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I bought a set of shower guards and installed them with white GE kitchen and bath silicone about 3 months ago. One side sits flush against a smooth tile wall, the bottom curves in towards the tub and does not sit flush. The gap is about 1/8" and I fill it with silicone to seal it. They work well as I used to get puddles of water when someone takes a shower.

My issue is that in the 3 months that I have had them, I have had them come off after someone bumped one or when my wife was cleaning it while cleaning the bathroom. The silicone seems to adhere fine to the tile and the tub, but not so much to the splash guard which is a very smooth plastic. I use enough silicone to coat the underside and a little bit past that, which is about 1/4" wide at the base. I tried taking a knife to scratch the edge of the guard to give it a little more rough surface area but that didn't last long either.

Any good ideas that will make it stay on better? I know I could use a more permanent adhesive but I'm not sure I want to, I'd prefer to stick with something I could easily remove with a razor blade in case I need to replace it. Would sanding the plastic work or maybe using a lot more silicone so that it goes up and around the base?

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First, what do the installation instructions call for? If you're not following the instructions, it's likely that they'll continue to come off.

Silicone is a sealant that also has some adhesive properties. However, since "adhesive" is not its primary raison d'etre, it's not going to do as good a job as an actual adhesive. Since it's not doing a good enough job in your case, use a bead of actual adhesive to attach the guard, then use the silicone to ensure it's waterproof.

Note that the adhesive will, most likely, come off both the tub and the tile (though possibly not the grout) pretty cleanly when scraped with a utility knife should you ever need to remove them.

Side note: I trained everyone in my family to dampen the tile wall with a wet hand (you can do it while waiting for the water in the tub to get hot), then just stick the shower curtain to the wall. The water works very well as a temporary adhesive to hold the shower curtain to the wall and top of the tub, preventing about 99% of the water from escaping (the few drops that do escape don't cause problems, even in our humid summer climate). After a shower, a simple pull on the curtain "unglues" it from the wall and allows both the wall and curtain to dry.

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  • The instructions were very vague "Use caulk or glue to install". I had suction cups on the curtain but they broke off and it curls which makes it impossible to stick with just water. The tub is larger than standard, and the tub wall is about 3" from the main wall (more in the corners) leaving a nice gap and plenty of surface area for water to splash on.
    – rtaft
    Mar 16 at 14:51

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