Silicone seal around bath - help please!

Toots

My sister recently bought a house and the silicone around the bath is going mouldy and needs re-done. It looked like the previous owner might have applied it with a shovel, so even from an appearance point of view, it could do with freshening up.

The problem is, when we started scraping off the sealant, we realised there was something underneath - further investigation revealed that it's one of these:



However, instead of installing it as it is in the picture, whoever put it in seems to have put the seal on first and then tiled over it. There seemed to have been an historic leak in the shower, and what we now think happened is that the trim/seal failed at some point, and the previous owner piled a load of silicone sealant on over the top to stop the water getting down the back of the bath.

I'm wondering what can be done to fix it now and get it looking nice and neat again. They're very short on funds due to just buying the house, so taking the tiles off the wall to get the seal/trim off isn't really an option. Is there any way of removing the trim without taking the tiles off?

sbsquarepants

It's not uncommon to see one under the wall tiles and sitting onto the edge of the bath, in fact it's a better job. What often happens though is the bath works it's way down on it's legs over time and the seal is broken.

If that is what's after happening it will leak like a sieve but all you need to do to fix it, is remove the bath panel and raise the bath - there are adjustable legs which you hire / lower with a spanner.

What I done on my own was lower the bath down, squirt a load of silicone in under the seal back to the wall and then higher it back up tight while the silicone is still wet just to be sure to be sure, hasn't leaked since. Silicone is very messy however - best thing for cleaning it off is IPA if you can get your hands on some, otherwise mask off the area as best you can with tape.

Toots

Thanks! That sounds like it's probably the best option. Will it still be ok to do that if the seal/trim is damaged? She hasn't taken off all the silicone on top yet, so not sure what condition the rest of it is in.

dok_golf

as above, you can get a perfect bead if you mask both sides of the channel you want to silicone and remove tape immediately after smoothing out the bead

astrofool

It could also be this, which is more commonly tiled over:
https://www.goodwins.ie/products/Classi-Seal-3.2mtr-for-Baths-Showers.html

jmBuildExt

classi seal should go under the tiles alright, but if fitted correctly, it should sit between the bath and the wall (not out on top of the bath ledge).
The ship has sailed now for OP, but classi seal is the business.

sbsquarepants

This is the kind of set up I was picturing OP

cheif kaiser

I would cut it off using a dremel or similar tool and replace it with an over tile seal https://www.woodies.ie/homelux-bath-seal-white-over-tile-sealastrip-1-83m-1053686?utm_source=google_shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpb7QpIDl4gIVg-d3Ch1TFgn2EAQYAyABEgI4zPD_BwE

policarp

Several layers of silicone means that there is an underlying problem.
Could be bad grouting.
Could be unstable floor.

Toots

It’s definitely not classi seal, it’s more similar to what sbsquarepants posted above. I’m not sure if it’s multiple layers of silicone, it looks more like instead of using a tube of sealant and a mastic gun, the previous owner looks to have gotten a tub of something and applied it with a spatula. There was definitely no masking tape applied anywhere on this job! :pac: