Advice on wet room problem - Tile Advice

[Gemma]

Hi,

We had a partial wet room installed in our first floor bathroom over 3 years ago by a company who were recommended to us by our neighbours who had used the same firm a few years previously.

We've had no problem with it for the last three years up until a few weeks ago when water started to leak through a spotlight in the kitchen ceiling directly below. I had noticed prior to this that the sealant between the edge of the bath tiles and the floor tiles (which forms one of the boundaries of the wet room area) had started to deteriorate. I got a tiler to come in and regrout the wet room floor and reseal all the edges and this worked fine and we no longer saw any leaks or signs of water to the ceiling below.

However, since the regrouting/reseealing has been done - i've noticed that after having a shower and wiping dry the tiles, water is started to seap back into the wet room area through the top edge of the sealant along another side of the wetroom area.

It seeps out for around 5 hours or so (after finishing and drying the wetroom area) to leave quite a large pool of water on the surface.

If i run the shower without actually being in it and observe where the water flows, it doesn't really go much up against the areas where it is seeping out of, so it doesn't look like the water is getting in the same place as it is seeping out. So i presume it must be getting in somewhere else and being forced out through the small gaps in the sealant? I'm guessing the waterproofing below the tiles is doing it's job and not letting the water go beyond it and it's somehow being forced back up the surface? does that make sense?

I'm not sure if the guy who regrouted/resealed it just did a bad job and that is the cause of the problem, or whether the recent regrouting/resealing has just revealed a problem that was already existing but just not noticeable before.

I had taken some photos to try and demonstrate what i'm talking about but it says I am not allowed to post URL's at the moment as i've just joined - they showed the areas where the water is seaping back into the wetroom area through the sealant and then some other ones just to show the general wet room area.

I know it might be a bit cheeky to ask, but does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this?

Thank you for any help/advice/comments you may have on this!

 

[cam_low]

i have sent you a private message, if you would like to email me the photos I can put them up for you.

cam

 

[Gemma]

Thank you so much cam - will do so now!

Also thanks for your reply Schluter Systems - but just to confirm, we no longer have any leak through/above the light fitting (and no signs of any water around that area), the problem has arisen after that problem was resolved (and it was resolved through regrouting the wetroom area and resealing the area where the water was getting out through, however my problem is now that I think this may have either caused another problem, or just made an existing problem visible )

 

[cam_low]

 

[Time's Ran Out]

From the photos I can't see any 'falls' into the outlet, it all looks a bit flat and hence the pooling next to the grate. Lying water will go somewhere.

 

[Gemma]

the water does drain away into the drain, but it needs a bit of a hand for the last bit of lying water

the problem is that once the wetroom area floor/tiles have dried, water is then leaking out through the sealant back into the wetroom area which is what you see in those photos, so that is water that has come back out from the wall/sealant somehow

sorry for not explaining it that well!

 

[Gemma]

also just for some more information, i took the drain cover off and pointed the hose down the drain and let the water run for about 15 minutes and there is no sign of any water escaping either down onto the ceiling below or back out onto the wetroom floor area, so presume I can rule out any problem with the waste/drainage?

 

[radim]

do the tiles sound hollow when taping them?

 

[Gemma]

i've tried tapping them all around the floor area and i don't think they sound that hollow, but it's hard to judge really as i don't really have anything to compare the sound against to know if it sounds really hollow or not