Who to hire for a leaking shower

Short answer

Start with a licensed plumber to rule out the tap set, the mixer body and the waste. If the pipework tests sound, it is the waterproof membrane or the grout and the job belongs to a tiler or a waterproofer — which is the more common of the two in a shower more than about fifteen years old.

Soon, not tonightIt will not usually get cheaper by waiting, and it is rarely worth an after-hours rate.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Plumber.

  • a tiler or a waterproofing specialist

    the water only appears after the shower has been running a while, or the damage is at the base of the wall or in the room next door. That is a membrane failing, not a pipe.

  • a builder

    the floor under the shower has softened or the wall framing is affected. At that point the shower is a symptom.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Establish the pattern: wet only when the shower runs is the shower; wet all the time is a pipe.
  2. Run the shower with the waste blocked and no water on the walls, then again on the walls only. It is a crude test and it separates the waste from the membrane surprisingly often.
  3. Look at the grout and the silicone in the corners and at the floor junction. Missing, cracked or mouldy silicone at the junctions is the cheapest thing on this list to fix and worth doing regardless.
  4. Photograph the damage where it shows — the skirting in the next room, the ceiling below, the bottom of the wall sheet.

What to ask when you book

  • Will you pressure-test the pipework before recommending a re-waterproof?
  • If it is the membrane, do you re-waterproof and re-tile, or is that a second contractor?
  • Is there a warranty on the waterproofing, and what is it worth if the tiles come off?
  • Can it be repaired locally, or is it a strip-out?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Pipework repair versus membrane replacement — these are different orders of magnitude.
  • Whether the tiles can be saved. Usually they cannot, and matching twenty-year-old tiles usually cannot be done.
  • How far the water has travelled. Wet wall framing or a soft floor turns this into carpentry.
  • Second-storey showers, where the damage shows in a ceiling below and that ceiling has to come down.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

The pipework is licensed plumbing. Waterproofing a wet area is itself a regulated part of building work in most states, with a required standard and, for new work, a certificate — which is why a re-waterproof is not simply a tiling job.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for a leaking shower
Start with a licensed plumber to rule out the tap set, the mixer body and the waste. If the pipework tests sound, it is the waterproof membrane or the grout and the job belongs to a tiler or a waterproofer — which is the more common of the two in a shower more than about fifteen years old.
Is a leaking shower covered by home insurance?
Policies commonly cover sudden damage from an escape of water and commonly exclude gradual deterioration, and a failed shower membrane is close to the definition of gradual. Read your own wording before you assume either way, and get the tradesperson to state the cause in writing whatever the answer.
How long does shower waterproofing last?
It is a building element with a service life rather than a permanent one, and a shower that is old enough to have been done to a superseded standard is old enough to be the reason for the leak. If your bathroom has never been touched since it was built and the house is decades old, that is the likeliest answer.

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Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.