What to do if you have a leak in your shower during the coronavirus pandemic

Covid-19 has hit the New Jersey area harder than anywhere else in the world. Most grout and tile restoration contractors in central New Jersey are closed right now including The Grout Man. So what do you do if water is coming through your downstairs ceiling? During normal times the answer would be quite easy  just call The Grout Man and we would come over to fix it. But what do you do if you can’t get anyone to come re-grout your shower?

If you have the luxury of having two showers or more in your house the simple answer would be to leave the leaky one alone. The more you use it the more water will come through your ceiling and behind the walls in your shower and the more damage you’re going to create and the more money it’s going to cost you later to fix it.

But what if you only have one shower in your house? Obviously you need to take a shower. You could try to troubleshoot the leak . Cut a hole in the sheetrock ceiling down below. If you don’t have one already install a shower head with a flexible hose. Have somebody wait downstairs as you start the point the shower head in little sections at a time to see when the water starts coming through your ceiling.  If you are able to find where the leak is coming from you could temporarily put some caulking into the grout joints in that area only. you don’t want to put caulk throughout your shower because you will destroy your shower. You don’t want to use more than what you need to stop the leak for now. Just remember the more you put the harder it’s going to be to get out later.let’s say you cannot find where the leak is coming from what do you do now? You have two options . First you could tape plastic or a bag to the bottom part of your wall because most leaks happen on the bottom 4 rows. you would definitely need it on the long wall and on the wall with the fixtures. The other thing you could try is scrape all the caulking out on the bottom of your shower where it meets the wall . Install some new caulking as thin as you could possibly make it because the more you use the harder it will be to get it out later and the more expensive the repair could potentially cost.  That’s normally the first step in troubleshooting a leak if you can’t find where it’s coming from. If that doesn’t work out for you and it is still leaking at that point you might not have any choice but to keep a bucket downstairs to catch any water that may leak through and you might have to do more damage to your house while you’re waiting for somebody to come out to fix it.I know that these times could be frustrating for everybody especially if you have a leak in your shower. But at some point this will all end and you will be able to get it fixed. You could feel free to call us anytime and tell us your problem. At least then we will have your contact information and we can contact you when we get back to work 

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