Water in shower where the wall and floor meet, but not in the shower itself. lots of pics here

[plumberboy9317]

Our house is only 2 years old and we are seeing some water in the grout lines where the wall and floor meet. Thinking we might have a leak, I watched our water meter meter for several minutes and it didn't move. I put a fan in the shower to try and dry it out, but the next day we could still see the water in the grout lines. What could be going on here?

 

[havasu]

Can you remove the faceplate covering the valve to take a peek inside? If not, don't use the shower for a few days, and run fans to dry it up. If it doesn't dry, you have a leak. If it does dry, that would tell you the water is wicking up in that porous tile.

 

[plumberboy9317]

ok so it could take a few days to dry out............maybe I didnt give it enough time?

 

[GReynolds929]

Looks like the caulking where the wall meets the floor has failed and water is getting under the tile. You could try drying it out with a dehumidifier and recaulking...

 

[plumberboy9317]

UPDATE: well after 5 days of drying out it looks like the water is finally gone. So my question now is do I need to remove the grout before caulking it, or just caulk over it?

 

[havasu]

I'd scrap it out and replace with a color matched flexible caulking.

 

[cgilley]

STOP!!!!!! Now.

Caulk is a band aid, and no offense to all the plumbers here, the fastest way to f*** up a bathroom is to let a plumber handle a tile problem. Caulk is not going to fix your problem. It's useful before you paint, but using it in a water situation like this just pushes the problem down the road (God, I hate new construction). Hopefully, you are still in your warranty period and you can push back on the builder.

Unless you went with an el-cheepo fiberglass shower, showers leak. Tile is porous. GROUT is porous. Even if I had a tile shower (I do) without the issues in your pictures, water is still going to pass through. This is why we have shower pans. As you did into this, you might find out you don't have one. God, I hate new construction.

You are having an issue with settling. If it doesn't leak into your ceiling, good, maybe you do have a shower pan. If you don't have a warranty then you have a couple of options. First, just watch it. If it doesn't leak, then you need to re-grout. Second, if it does leak, you need to call in a tile person to see if you have a shower pan. I would definitely get the builder involved (and talk to your neighbors).

 

[havasu]

I will always defer to John Bridge forum on tiling issues. here is an excerpt from his forum...

The industry handbook, the TCNA publication, calls for all changes of plane to have a movement accommodation joint, and in a shower, that is often caulk, but could be an engineered joint (grout is not).

Now, some installers grout their changes of plane. Sometimes, they get lucky, sometimes they don’t. It may not ‘fail’ immediately, and can take many years, or you may never see it. Depends on a lot of things like temperature swings, humidity changes, direct sunlight, heat ducts, and probably some other things mostly related to heat, but moisture can cause things to swell and shrink, often between seasons.

Since grout is usually the weaker substance, the grout tends to crack first, but in a worst case scenario, it could also debone or crack a tile as well. Note, getting the required thinset coverage on a larger format tile is a lot tougher than with a smaller one, and that may make deboning more likely through movement.

Cracked grout should not cause leaks if the rest of the shower is built properly.

 

[havasu]

With the above being said, when I say to use caulk, I am referring to a color matched flexible grout, which comes in a caulking tube. It comes in sanded and non-sanded types. If you look at the OP's one picture, look at the grout crack on the vertical wall. This is a "change of plane" as described above. this as well should have the grout replaced with the flexible color matched grout in the caulking tubes.

 

[cgilley]

I concur, thank you for that post. I did not even consider flexible grout. I just hate when people use silicone based caulk and turn it into a mess. 2 years ago, I had my bathroom redone, and I can clearly see where the vertical seams should have used flexible grout.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Most grout isn’t waterproof. The shower pan is what makes a shower bottom waterproof.

 

[breplum]

1. In my experience (at the house I own) this is issue is a function of appearance that the floor tile was not placed first.
2. With wall tile applied first then the floor placed, the capillary space where the floor abuts the wall is always prone to collect water.

I have, after removing the caulk to allow the gap to dry fully, and re-caulked; but:
Mold growth returns routinely. Dap Kwik Seal Ultra is an incredibly good caulk but doesn't offer the grey color I need. Biscuit color might work for you.

 

[havasu]

1. In my experience (at the house I own) this is issue is a function of appearance that the floor tile was not placed first.
2. With wall tile applied first then the floor placed, the capillary space where the floor abuts the wall is always prone to collect water.

That is what it looks like to me as well.