013 at 17:19

A wider shot showing where this plastic thing sits, it is all of the white piece, two tone between the shower and the wall.
The mould can be seen along the side where the door is running up the wall many inches, again this is all embedded in clear silicone, absolutely none of that dark black rubbish is on the wall, or on the surface of the silicone. looks awful, and must have been done as a quick job, this wall hasn't been wet in a year, but the damn from under the silicone just worked its way up and out. Some dodgy monkey.

Destination · 7 Jul 2013 at 00:11

anyone?

Destination · 7 Jul 2013 at 19:54

Anyone have these plastic inserts?

Destination · 8 Jul 2013 at 18:03

Ahh thx.
Thought they might be stuck to the wall in some way.
My issue is with such small tiles any pressure will likely take off the bottom row. Meh, if I have to I will, but I might just strip it all back clean up as best i can, then run that suggested layer of silicone in underrneath the flap, and hope it seals matters sufficiently.

We don't actually use the ensuite, so it is cosmetic at this stage, but we'd want it right for later.