I had a new bathroom installed in February. The tub and surround is Kohler/ Sterling Vikrell material. There is some creaking when you walk around in the shower but no different than my last shower which lasted for 12 years. After you turn off the shower the surround creaks which the last acrylic surround did as well, what is different is that after about 10 - 15 minutes it culminates in a loud sort of creaking bang and then it stops almost like it's back in position or something. I've been told it's from expansion and contraction due to material heating up and cooling down. I've watched from inside and thru the cutout as this noise happens and I see nothing! I see no movement from the surround, I see no pipes moving and there are no leaks anywhere, all the caulking appears intact and undisturbed but it drives me f-ing crazy!!

Can anyone tell me what this is, how concerned should I be and how do I stop it??

reinstall the shower unit so that there is NO, repeat NO, creaking

you 'may' be able to squirt low expansion foam underneath

the unit SHOULD have been set 'rock solid' onto a bed of mortar so that it does NOT creak

the piping should have been installed in such a manner as to prevent movement / creaking while still allowing for thermal expansion / contraction

a shower / tub assembly should not, ever, crack or break because of 'bottom flexing'


sorry for the tough love

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

I appreciate the tough love but tearing it out and putting it back in on a mortar bed just isn't an option for me. The last tub I had was set in mortar and it still creaked - maybe it wasn't enough I don't know but it did and the surround as well, that creaked for 1/2 an hour after you turned off the water. I can certainly try the low expansion foam though. Would you recommend that around the piping to the shower head and valve as well, keep it from potentially rattling against the wood. Also between the surround and the wall?

The contractor who did it was total garbage and is nowhere to be found so I'm kind of on my own here. I'm somewhat handy but not enough to do tear it out and reset it.

Thank you!

I think bernabeu said it well and is right on for the expanding foam "may" work...I've tried it but it never really works.I would like to see you run the shower "without a person" inside for a few minutes and see if it makes that creaking sound.I think you mite have two Problems,one being a water pipe expansion.Definitely bad installs.

So I have run it without being inside and obviously no creaking from the floor but I do get the same effect afterwards culminating in that final loud noise.

Try running cold water, for a minute or 2, on the shower walls after taking a normal shower and see what happens.

I will do that!

I was able to spray Great Stuff under a good portion of the tub and it seems to have worked great to stop the tub creaking while walking around in it. I still have the noise after though which I've narrowed down to the surround portion against the outside wall. From what I surmise from the comments and some research is that it expands and contracts with the heat and as it cools down it is rubbing against something but I can't fully get behind it to see.

My question is this... can I use the same foam between the wall and the surround?

LOW expansion type - SPARINGLY


good luck



? why is there never time or money to do it properly BUT ALWAYS time and money to do it again ?




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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638