Water under tile

[tonygod]

I decided to clean up some of the mildew around the bottom of my shower this weekend. As I was cleaning it, I noticed some damp places around the edges where the floor meets the wall. I used some paper towels to soak up the visible water, but the next day, I noticed the water had returned.

I chipped away some of the grout/caulking and it appears there is some standing water in there. I took some pictures to help illustrate, but don't know how well they show the problem.

Image 1 - shows area and surrounding area where I made a hole to see how much water was in there

Image 2 - close up of the hole

What's the best way to deal with this problem? Is there a way of drying this out without tearing everything out and re-tiling? There only seems to be a couple of places where I am seeing this problem -- the rest of the shower looks good.

 

[glennjanie]

Welcome Tonygod:
Appearantly this is on the ground floor without a basement underneath or you would have seen the leak before now.
If it is on a concrete floor you could use a 3/8" masonry bit to drill through the floor and let the water drain out; a wood floor would be a little more difficult to drill through but its the same principle. Some extra heat will help it to dry out quicker. When you determine the areas are dry you can close it up with white tub and tile caulk (silicone) and finish it off. I would run a bead of the caulk around the floor and especially by the bathtub. If some of the water is near the commode you should consider taking it up, clean up all the wax, get a closed cell foam bowl ring and prevent any further leaks from the commode. A bead of the caulk around the commode base will help too.
Please post back and tell us how it turns out.
Glenn