Bear with me, this is a long story:
This the 5th time I've had this work done, and no body seems to know the cause. I have a bath mounted shower, which comes off a bath mixer tap which come from the floor. (THERES NO PIPES IN THE WALL). This was all originally fitted with new tiles after I moved in about 6 years ago...since then I've had to get it redone 5 times, and the same thing happens.
The tiles are letting water through or moisture is building up between the tiles and the wall. I know this has happened as the wall shows damage of the side of the tiling where it meets the non tiled wall. There's no plumbing behind the tiles, the outside has been checked, and there’s no leaks above, and it's a tap mounted shower.
With the first 4 times, the wall wasn’t tanked. Tiles were fitted directly to the plastered wall. Months after tiling, I can pull the tiles off by hand and the adhesive is still completely wet. The wall behind the tiles is all completely wet too. There’s no plumbing in the wall, and it’s not coming from the outside. I’ve had the wall checked for damp. There’s a folding out shower curtain which also isn’t letting water through. Once the tiles are off, the wall drys out within just a couple of days.
It’s a ground floor, exterior wall, brick and plastered. I have noticed that all of the previous tilers have just tiled straight onto the plastered wall, no waterproofing or aqua board, just tiles straight into the wall.
No body seemed to know the cause. I’ve had 4 different tilers, retile it and get the same result.
The tiles and grout look perfectly fine but the wall is soaking underneath and the tiles Just pull off.
Anyway, a year ago, I let the wall fully dry out again with no tiles on, and I finally had a proper job done. Different tiles, and the wall was fully tanked with sheet membrane (not a paint on one).
A year on, where I repaired and filled the damaged wall from before, started bulbbling and cracking. I’m not sure if I just did a bad repair, it’s happening again. I don’t how this is physically possible with a membrane liner on the wall.
Please see pictures. I’ve included a photo of the original problem before tanking, and the issue now, since it was redone with a membrane, and where I’ve removed the bubbled and cracked paint where I had filled it.
