We have an acrylic (or plastic) shower stall that came w. the house we bought 3 yrs ago. Suddenly a wet spot appeared on the left hand side of the stall on the wall, on the outside of the glass doors (see link with pictures). I dried out the spot with a hair dryer and by the next day it was somewhat wet and brown... The shower head is on the right hand side of the stall, so water from the shower probably cannot get to this spot. The stall is from multiple pieces and I suspect that there should be some leakage behind the wall, now wetting the painting.

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There is an imprint on the bottom of the stall: LASCO UPC SB(C).

The right side of the stall (where the shower head is) shares the wall with another bathroom which has another acrylic stall with a tub. The back of the shower stall shares a wall with a hallway. The left side of the shower stall shares a wall with a bedroom. I know nothing re. plumbing or these types of stalls, so I'd appreciate your comments and opinion re. what might be happening, what should I do, etc. I am not a DIY person. I do not know if I have to call a plumber at this time or some other handyman. I hope we do not have to take the house apart.

Your help is appreciated.



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That is right at a seam so the assumption would have to be that water is getting through it and travelling to an 'exit' point.

Thanks, if that's the case, then it has to come from behind the stall's wall through the seam... Where else but the seam could the water come from? I have no idea which way the pipes are going, if this means a leakage behind the stall's wall...

It looks to me like water is following the horizontal seam and running behind the door to the wall. Even turning the shower itself on with nobody inside is likely to be a fruitless effort when it comes to tracking down a shower leak; when a shower only leaks when someone is using it, it is typically the water bouncing off a body and spraying on surfaces higher and farther than what you assume. If this was my own personal shower, I would force silicone caulking into the joint shown on picture #2. I would use a couple of plastic wedges designed to stop toilets from wobbling to see if I could spread that gap just a little bit. if you could safely open it up 1/16 of an inch, you could definitely get silicone from back to front, from the exterior to past the shower door, then remove the wedges and clean up all the excess. Any water inside the channel would be forced to flow down the shower wall and into the drain, provided that the surround was installed properly. if you wanted to test my theory, slowly pouring a pitcher of water or 2 from about 6 inches from the top of the surround somewhere on the back wall should duplicate the problem. I would pour at the junction of the shower door and the back wall to test the door seal at the same time. best of luck

hang a shower curtain or a piece of plastic up over that side to keep it dry while showering. use the shower normally for a few days (or weeks). see what happens.
if it stays dry, then it is definately a caulking issue and can be easily fixed by carefully removing as much caulking as possible and recaulking.
DAP 3.0 is an excellant product for this...

Thanks. I will do the suggested testing. I do not understand how could the water get (while showering) from the inside to the outside of the glass door. The spot is on the outside of the door and when showering, the door is fully pulled/closed....

It is possible for the weight of a human body in the stall to cause the seam to separate enough for water spray to invade the separation and onto the wall. Packy's resolve, will prove this... or not.

Best Wishes

What's strange as I look at the seams (and maybe you can see that in the pictures) is that the only place where one can see and touch caulking is on the vertical seam.... I used a small screwdriver to feel what's in between the top and bottom sections of the stall and there is no (obvious) caulking that I can feel in the horizontal seam, anywhere - unless it is "hiding" or it is just behind the wall... So I do not know what you can remove and if this is the way it should be.....

We have been living in this house for 3 yrs and the shower stall had to be installed prior to 2008. I am very surprised that problems didn't show up earlier if in fact caulking should have been done (and was not) in the horizontal seam.... If this is some kind of omission, should I assume that we just need to have caulking applied in the horizontal seam all around the stall? Any not obvious danger by potentially enclosing mold/mildew that might be behind the stall's walls? Would we see more signs, smell something if there was mold behind the stall's walls?

Thanks.

search around the lasco site to see if the installation instructions for your unit require caulking at that horizontal joint. some do not..
I still feel more comfortable applying caulking whether called for or not.
maax/aker is one company that has no-caulk units..
as for mold behind the wall, there probably is some...

As Packy said, there probably is some mold behind the wall. I wouldn't worry about it to be honest, because if it is trapped in the wall, it can't hurt anyone until the wall is being torn out and the spores exposed to the open air. It is possible that human weight in the shower has caused some small movement in the surround, or just settling in the house. I know someone that has 54' rafters that span across his foyer/sitting room that can almost tell you what the humidity is in the air because of the shrink and swell of the beams. His ceiling raises almost 1 1/4 of an inch during the dry winter months, and goes back to normal in the summertime. he installed a humidifier on his furnace and it lessened the impact to the point that it isn't so noticeable anymore, but it just goes to show you what can happen just with environmental changes. There are any number of reasons that you are now seeing a leak/mold (longer showers, standing in a different spot, settling, change in water pressure, etc.) but what really matters is stopping the flow of water outside of the shower surround.

Thanks.

I am doing now the suggested testing and I will not use the shower for a few days to see if the brown spot stays dry or not. If it gets wet without us using the shower, it means that there is some leakage someplace. If not, it states that water travels to the "wrong" place only when the tap is open.

The next step will be Packy's test, covering the spot while taking a shower. However, if it gets wet, how would I know the source/explanation of the problem to know what the proper fix is?

I am still wondering if caulking will be fixing the symptoms instead of the problem. Will caulking only obstruct the water from coming out instead of stopping the water from getting in? I still do not understand what causes water to somehow get behind the stall wall and probably follow the horizontal seem to the exit point which is the brown spot... It is outside the door, so I would find it very hard to assume that it is accidental spraying from the inside during a shower, particularly since it is quite far from the end where the shower head is.


I will also look into the manufacturer's instructions if I can find them.

