Caulking Shower

[907-Jayco]

Recently, I took a rare shower in our 2021 Greyhawk 27U and, when toweling off, was horrified to see a stream of water running out the bathroom and into the hallway. I was about to caulk the gap in this picture, but then read the thread entitled "Don't caulk your shower surround" in the Jayco Tech channel.

Any tiebreaking advice?

Thanks!

Josh

[Grumpy]

Don't. It will trap moisture, the base goes up about an inch behind the surround and very doubtful that is where it is coming from. Check around the shower door frame that is where most failures are.

[muckinfuss]

If you are of a certain weight, the water may be actually coming from a separation of the under pan plumbing. I personally found this to be true. If that's the issue, most open the access port on the base and shove a couple of appropriately sized blocks of wood in to stiffen up the base and remove the flex movement. Although my issue didn't involve the seam you're looking at, I can see how enough flex in the base could be enough to warp the space at the seam and allow some water escape. Other's may have a better solution.

[RPR]

The bottom pan has a lip on the top that the side goes over. Check where the bottom door channel meets the wall. Check shower drain and any pipes on other side of wall.

[CAG]

Yeah, the tie breaking advice is to believe what Jayco says. They built it.



Don't caulk it. The gaps are there for a reason as Grumpy says and if you call Jayco they will tell you that also.



There are several threads on here about this issue and several where people caulked and then had to remove it all.

[907-Jayco]

Thanks for the quick reply, folks. I will not caulk and will have a hard look at the shower door frame. I'll also poke my head in to the access port to see if anything looks wiggly.

[JFlightRisk]

I'll break the tie by saying not to caulk it. There's a lip on the tub that sticks up an inch or so under the surround, and the gap is there to allow air circulation between the surround and the wall. If you were off-level a little, water may have run off the ends of the tub onto the floor. Our tub is crosswise and if I have the tongue a little nose high, the water pools that way at the bottom of the surround.

If I have the TT level, rain and A/C condensation runs off the front gutter onto my head when I'm getting things out of the front compartment. I hate when that happens!

[CAG]

Originally Posted by JFlightRisk

I'll break the tie by saying not to caulk it. There's a lip on the tub that sticks up an inch or so under the surround, and the gap is there to allow air circulation between the surround and the wall. If you were off-level a little, water may have run off the ends of the tub onto the floor. Our tub is crosswise and if I have the tongue a little nose high, the water pools that way at the bottom of the surround.

If I have the TT level, rain and A/C condensation runs off the front gutter onto my head when I'm getting things out of the front compartment. I hate when that happens!

OK but I am thinking that this never was a tie since Jayco says don't caulk it.

[Scoutmaster253]

Originally Posted by 907-Jayco

Thanks for the quick reply, folks. I will not caulk and will have a hard look at the shower door frame. I'll also poke my head in to the access port to see if anything looks wiggly.

Have someone step into and out of the shower while you are looking at the drain plumbing. Remember that the weight of this occupant should be as much as what you had when you saw the water in the hallway.

[ARoamer]

One of my 35 factory defects was a 3" sealer skip on the aluminum shower door threshold where the shower pan meets the aluminum frame. Yep, water on the floor.

[TWP723]

The gap you see is in a lot of shower stalls that are available today. The one in my home is a 3 piece 60 x 32 shower (no tub). The walls lock together in what's like a J channel, keeping water from penetrating. Don't caulk it like mentioned earlier, it'll totally be the opposite of how the manufacturer designed it to work. You WANT that water in the gaps to evaporate.

[Onyrlef]

Jayco also says pleather is a good idea, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Otherwise, the one piece shower pan, like the tub in your home went in first, then the surround sits on the ledge. Caulking it won't accomplish anything, since water is never going to run up the lip. The surround in residential installations, finished surrounds, is only grouted or caulked to prevent moisture and mildew accumulating. Sounds to me like the most likely culprit is the strainer, before I did anything else I'd run a bead of clear silicon around the strainer flange in the pan. If Scooter didn't use any plumbers putty it will leak there first.

[NYCANCamper]

Check the aluminum track the shower doors ride in. I've read where Jayco installed the track backwards and the drain holes are facing away from the shower pan. Water runs into the track, out the drain holes and onto the floor.

[907-Jayco]

Originally Posted by NYCANCamper

Check the aluminum track the shower doors ride in. I've read where Jayco installed the track backwards and the drain holes are facing away from the shower pan. Water runs into the track, out the drain holes and onto the floor.

