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Showering is an everyday essential for everyone and no matter what we all enjoy a good shower and can see how much we miss it when it breaks or is unavailable for a variety of reasons. Shower work by directing the water flow truth a mix valve and mixing the cold and hot water supply, or simply having cold or hot water based on preference. This water is pushed truth the internal plumbing of the shower set and that is how we can take a nice shower in morning or after a hard day of work. Nothing quite hard, but even so showers are prone to breaks as with anything else in the household.
There are few things that can break in your shower set. The handle can break or stop functioning, the internal cartridge can fail, the water seal can fail causing water to leak behind the wall, shower water jets can break and cause internal leakage and variety of other problems. There is also a problem faced by shower drain getting clogged from hair and such being washed down the drain, this will not cripple the shower but will cripple the removal of waste water and can cause a backup. Outside of your shower drain or shower set there is also a waterproofed membrane, this synthetic waterproofed membrane is located under the tiles and its job is to not let water pass. The membrane is located on the floor of your shower and around the edges of the wall creating a small tub that you do not see as its covered.
If this membrane is damaged or has a hole it will start leaking and can cause some hefty damage especially if you have an upstairs shower as this will damage the underneath floor, ceiling and may lead to mold growth on the wood.
First and most major cause of breakdown is mechanical wear and tear do to the age of the part or the water hardness. We covered this a bit in Leaking Faucets page, and as explained water hardness and calcium percentage play a big role on the lifespan of your plumbing and drain systems. The second cause is manufacturing defect, and this is quite common with allot of things not just plumbing. Defects happen and its simply just natural order of things. The third cause is shady work by handymen or someone not professional in installation of water pipes for the shower or the shower set it self, unintended damage can contribute to failure and flood in some cases if water pipes were not properly welded. Unrelated to showers but as mentioned before you can also have a clogged shower drain due to the buildup of hair and such in the drain which can lead to the drain becoming clogged overtime. You can easily catch this if you notice the water isn't going down or going down at a very slow rate. If such happens you need to get the drain cleaned to prevent further damages.
As with everything you have to maintain it in a reasonable matter, that means if you notice your shower handle working differently then usual or something seeming to be loose then its better to give it a quick look rather then wait till it breaks. To prevent much of problems related to shower you would want to get the job done by a licensed plumber, because who want's there wall to be opened when you got a nice finished bathroom, but the plumber needs to open the wall as the inside the wall plumbing was not done correctly or something from the shower set itself started leaking into the wall. With that it's advice to get a licensed and skilled plumber to do your shower installation and repair jobs. As this will give you a peace of mind that your job was done by a skilled individual with experience in the trade. If the problem is minor like loose connection between say a shower house and the handle you can always tighten it by your self manually. But for bigger jobs we advice to get a skilled individual to prevent damage being done to your shower and or walls. Also we advice against things like shaving in the shower or cutting hair in the shower as this will end up clogging the drain and will cause you drainage problems, not to mention the clog can be lead to a buildup of hair and other waste somewhere down the drain pipes that are connected to the shower drain and vice versa. This are relatively easy things to do, and maintaining a working shower isn't a very hard thing to do, but if you do it then your saving money and will not have to deal with headache down the line with cost of repairing your shower or clearing the drain.
Handmade with & in Ontario by
