A leaking shower is one of the most expensive small problems in a house. Water seeps through grout, past the tiles and into the screed, then shows up as swelling skirting boards, mould on the other side of the wall or a stain on the ceiling below. By the time you see it, it has usually been leaking for months.
Pre-tiling shower waterproofing
If you're renovating a bathroom or building in one of the new Pretoria East estates, the cheapest time to waterproof is before the tiles go down. Our shower waterproofing Pretoria process:
- Check falls to the drain and prime the screed and walls.
- Bed reinforcing tape into every corner, wall-to-floor joint, and around the drain and pipe penetrations.
- Apply two coats of a flexible wet-area membrane over the whole floor and up the walls, full height in the shower zone.
- Let it cure, then flood test before your tiler starts.
We use polymer-cementitious and water-based acrylic wet-area systems designed for exactly this kind of pre-tiling work.
Bathroom waterproofing Pretoria homes need beyond the shower
Bathroom waterproofing Pretoria builders sometimes skip covers more than the shower: the floor around baths, behind basins and toilets, and any bathroom on an upper floor or above a living area. A bath that leaks at the edge can soak a floor just as badly as a shower.
Fixing a shower that's already leaking
If the tiles are already down, we first find whether the leak is the waterproofing, the grout, the drain or a pipe. If it's a pipe, you need a plumber, and we'll tell you. If it's grout and silicone on a sound membrane, regrouting and resealing may solve it. If the membrane has failed or was never installed, the honest fix is to lift the tiles, waterproof and retile.
Quick test
Run the shower for 10 minutes without anyone standing in it, aiming the water only at the floor. If the stain grows, the floor or drain is leaking. Repeat with the walls to narrow it down.
Areas we cover for this service
We do shower & bathroom waterproofing across Pretoria East: