A weird problem for you all!

[cr0ft]

Hi,

We've just finished replacing a mixer shower with an electric shower and (as always on these jobs) we fill any old screw holes on display with white silicon sealant if the customer doesn't want to retile or we can't get the tiles.

Twice now we've filled the holes with a good quality BAL Microban white silicon sealant. On the first occasion the sealant turned pink within a week. This time, the sealant has turned bright red within another week. The first time it was a brand new tube (in date). The second time it was a tube we had used to finish sealing a new bathroom the day before. The new bathroom is fine!

I am putting it down to the sealant reacting with either wet plaster or leaching colour from the surrounding tiles (the biscuit is a dark red colour).

Any ideas? It's never something I've seen except in badly water damaged shower areas where the plaster leaches through onto the grout/sealant.

 

[brum]

Hi there do you think it may be shampoo shower gel etc.I carry a small tub of ready mixed grout
which I use to fill holes.It wouldn't be the colouring in the tile I wouldn't have thought..brum

 

[cr0ft]

Well the first time the holes had gone pink before the new electric shower was even connected up. We had removed the mixer shower and fitted the electric one but there was a 1 week gap between us fitting the electric shower and circuit and connecting it over to the new consumer unit we fitted. In that time no one was using the shower at all obviously! Now, since the shower has being used, the 2nd lot of sealant has gone a bright red apparently, sounds a lot brighter than the original off pink colour.

I am tending towards the shower wall is plastered behind the tiles and the plaster is damp due to no waterproof matting or anything behind the tiles. They have a combi-boiler so both showers are going to be high pressure showers and thus without waterproofing the plaster is going to be getting wet during use. I've seen staining from plaster walls that are damp leaching through silicon before but normally it's been going on for years and then we see it when we come to rip their bathroom out and replace it. Never seen it happen this quickly before.

Weirdly, we cut out and resealed around the bath at the same time. The sealant there is all fine. Exactly the same stuff.

 

[MOSSEP]

Have you left an old red rawl plug in the hole? The dye from that would probably leach into the silicone.

 

[turnpin]

Might be the colouring from the clay the tiles are made from try sealing with a little tipex before filling with silicon/grout regards Turnpin:50:

 

[kris]

I was gonna say same as turnpin. The body of the tile is a red clay based material. The silicone must be having a reaction off it. Next time you do it insert half a raw plug (cut end off so doesn't petrude) or something to stop the silicone touching the back of tile.

 

[buckley plumb]

come across something like this before when doing maintenance on new builds customer kept complaining that after 2 wks the tiles and shower mixer would be covered in a pinky slime coating.did a couple of visits until I found the cause.it was the wife -well all the foundation she wore coming off when she showered .the guy was always there when I went and on the last visit she come home and when saw here I clicked in straight away she put it on as thick as render

 

[cr0ft]

I think in this case it has to be the tile reacting with the silicon. The old shower was removed and the new electric shower wasn't connected to the new board for about a week. During that time the first lot of silicon went pink. Am I likely to have the same issue if I grout the holes?

 

[CES]

Have you tried decorators caulk?

 

[brum]

Grout should be fine otherwise the ex grout lines would be pink..brum

 

[cr0ft]

I agree but the problem is you could say that about the silicon sealant lines around the bath etc too. They are all still white which is what's throwing me and making me think the shower wall is wet behind the tiles.

 

[brum]

I can see your point could you insert a dampness meter probe in to test wall or how about the soap
shampoo etc that could have leeched through over the years before you changed shower and could be poss trying to get out or at least discoloring silicone.Really strange but today I had to repair a curved shower enclosure involving removal of glazing gasket.Any guess as to what colour a section had turned??
Thought about your post still think its shampoo,shower gel etc hope you get it sorted..brum

 

[newcastle phill]

Not fusarium ???
Seems to like some sealants ??