Government building officials say there is no widespread issue with tiled showers that leak, despite ample anecdotal evidence that the problem is rife.

Fully tiled shower cubicles have been made fashionable by home renovation shows such as The Block.

But unless they are installed properly they are more than likely to leak and can cause catastrophic damage to a home.

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Homeowners must get building consent to put one in, but there are no standards around the installation.

Property lawyers have warned they are the next leaky building issue, with DIY attempts abounding and many home renovators not even realising they need consent.

Those in the trade say botched jobs are common.

However the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which oversees building standards, says while it is aware tiled showers are a possible point of failure in a build, it hasn't had any reports of an endemic problem.

"We would be informed if there was any increase or changes to what is the norm," said Dave Gittings, team leader consents systems.

"Some people do get it wrong, that's why it's inspected, but there hasn't been any change in that that we're aware of."

David Howe, who runs shower repair business Showerfix, doesn't share the officials' view.

"I'm cringing when you say tiled shower, they're the bane of my life," he said.

"I get three or four inquiries a week, and I can't do much with them.

"There's so many guys out there who don't know the finer details.

"People just can't believe their flash tiled shower is stuffed and really the best way to fix it is just to pull it out and start again."

Bryan Schubert, principal of Auckland firm Peace of Mind Building Inspections, says he sees "heaps" of incorrectly installed tiled showers.

This style of shower requires the right base with a professional waterproofing system installed on top before any tiling is done, Schubert said.

"That doesn't happen a lot of the time.

"The older tiled ones are just a menace."

Systems had got a lot better, the 40-year veteran of the building inspection industry said.

But still he estimated 50 to 60 per cent of all types of showers leaked.

He advised anyone buying a house with a tiled shower to make sure they saw documentation proving it had been professionally waterproofed.

"I go to do an inspection, I can't see any of that, all I see is the tiles, so I'm looking for documentation," Schubert said.

It's information Christchurch homeowner Lorraine Taylor probably wishes she'd had known when she bought her two-year-old Signature Homes showhome in 2007.

All was fine at the Northwood property until 2013, when one of the tiles fell off the shower.

"It was all black underneath," she said.

"I got a builder out, he said it's gone right round the back of your shower."

It emerged there was no waterproofing system whatsoever behind the wet area.

"They'd just put the tiles straight on the gib board," Taylor said.

The house was out of its builder's warranty and her insurance company wouldn't pay out because the problem was deemed to be poor design, not gradual damage.

The whole bathroom had to be re-gibbed and and re-tiled.

"It cost me $12,000," Taylor said.

Neville Colbert, managing director of tile retailer Tile Warehouse, said leaky showers were such a problem that his company put a lot of effort into upskilling in the area.

"We are very keen on training our staff and our tilers that we refer by, ensuring that they do know how to a successful job," he said.

There were plenty of courses around, and done properly there was no reason a tiled shower should fail.

The first thing was to get the substrate, or surface, of the bathroom right, and the best materials were concrete or fibrous cement sheets which were inert when wet, he said.

Wood expands and contracts with moisture which would stress the waterproofing, and should not be used.

A waterproofer registered with the local council and using an integrated system under the tiling was also required.

"if you follow a reputable manufacturer's system you won't have any problems. It's all detailed," he said.

Industry body the Waterproof Membrane Association has just put out a code of practice for internal wet area membranes, with the aim of raising the bar, chairman Mark Rayner said.

"There's no standard for the practice and there's no guidelines in the building code," he said.

However it was only a guide, and the association was trying to get it recognised by MBIE to give it more weight.

"MBIE would have to cite it and say that the code is in place of information in the building code, (otherwise) we're no further ahead."

Rayner urged homeowners to use registered practitioners.

"If you go with a cheaper price it may have no warranty, it may not have a trained installer and the guy may have picked up something down at the local DIY store," he said.

The horror stories didn't surprise him.

There was a building boom going on, particularly in Christchurch where tradespeople had flooded in from all over the world.

"Who knows what their qualifications are."

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