Wet room damp plaster

[hooleh]

Hi - wondered if anyone could advise, please?
Builder installed wet room; the floor is wedi and the shower cubicle is wedi on the floor and the walls.
Outside the shower cubicle, about 18" where the tiles stop by the door into the wet room, the plaster is showing some damp above the skirting board. I don't understand where this has come from - the builder is blaming the sand and cement grout, and claiming that re-grouting (e.g. BAL) will stop this re-occurring.
The floor is tiled with slate tiles, wide spaced and sand and cement grout between. The walls are tiled with ceramic tiles.
Surely, if the floor is wedi, there should be no path for damp to the plaster? even if the floor tiles are damp by osmosis from the shower area?

I am concerned that the wedi tape is not deep enough to allow for the slate tiles, so that the damp tiles are in contact with the walls above the tape - is that possible?

Also, should the upstand in the wedi drain be sealed to the drain, or left open to allow free draining from the wedi layer?

Many thanks! H.

 

[DHTiling]

Hi..So he used wedi on the all the walls or just shower area..?

 

[brian c]

how long has it been plastered for?(MIGHT JUST NEED TO DRY OUT)

 

[hooleh]

Dave
Just the shower area.
There is a wooden (tiled) frame around a sealed door (intend to turn this into a steam room in future, once I'm sure it's water tight...) to the shower area. Think this is butted up to the wedi on the walls of the shower, and then taped on the inside.

Brian
A couple of months.
Rest of the plaster is fine; about 6" above the skirting there's a line of plaster where the paint is flaking off, and a water line about 1/2" above that.

 

[DHTiling]

Should really have tanked at least half way up out side of the shower...stops water ingression from the wetting of the floor..seeping along the grout lines and up into the wall area..

 

[doug boardley]

any chance that a radiator/water pipe has been puntured and screw still in-situ, causing a small but constant leak?

 

[hooleh]

Dave - thanks!
That is what I expected to have got, but hoped the builder knew what he was doing...
Would replacing grout (in shower area, or all over wet room?) with BAL wide / flexible grout solve the problem? or only partially?

I have to let the builder 'have another go' under the contract, but I'm not really happy with what I've got...

Thanks again! H.

 

[DHTiling]

Nope that grout will not do such a thing as making it water proof...you will need epoxy for that...better still should have been tanked...wetrooms are just that WET..

 

[hooleh]

Doug
Nice idea!
Shower fed direct, and above floor through back of wardrobe (which has the hot tank); no apparent leaks.
Towel rail is electric, so no pipes.
Basins and loo plumbed behind units on the other side of the room; again no apparent leaks (I can see into the units).
Everything above the wedi, and all raised above the floor level of the rest of the rooms (step up into wet room).

So I think the only free water is from the shower floor... It's dried out a bit over the last 3 weeks - we've been having baths in the other bathroom! and we've underfloor heating which has helped - while we have been using the basins and loo, but you can still see the tide mark, and the paint is still flaky.

Thought the purpose of skirting board was to hide the gap between plaster and floor - so I'm concerned that the plaster is damp - does this mean that the (partition) wall is damp, not just surface??? Must ask builder to take off skirting (I don't want to damage it any more, and he's still under contract, not just that I'm not very practical!) & see exactly what I've got!

Think I need to demand more tanking further up the walls...

Thanks for the advice! H.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Who is this fella OSMOSIS - I bet he gets the blame!

Timeless John.

 

[Rob Z]

Hi H, We recently had an old customer call us to look at problems in the plaster just like you are describing. Both showers we did were mud walls with tanking. My guys did the plaster, priming and painting...by the book....very well done. And yet the plaster was damp and the paint was peeling.

We went over everything, fixed the plaster, repainted, wracked our brains about what he had done wrong in BOTH bathrooms. :yikes:

Then, one day, one of my men was at the house doing some work in another room. He saw the cleaning crew working in the bathroom. Their method of cleaning was to spray some harsh cleaner all over the place and then they rinsed the tile by filling a bucket with hot water and throwing it on the walls. The water splashed everywhere , including saturating the plaster and the paint and running off in sheets. This was and is the cause of the problem, thankfully not because of our work.

So my point is it might not be from something you did or didn't do...maybe the owner is spraying walls when cleaning and getting water and cleaners where they shouldn't be.

 

[hooleh]

Rob
Thanks - but I'm the owner and I'm not that enthusiastic about cleaning!:8:

John
Must have a work with that osmosis guy and get a pink fluffy mat round the loo...

H.

 

[dagger]

oh dear, oh dear,

here we go again!