Leaking shower — I think I finally got it (3 of 3)
How we got here:
OK, this is it. I have fixed the leak. Or have I?
About a week ago, acting on my brother’s advice, I tried tightening some screws. The screws hold the plate behind the mixer valve against the shower wall. Guess what? They were a little loose? The next time I took a shower the water came back. A bit. But the time after that? Nothing. And I haven’t seen water since.
Here is what happened, I think. The plate was a little loose. I checked it before and there wasn’t much play so I thought it was OK. It wasn’t. Water was getting in behind it, and pooling under the waterproof layer below the shower. Hence, the squishing noise. There is a slight dip in the shower that made a suction noise. That sound is now gone along with the water.
I have tried everything to get the water to come back:
- long showers,
- fiddling with the faucet,
- putting pressure at various points on the floor and walls, and
- manipulating the shower head.
No water, yet.
I learned a couple of things here.
- There always more to something than you know. I was going to rip the back of the shower off when my brother said “check the plate one more time”. If he hadn’t stepped in I would have been further behind instead of done.
- Persistence pays off. I kept talking to people about the problem and thinking about different ways to come at it. Eventually, I got an answer. Or so I hope.
- Am I done? It hasn’t leaked again but it might. I don’t understand the problem well enough to know if my solution fixed it forever or put a band-aid on it. What if that plate works loose every six months?
How did I do? Did I solve this problem or do you think there’s more to it? Only time will tell. Final lesson: if I don’t have “that time” then the shower leaking is the least of my worries so don’t sweat the small stuff.
