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grout or silicone in the corner of the shower

The question, put plainly: Should the joint between wall and floor tiles be grout or silicone?

The short answer

Internal corners and the wall-to-floor junction should be flexible sealant, not grout. Those are movement joints, and grout in them cracks, which is the most common cause of a shower that starts leaking.

TradieAnswers editorial · written in-house and sourced to the authorities listed below

Checked against 3 published sources, listed in full at the end of this page. How we source this

Grout is a rigid, cement-based filler. It is right between tiles on the same plane, where nothing much moves. It is wrong at any junction where two planes meet, because those junctions move, and a rigid filler in a moving joint cracks.

Should be flexible sealant

  • The junction where a wall meets the floor.
  • Internal vertical corners where two walls meet.
  • Around the perimeter of a bath or a shower base.
  • Where tiling meets a different material, such as a door frame or a benchtop.
  • At designed movement joints in large tiled areas.

How to tell yours were done wrong

Look at the internal corners of the shower. If you can see a fine crack running the length of the corner, or the material looks like grout rather than a smooth rubbery bead, it was grouted. That crack is a direct path to the substrate. The membrane should still catch the water, which is precisely why so many bathrooms survive this defect for years and then fail once the membrane is compromised.

Sources

Every source below was fetched and its response recorded on the date shown. Where a government site blocks automated clients, that is noted rather than reported as a successful check.

  1. Standards Australia · Standards AustraliaChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  2. Guidance material and handbooks · Australian Building Codes BoardChecked 2026-08-11 · responded 200 OK
  3. National Construction Code · Australian Building Codes BoardChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK

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