Glanz

We have a 3yr old installed bathtub and we have determined by pouring water around the spout and then around the faucet control handle and then around the tub-rim that all three places leak a slow drip. We do an annual inspection, husband goes under house with flashlight and I pour the water over each area mentioned above while sealing off the other ares with duct tape and plastic to determine if we have leaks. This tub has leaked in those 3 areas since it was installed 3 years ago. My husband recaulks it yearly but each year we find that it leaks again in those same areas. Is there a more permanent way to seal around a spout and faucet handle and around the rim of the entire tub to better seal it for a longer amount of time? I was thinking that we could dig out the old caulk around the rim of the tub and put hydraulic cement in the space first, let it dry and then put caulk around the entire rim of the tub. Is this advisable? What more can we do for around the spout and faucet handle other than just caulk? I'm sure most people don't check as often as us, we are quite diligent so there must be something more that we can do to insure that water is not entering our walls around those areas. The pipes do NOT leak. Thanks for any and all advice.

oldognewtrick

When you caulk, are you first digging out all the old caulk before you apply new? What type of caulk are you using? No you do not want to put a hydralic cement in the tub joint. As you get structure movement, it can cause a lot of other problems.

Glanz

yes we are digging out the old caulk very thoroughly and we use a silicone bathtub caulk. any suggestions?

Redwood

When you go to recaulk the tub fill it with water then use Polyseamseal or, Phenoseal, allow 24 hours to dry then empty the tub.

joecaption

#1 The fixture should not be leaking because the shower head should be spraying water away from that area, not running down toward it.
#2 It the fixtures are not set back far enough in the wall there's going to be a slight gap araound the trim rings. Is there an access panel on the back side of the wall as there's suppot to be? If there is you may be able to pull the fixture back if it's loose and add a wedge to hold it tight.
One other fix is to remove the knobs, trim rings, and spout and pack plumbers putty around the bigger openings there the fixtures go through the wall.

Glanz

There is 'no' gap between the fixtures, I'm not going to worry about the leaks around it because they only happened with me testing it for leaks, by pouring water against that wall around the fixtures...so you are saying that it shouldn't matter that they leak because the shower nozzles spray away from that wall anyway. So let's concentrate on the real problem which is that the seal (caulked rim) around the entire tub leaks when we shower. I have yearly completely removed the caulk around the tub and recaulked only to find out that the caulk only lasts a short time before it leaks again and was wondering if I could remove the caulk entirely, push something back into the gap like hydraulic cement to create an permanent seal to the gap, then caulk over the gap? Just caulking alone has proven not to be enough to keep water from pushing it's way through when showering. Please give me one more try here guys besides just re-caulking. Thanks!