Leaks
What to do about a leaking shower before it is repaired
4 min read
Short answer
Reduce how much water reaches the failed area, help the space dry between uses, and leave the defect visible so it can still be diagnosed. Use another bathroom if there is one, keep showers short, dry the walls and floor afterwards, and ventilate the room. Do not smear sealant over the problem: it rarely holds and it makes the cause harder to find.
There is usually a gap between noticing a leak and having it repaired. What happens in that gap makes a real difference to how much damage there is at the end of it, and to how straightforward the repair turns out to be.
Reduce the water going in
- Use another bathroom if the property has one. Nothing else you can do comes close to this.
- Keep showers short, and avoid directing the spray at the corner or junction that is failing.
- Where the leak is at a bath-to-tile junction, use the shower rather than filling the bath.
- Avoid the affected wet area entirely if water is reaching anything electrical.
Help it dry between uses
Water sitting in a wall or a floor for days does far more harm than the same amount of water that dries out. Anything that shortens the wet period helps.
- Run the exhaust fan during the shower and for a while after it, not just while you are in there.
- Open a window if there is one.
- Squeegee or towel the walls and floor after use, particularly the corners and the wall-to-floor junction.
- Leave the shower screen or curtain open so air can move through.
- Lift any bath mat off the floor after use rather than leaving it down.
What not to do
The instinct to seal it up is understandable and it usually makes things worse.
- Do not run a bead of sealant over failed grout or over old silicone. It will not bond, it seldom holds, and it can trap water behind it.
- Do not apply a grout sealer to grout that is cracked or crumbling. A sealer over a failed joint seals a failed joint.
- Do not scrub the area hard with a strong chemical cleaner in the hope of fixing it. Repeated aggressive cleaning erodes grout and makes it more absorbent.
- Do not remove or cover up the evidence before anyone has seen it. Photographs of the damage as it is are genuinely useful for diagnosis.
- Do not lay new flooring or repaint the affected wall yet. Both will be damaged again if the source is still active.
When the leak is not the most urgent problem
Some situations need a different trade first, and quickly.
- Water anywhere near a light fitting, a power point, a fan or a switch. Stop using the wet area and get a licensed electrician to look at it.
- A ceiling below that is sagging, bulging or dripping, which can mean a significant volume of water is being held above it.
- Water running while nobody is using the shower, which points at pipework and needs a licensed plumber rather than a wet-area repair.
- Water entering a neighbouring property, particularly in an apartment, where the strata manager should be told promptly.
Record what you can see
Photograph the shower itself, the corners and the wall-to-floor junction, and the damage wherever it is showing, including in the next room. Note when it first appeared and whether it changes with use.
That history costs nothing to keep and often narrows the possibilities considerably before anyone attends.
In short
- Using another bathroom does more than everything else combined.
- Water that dries between uses does far less damage than water that sits.
- Sealing over a failed joint rarely holds and hides the cause.
- Water near anything electrical is an electrician’s job first, not a wet-area repair.
Common questions
- Is it safe to keep using a leaking shower?
- It depends where the water is going. If it is reaching anything electrical, or a ceiling below is sagging or dripping, stop using it and get the right trade in. Otherwise the risk is progressive damage to the building rather than immediate danger, and reducing use limits it.
- Should I turn the water off at the mains?
- Only if water is running when nobody is using the shower, which suggests a pipe rather than the wet area. A wet-area leak only moves water while the shower is in use, so isolating the mains achieves nothing except leaving the property without water.
- Will a hardware-store sealant hold until the repair?
- Usually not. Sealant does not bond to cured silicone or to loose, damp grout, so a bead applied over the problem tends to lift within weeks. It also has to be cut out again before a proper repair, and it can conceal the defect in the meantime.
Related service: Bathroom Leak Repair