Totally believable. Going deep with intent to solve this weekend. Thanks again, everyone!

[ait109]

Originally Posted by muckinfuss

... open the access port on the base and shove a couple of appropriately sized blocks of wood in to stiffen up the base and remove the flex movement.

Apart from finding the leak this is an excellent thing to do. The flex in my shower floor didn't give me a lot of confidence when standing and moving around in it. What I found was that the wood blocks holding up the shower pan were short by a few mm and only touched the floor when someone was in the shower. I slid wood shims under every block and that made a huge difference in feel.

[GABob]

When I first took out the Rv I noticed the same. I caulked the edges on the outside of the bottom track and that stopped the leak. Now any water that goes into the track can only return to the shower base, not outside.

[DaveT]

In mine, water collects on the upper edge of the tub then runs off onto the floor. I tried a couple of those triangle shapes adhesive-backed gizmos intended to block this but expecting that the tub-to-wall intersection was 90* was just wishful thinking.

[Johnynorthland]

My 2019 Redhawk 25R leaked from under the shower curtain/door track, and from the 1/8” gap between the magnetic edge of the curtain/door and the catch on the metal track that’s attached to the wall.

I removed all of my tracks, used clear silicone under the bottom one, and on the side wall tracks, and I made sure when I drove the screws into the magnetic catch track side, it was plum with no gaps when curtain/door was closed. Oh yea, and I replaced all the screws with SS ones, ALL the factory ones were rusting!


I also had the P trap leak under the pan, this was due to the factory over tightening the plastic nut and cracking the threads on the tail pipe coming down from the drain.


Piss poor work and QC!

[cmikal]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Don't. It will trap moisture, the base goes up about an inch behind the surround and very doubtful that is where it is coming from. Check around the shower door frame that is where most failures are.

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Don't. It will trap moisture, the base goes up about an inch behind the surround and very doubtful that is where it is coming from. Check around the shower door frame that is where most failures are.

True, the base does go up about an inch, but my shower wall was also installed about an inch above where the pan turns upward. There is barely any overlap. How did I figure it out? One day, my wife was taking a shower and all of the lights starting blinking on and off and I heard this faint "whoop whoop" sound that was in-sync with my lights. It did this until I turned all of the breakers off.

I proceeded to try and find the source of the problem. When I looked into the basement storage compartment, I could see water running down the inside of the wall, which, coincidentally is where the shower is located. My furnace is directly underneath the shower pan where the water was dripping. Water was wicking under the inside edge of the shower wall, climbing the inside of the wall, then going over top of the shower pan lip, running down the wall and dripping onto the furnace controller board. When the water got deep enough in my furnace, it shorted out the controller board.

FWIW, I sealed the bottom of the shower wall against the floor pan lip so water can't get up under the wall. It was easier than ripping out 3 walls in the shower and trying to get matching replacements from Jayco. Also, FWIW, if water escaped down the wall because of an unsealed gap, air can infiltrate back up the wall through the same unsealed gap to keep the wall dry.

[cmikal]

Originally Posted by Onyrlef

Jayco also says pleather is a good idea, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Otherwise, the one piece shower pan, like the tub in your home went in first, then the surround sits on the ledge. Caulking it won't accomplish anything, since water is never going to run up the lip. The surround in residential installations, finished surrounds, is only grouted or caulked to prevent moisture and mildew accumulating. Sounds to me like the most likely culprit is the strainer, before I did anything else I'd run a bead of clear silicon around the strainer flange in the pan. If Scooter didn't use any plumbers putty it will leak there first.

Water can run uphill and DOES run uphill when the conditions are right. It happens through wicking and/or capillary action. Water also tends to wrap around edges, so for instance, when water runs down your shower wall, it doesn't all just go straight down and fall off the inside edge. Some of it wicks around the edge and tries to climb back up the inside edge. How do I know? Because that is what caused my shower leak. The shower wall in my shower is only about 1/4" below the top of the shower pan lip due to improper installation. Water wicks around the bottom of the lip, climbs that 1/4" vertical surface and drains back down the RV wall. This isn't a theoretical "it could happen story". This is an actual "here's what happened" story. Water can flow uphill. Ask a roofer. They'll explain it better than I can, since it happens a lot with roof leaks.