Tub & Shower enclosure - Seat or not

[GaryS1953]

Hello - I've had to repair extensive water damage in our 5er bathroom. Initially I thought all the water damage was caused by roof leaks and I've resolved those and repaired all structure. When I removed the tub and shower, the enclosure was not sealed with silicone or anything to the tub. Seems like I've read that it's NOT supposed to be sealed, but there was a ton of water damage under the tub. When I re-install I need to decide if I want to seal it. I am inclined to seal it, and If I seal it, what should I use, regular lap sealant?

I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

[ScottG]

Run the shower against the walls and door. If you find a leak, seal it.
It makes no sense to let it leak.

I found leaks at the bottom corners of the door opening. Letting it leak onto the floor and damage things would be beyond stupid. A little line of silicone and no more water on the floor and base of cabinet.

[GaryS1953]

DrewE wrote:
Typically the walls of the shower compartment are not sealed to the floor pan, but just overlap sufficiently that water doesn't work backwards. The pan must of course be sealed to the drain, and other joints may need caulking/sealing. I would guess maybe your water damage had some other source than the wall to pan junction.

Caulking the walls to the floor pan is problematic due to their flexing and moving relative to each other (due to thermal expansion and contraction, the slight twisting of the RV body as it goes down the road, etc.).

DrewF: After more research it sure looks like the consensus is DON'T calk the show enclosure to the tub. I guess I just have to make sure when I re-install that there is enough of an overlap to prevent water working back up and over. Thanks VERY much for your help.

[troubledwaters]

Mine has a tub, and it's sealed. Came from the factory that way. Other thing is, how did the floor under the tub get wet? Answer to that may indicate to you whether that surround should be sealed. If sealing is called for, I would use a sealant designed for tubs & showers, that had a suitable temperature range, and very good flexibility.

[GaryS1953]

Ok, just found this on the Jayco Owners Forum:

"Don't caulk your shower surround.
It's been discussed around the forum a couple times, but I just wanted to share my experience with the hope of keeping another owner from making the same mistake I did.

When we purchased our trailer last year, I took one look at the shower surround and the huge gap at the bottom between it and the shower pan and thought "now, that's just sloppy, why is that not sealed?"

So in my final delivery requests, I asked the tech to go ahead and run a bead of silicone around there and get it all sealed up nice. I asked him to validate my request, and he responded with "that's what I'd do if it were mine". Well, later I was reading this forum, and I learned that was a bad idea. You see the space between the shower liner and the wall is subject to moisture issues, and the gap at the bottom of the shower surround is designed to allow air to flow through so it can dry up nice.

So I put removing that silicone on my list of things to fix a couple months ago and thought "well, I'll get to it sooner or later". Well, last weekend when we were out, I noticed a spot where the caulk had come loose a little bit, and there was a reddish stain there. You know, like the kind of stain that happens when that Luann wall board gets wet? I grabbed my pocket knife and began pulling some of the silicone away, and brownish red water started coming out. So I had a somewhat major freak out and envisioned myself pulling the shower liner away and finding all kinds of horrific things like mold and rot.

Well luckily when I got home and got everything apart enough to take a look, it turned out that some wood shavings had dropped down into that part of the shower pan, and water did in fact get back there, but it was just that little bit of construction debris that had gotten wet, and the brownish red stained droplets leaked out into the shower pan.

I really lucked out on that one, and I pulled all the caulk from around the threshold between the shower pan and the liner. Now I'm left with the job of removing all the silicone residue. I'm glad I got to it sooner rather than later, because that could have been a huge problem.

Don't make my mistake, that shower liner is designed to overlap the lip of the shower pan so any moisture runs into the shower, and the air gap is designed so anything left back there can dry out."


Based on this I'm still not sure. I have a bathtub, not a shower per se, and there IS no shower pan, unless the tub is considered the shower pan.
__________________

[DrewE]

Typically the walls of the shower compartment are not sealed to the floor pan, but just overlap sufficiently that water doesn't work backwards. The pan must of course be sealed to the drain, and other joints may need caulking/sealing. I would guess maybe your water damage had some other source than the wall to pan junction.

Caulking the walls to the floor pan is problematic due to their flexing and moving relative to each other (due to thermal expansion and contraction, the slight twisting of the RV body as it goes down the road, etc.).

[TNGW1500SE]

I'm not sure what you're dealing with but I'd seal a shower.