First steps before anything else
Stop using the shower straight away. Every use pushes more water into the floor and the ceiling below, and a small stain becomes a sagging board faster than most people expect. Keep water well away from any light fitting on that ceiling, and if water is near one, switch that circuit off at the consumer unit until it has been looked at.
Then make one useful note: does the ceiling drip only while the shower is running, or is it damp all the time? Drips during use point to the enclosure, tray or waste. Constant damp points to a supply pipe or valve, and that distinction decides where we start looking.
The usual causes
In our experience the culprits are a short list. Silicone and grout that have failed at the tray line, a tray that flexes underfoot and opens a gap every time someone stands in it, a loose waste fitting underneath, a valve or pipe joint weeping behind the tiles, or walls that were never tanked in the first place. Often it is two of these together.
Our guide to why showers leak goes through each cause in more detail and how we tell them apart on site.
Why a fresh bead of silicone rarely fixes it
Resealing is worth doing when the leak is genuinely at the surface, and nothing more. But water that has already found its way behind the tiles or under the tray keeps travelling along the same path no matter how neat the new bead looks. The stain dries, returns, and each cycle does more damage to the floor and ceiling timbers.
If the tray moves when you stand in it, or the leak came back after a reseal, the repair has to happen underneath, not on top.
How we put it right
We strip the shower area back to the boards so the true path of the water is visible, then check the pipework and waste and pressure test before anything is closed up. The zone is rebuilt with the correct backer boards, tanked, and the tray or former is set solid and to a proper fall. Only then do we re-tile and seal.
Where the tray itself is cracked or beyond saving, a straight shower tray replacement often solves it, and some homeowners take the opportunity to move to a walk-in shower at the same time. The tiling is handled by our own tilers, so one team owns the whole repair.
The ceiling below
Once the leak is stopped, the ceiling needs time to dry through before it is touched. Wet plaster that is skimmed too soon stains straight back through. When it is dry we make good the damaged section and redecorate, and because painting and decorating is done in house, the same team that fixed the shower leaves the room below finished too.
When a full refit makes more sense
If the bathroom is old, the leak is one of several problems, or the suite was due for replacement anyway, patching can cost nearly as much as doing the room properly. In that case we will say so at the survey and quote for a full bathroom renovation alongside the repair, so you can compare both in writing.
Either way, it starts with a look at the room. Send the details through our contact form and we will arrange a visit and a free written quote.
Questions about a leaking shower
- Why does the ceiling only drip when someone is showering?
- That points to the enclosure rather than the supply pipes: failed seals, cracked grout, a tray that moves, or a loose waste letting water through only while the shower runs. A constant damp patch is more likely a pipe or valve.
- Will new silicone and grout stop the leak?
- Sometimes for a few weeks, but if water is getting behind the tiles the cause is usually deeper: missing tanking, a flexing tray or a weeping joint. Resealing the surface without fixing that rarely lasts.
- Do all the tiles have to come off?
- Only the shower zone needs to come back to the boards in most cases. Once the area is stripped we can see exactly where the water was getting through and rebuild just that section properly.
- Can you match my existing tiles?
- We will try, and plain white or metro tiles are usually straightforward. If the range is discontinued we will show you the closest options before any tiling starts, so there are no surprises.
- How long should a wet ceiling dry before it is repaired?
- Long enough that the plaster is dry through, not just on the surface. Once the leak is fixed we check the ceiling, let it dry out, then make good and redecorate as part of the same visit where possible.