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I just had a new bathroom built. Contractor was unfamiliar with the shower wall panels' material (Muraluxe panels). The resulting gap between the wall and angled ceiling is pretty wide (1cm at the widest spot).

Corners between shower walls are more reasonably spaced, but still wide (3-4 mm).

Is it reasonable to fill such gaps with silicone caulk and expect water to not get across? If not, is there any extra remediation steps we need to/can take now, short of redoing the whole work?

(The shown Canadian quarter is the same size as an American quarter)

enter image description here

isherwood
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Jeffrey
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  • Yes, the material behind the gap is solid. Greenboard with some kind of membrane paint that was applied. – Jeffrey Jun 27 '22 at 15:32
  • If using silicone would paint first. There is paintable silicone, but think caulks are more paintable, unless you are going to leave that strip showing. – crip659 Jun 27 '22 at 15:46
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    You're not really asking the right question here. If enough water gets to that corner that it's a leak concern, your ceiling is in jeopardy (and your bathing habits need improvement). Also, a caulk joint that large will look sloppy and completely unprofessional. This is a trim/aesthetics question more than one about caulk. I'd look into coving or crown molding or similar. – isherwood Jun 27 '22 at 16:36
  • @isherwood I didn't post all the details that lead to this arrangement. The ceiling is at 120º which limit greatly the moldings available. It is also low, where it reaches the wall. Around 5'9", which makes splashing more likely. (granted, water will not pool up there). But yeah, from the answer and comment my takeaway is that caulk will hold, put it might not look great. – Jeffrey Jun 27 '22 at 20:33
  • And maybe it was not obvious, but the ceiling is in the same waterproof panel material – Jeffrey Jun 27 '22 at 20:41
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    A simple slat molding would look fine, in my opinion. Much better than a varying gob of goo. – isherwood Jun 27 '22 at 20:41
  • It's not obvious. I took it to be drywall. – isherwood Jun 27 '22 at 20:42
  • It would help if you better explained how/why water penetration is a concern in a ceiling joint. My first impression was the same as @isherwood that this is primarily about attractively covering the unfinished edge of whatever it is you have there, and the best way would be to find an appropriate piece of trim. Why caulk it at all? Can caulk fill 1cm? Yes and no. It depends. 1cm between door trim and wall, with support? Sure. 1cm between bathtub and wall, without support? No way. In a ceiling joint ... since there isn't an *obvious* water penetration issue, it's hard to answer. – jay613 Jun 28 '22 at 12:30

1 Answers1

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Can silicone caulk fill a 1cm shower gap?

Yes.

Just make sure to use a high quality silicone that's mold resistant and won't yellow. Make sure it reaches from one surface to the other.

enter image description here

Should I silicone caulk this 1cm shower gap?

If you care about aesthetics then it is a hard no. It will always be an eyesore and will yellow at a different rate than the rest of the materials used.

What can I do?

Hopefully you have not paid in full. Withhold final payment unless they properly fix their mess.

or

Find a length of S-shaped plastic trim, affix it, and caulk the mating points. The corner joints will probably look bad.

enter image description here

or

Get some PVC Cove Trim, quarter-round, or whatever, and install it to cover the gap.

MonkeyZeus
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    or pvc quarter round. or buy some cellular pvc baseboard and router your own moulding. – Fresh Codemonger Jun 28 '22 at 01:07
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    Please don't post links to Hme Depot. They are geo-blocked and not accessable outside of the USA. – Tonny Jun 28 '22 at 14:01
  • @Tonny Nothing is better than something? – MonkeyZeus Jun 28 '22 at 14:20
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    @MonkeyZeus There is that... But a working link or an image of the product would be better. I fully realize that SE is very US centric and this SE even more than most, but for us Europeans having some info what people are talking about would often be helpful. Especially as many US products/names are unknown in Europe (or when known refer to different things) a visual would really help. HomeDepot is just about the only US retailer that is that obnoxious with the geo-blocking as far as I know, but it is the #1 target of links on this site, which makes this a bit of a pet peeve of mine. – Tonny Jun 28 '22 at 14:35
  • @MonkeyZeus Yes, nothing *is* better at something in this case. This is an international site, so authors should write keeping that in mind, posting answers that are fully readable no matter where exactly it will be accessed. Sometimes it means describing what exactly you have in mind instead of posting a link most/some of the world can't open. Even if link is not really needed, it'll keep people who can't access it wondering what they are missing, and that's bad. – Mołot Jun 28 '22 at 14:58
  • @Tonny As a side note, you will find this link quite interesting. I learnt about it from the overflow blog number 457. https://12ft.io/ – vals Jun 28 '22 at 15:08
  • I would recommend the PVC trim option. I've used caulk to glue it in in similar situations. – JimmyJames Jun 28 '22 at 15:12