If I just assume that there is probably some mold and don't do anything about it except the caulking, will the mold die over time if it gets no more water?



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This is just an assumption, but I would guess that the shower stall isn't level and has a slight pitch to the rear and outside of the surround.

KCRoto, thanks for your many replies. If this is your suspicion, then do I assume correctly that the water somehow gets behind the shower stall's wall and migrates behind it to the brown spot? I will wait for the results of the testing and then try to figure out how to deal with the problem.

Packy, just in case anyone needs to find Lasco. It seems that they have had a long and complicated history; while there is still a useless website around (http://lascoshowers.org/contact_us.html) which presents a contact form which then doesn't work...., anyone looking for Lasco products should look at [aquaticbath.com] . I did send them an inquiry not hoping for too much as the model I have is quite old and after so many mergers who knows what they still remember...

Here is the history (now Aquatic bath):

Subsidiary company of Tomkins PLC (2009 sales of $4.18 billion), the London-based, global manufacturing group serving the industrial, automotive and building markets, and owner of some of the best-known brands in these fields. Tomkins owned both Lasco and Aquatic Whirlpools prior to the 2010 merger that formed Aquatic. Following the merger, Tomkins was acquired by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Onex, one of North America’s oldest and most successful investment firms.



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I haven't installed this particular surround before, but I *assume* that water is traveling on top of the bottom section of the surround. I am guessing that it has a mounting flange behind the upper portion which is meant to be used to secure the unit to the existing stud wall, and that water isn't actually getting behind the wall per se, but traveling to the brown spot by the corner that you have seen, and is seeping out there. In my experience, when you find a water stain, you look up and/or sideways, and the logical path is the horizontal separation in the surround. It could be a 4 year old with a squirt gun, but I would eliminate the most likely suspect before looking for terrorist toddlers. =)

Thanks.

As of now the spot is very dry. We will wait one more day and then cover it and take a careful shower. No terrorist toddlers around here .

don't cover the spot, cover the horizontal seam inside the shower unit.

Thanks, you are right, that makes sense.



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I just bought a roll of Scotch Blue tape for Exterior with 7 day clean removal. It has waterproof backing and I hope that it will leave no residue on my white fiberglass if I remove it after a day despite the fact that it has a very high adhesion. I will not open/apply it until I get some confirmation from someone familiar with these tapes to ensure that I will not cause damage that I do not need. I'd appreciate your feedback.

I also looked up caulking reviews and think that GE Kitchen and Bath Silicone II could do the job after I finish "debugging". Please let me know if you would agree. Thanks.

OP --- "I also looked up caulking reviews and think that GE Kitchen and Bath Silicone II could do the job after I finish "debugging". Please let me know if you would agree. Thanks.

Check any tube - IMO 100% silicone has been proven to the best for sealing seams etc (Not caulk "with" silicone.)

Properly installed It will not crack over time, will remain flexible and is waterproof. The only precaution - you should not scrub it with a brush etc. After installation, clean with tilex or a bleach mix. Remove all previous caulk in area to be repaired. Do not just caulk over old caulk. Wipe/clean with alcohol. Use only as much silicone as is needed (small bead). Use tool or finger. It IS messy. Have many-many-many paper towels to clean excess during work. If work is not neatly done to satisfaction - wipe off with towel/razor blade and do it again. Although more expensive, you may find the small toothpaste size tubes are easier for a DIYS to use. Silicone left over in a large tube will cure over time - it does have a shelf life and must be left airtight.

Not a plumber -- but have found the above time consuming installation is the way to go. Especially for sealing ANY seam that may move/expand with temp/weight -- Tub/wall, shower wall corners, floor/wall seams, tile floors meeting other trim, wood etc. Because it remains flexible (unlike most other caulk OVER TIME) the installation will remain waterproof.

Why doesn't everyone use it? (IMO)
1. 100% Silicone is expensive.
2. Installation can be messy and time consuming to do a good job.

Thanks, WC for the recommended product and approach. I will look it up.

I am still waiting for "approval" for using the tape I bought.

In the mean time I took a few more close-ups, see link below.

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- picture 1 shows the "intersection" of the horizontal and vertical seams with a small, flexible clear caulk
- Pictures 2,3,5 show the only 3 places in the horizontal seam where I see some clear, flexible caulk (?)
- picture 4 shows how the the horizontal seam looks in about 95 % of its lengths (the exceptions being shown in pictures 1,2,3,5), with a small space between sections without any obvious caulking.

Should I assume that all existing (still quite well adhering) caulking should be removed OR left as is without another layer of caulking?

Thanks for all the help and advice.

Surprisingly enough, I got a reply from the vendor, which ecchoes what you shared with me: "Yes, caulking is needed for all seams and a finished bead of 100% silicone is recommended. We had good experience with GE’s products. Make sure that (using a hard plastic tool like a rubber putty knife to avoid damaging the acrylic surface), you remove any existing caulk. If you do not do that, air pockets might form between the old and new caulk and retain water. Before you use the new caulk, we recommend cleaning the surface with rubbing alcohol to remove any leftover residue. ".

Since the last posting I followed advice and did testing:

- when the shower was not used, the formerly wet, brown spot stayed dry, meaning that most likely there is nothing dripping behind the wall
- I taped the horizontal seam and used the shower. The brown spot stayed dry. This confirms what you suspected, that water from the shower probably gets in the non-caulked horizontal seam and travels to the exit point, near the brown spot.

Now I just have to find someone who knows how to use the 100% silicone caulk and do what the vendor and some of you suggested, without causing any damage to the stall. Hopefully that will take care of the problem.

Many thanks for your time, patience and good advice.



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