The enemy of any room in your home is water and the bathroom has more water hazards than any other room in your house. While you can embark on a full renovation every 10 years or less (which can be expensive), you can also extend the look and life of your bathroom by re-sealing your bath, sinks and showers.
The seal around baths, sinks and showers can become discoloured and mouldy, and start peeling away from the surfaces allowing water to seep into and under your fixtures. It's a long and somewhat tedious job to re-seal, which is why plumbers charge a lot, but it is easy enough to do yourself. Just follow these 10 easy steps:
Scrape off the existing sealant very, very thoroughly. There are an abundance of plastic tools to do this, but we found that metal bladed ones worked better. Be careful not to scratch your bath, though. This will take a good while. You can then clean any residue with a silicon remover/cleaner.
Wipe the cleaned surfaces with bleach and let it dry.
Fill your bath halfway full with water. This is because you want to weigh the bath down, as if someone were sitting in it, so that you re-seal the gap at its widest.
You now need your sealant. You can get a general-purpose sealant with fungicide, but our plumbing tutor prefers one that also contains silicone. It slides on better and has a nicer, smoother texture with a more attractive finish, but it is slightly more expensive.
Chop off the end of the nozzle of your sealant. If you've never done it before, don't chop much off and test to see how fast the flow comes out. Chop at an angle so that you can apply it close in to the edges.
Insert your tube of sealant into a sealant gun.
Have a practice at squeezing it out on a piece of waste card. Have you cut off enough of your nozzle? Practice drawing straight lines. Put too much pressure on your gun and your lines will look like fancy cake decorating. Too little and you'll have a thin smear. You need a nice, even, plump line. Note that if you go over your work the sealant will start to pucker and that's no good.
Apply to the area that needs sealing in a smooth motion, getting right into any corners.
Spray with a 25% washing-up liquid to 75% water solution and use your finger to smooth your line over (the solution stops your fingers sticking).
Leave to dry for as long as the sealant packaging suggests.
Use this technique to seal all around the features in your bathroom: sink, toilet, bath tub, shower stall, and basin. Remember this will help prevent water damage to one of the hardest working rooms in your house.
If this sounds to complicated, you can always hire a professional plumber ro do it for you!
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