Wet Timbers and Plasterboard Behind Shower

gaelicyoda

Hi All,

I know this has been covered lots of time here, but I could only find posts that dealt with wet plasterboard, but not necessarily the timbers beneath.

Attached are some (5 of 7) pictures of the situation I find myself in with our bedroom en-suite shower on the first floor.

I believe the current problem is that water is getting in between the gap around the power/mixer control and the tiles surrounding it, and running down the inside of the stud wall cavity. The cover plate obscured this, and I'm really only realizing it now

This shower has some previous form over the last few years with regard to causing trouble to the ceiling below it:

(1) Where the shower enclosure frame sat on top of the tray, just for the width of the enclosure frame - about an inch or so - where the wall tile meets the tray was missing silicone for some time. Once the enclose was taken off and the gap filled, things got better.

(2) The classic issue of the corner where the wall tiles meet the tray had some kind of gap. Removing all old silicone and re-sealing it sorted the problem.

But now, it looks like over time the timbers have taken a fair old soaking.
I've removed the skirting and a section of the plasterboard behind it (the part removed is about the length of the shower tray on the other side of the wall).

Can anyone advise me on what I can do to steady these up?
I have the windows open and a small dehumidifier lined up as well.

We have a baby coming in a few weeks, and the amount of cutting away I've done to both the plasterboard and the ceiling below is about as much as I really want to be doing - hacking out and replacing the timbers is something I'd really like to avoid if at all possible, unless it's something that could be done with the amount of timbers I have exposed. Taking out the tray, etc. I think will just a non-runner with the missus, and it's all about keeping the ship steady right now

Hope it's clear from the pictures, but anything that's not, please ask.
Would really appreciate any advice from anyone who's gone through something similar.

Cheers,
GY.

(will post the remaining two pics in the next post)

gaelicyoda

... remaining two pics.

gaelicyoda

I should also have said that the main staining on the ceiling before I cut it away (and it was pretty bad - that room is not one we go into a whole lot, it's an unfinished sitting room we keep boxes in, so it got bad before it was even noticed) was under the main ingress point in image 5, and below the hot & cold feeds in image 6.

Robbie.G

gaelicyoda wrote: »

Hi All,

I know this has been covered lots of time here, but I could only find posts that dealt with wet plasterboard, but not necessarily the timbers beneath.

Attached are some (5 of 7) pictures of the situation I find myself in with our bedroom en-suite shower on the first floor.

I believe the current problem is that water is getting in between the gap around the power/mixer control and the tiles surrounding it, and running down the inside of the stud wall cavity. The cover plate obscured this, and I'm really only realizing it now

This shower has some previous form over the last few years with regard to causing trouble to the ceiling below it:

(1) Where the shower enclosure frame sat on top of the tray, just for the width of the enclosure frame - about an inch or so - where the wall tile meets the tray was missing silicone for some time. Once the enclose was taken off and the gap filled, things got better.

(2) The classic issue of the corner where the wall tiles meet the tray had some kind of gap. Removing all old silicone and re-sealing it sorted the problem.

But now, it looks like over time the timbers have taken a fair old soaking.
I've removed the skirting and a section of the plasterboard behind it (the part removed is about the length of the shower tray on the other side of the wall).

Can anyone advise me on what I can do to steady these up?
I have the windows open and a small dehumidifier lined up as well.

We have a baby coming in a few weeks, and the amount of cutting away I've done to both the plasterboard and the ceiling below is about as much as I really want to be doing - hacking out and replacing the timbers is something I'd really like to avoid if at all possible, unless it's something that could be done with the amount of timbers I have exposed. Taking out the tray, etc. I think will just a non-runner with the missus, and it's all about keeping the ship steady right now

Hope it's clear from the pictures, but anything that's not, please ask.
Would really appreciate any advice from anyone who's gone through something similar.

Cheers,
GY.

(will post the remaining two pics in the next post)

On that shower mixer there are 3 connections hot in cold out and water to shower head it's unlikely that the amount of water that could get under the cover plate would do that much damage I would say its at the connection on the shower or the one at the shower head.
Best bet would be to open up walk behind shower mixer at shower head position to check there

gaelicyoda

Robbie.G wrote: »

On that shower mixer there are 3 connections hot in cold out and water to shower head it's unlikely that the amount of water that could get under the cover plate would do that much damage I would say its at the connection on the shower or the one at the shower head.
Best bet would be to open up walk behind shower mixer at shower head position to check there

Thanks Robbie - the thing to bear in mind as well is the amount of time that it would have been like that before anything was noticed... as well as the other two historical problems that would have left their own marks on it in their time.

We haven't used this shower now in a number of weeks, but I just took off the skirting board and plasterboard today. I guess what I should do is run the shower and see if I get any moisture on the reverse side of the wall. Then seal up the gap and run it again and see if I continue to get moisture. Might be a while before I can do that though, I want to give it a decent chance to dry out.

gaelicyoda

Let's say I do get these timbers to dry out (I'll be waiting a while before I can confirm that though), what is the best thing to treat them with from that point?

Damp course & adhesive? sealant? special chemical treatment? (or even marine paint?)

gaelicyoda

gaelicyoda wrote: »

Let's say I do get these timbers to dry out (I'll be waiting a while before I can confirm that though), what is the best thing to treat them with from that point?

Damp course & adhesive? sealant? special chemical treatment? (or even marine paint?)

Has anyone had to treat timber that had previously become wet?
Anybody?

gaelicyoda

gaelicyoda wrote: »

Has anyone had to treat timber that had previously become wet?
Anybody?

Came across this stuff:
http://preschem.com/products/timber-protection/no-rot-gel/

Anyone used this (or similar) before?