What are we looking at? Is this the drywall butting the shower?

It's a finished wall. :(

It's like the water is coming from the crack but I've caulked it and it feels dry. It's happening on this side too.

Might it be as simple as splash from the shower via an ill-fitting door or curtain (can't tell which)? I had that and remedied it temporarily with a line of baseboard tile going up a foot or so.

Or might it be the tile on the other side of that tile jamb needing grout and this is from continued seeping? Again, pics.

Or perhaps water running there from an innocuous place?

OK, that last one was a wild guess. Really.

Caulking the outside of the shower won't help. Your problem is coming from inside the shower, and if you re-caulked that already and still have the problem, then perhaps you have a leaky pipe inside the walls? All that damaged sheetrock will have to come out so you can peek inside the wall.

-Babka

Here is another pic

Other side - inside shower

I might have also guessed a leaky pipe, except you have it on both sides... To me, that rules that out.

Clearly, you aren't getting a seal somewhere. Can you SEE it happening as someone is showering? Is it that fast? If so, perhaps you can figure out where the water is coming from then.

I'm thinking about taking the door off. Re-caulk. Dry. Put door back on. What does everyone think?

I think you need to open the door and stand back about 5 feet and take a picture so it shows the whole shower. It is really hard to see the setup from these close ups. Can you get the whole shower in a shot?

My 30 year old master shower was doing that very same thing and the sheetrock was wet in the very same place as yours. We had to have to entire shower replaced. When the old tile was removed, it was discovered that the tile was on sheetrock with no waterproofing membrane at all. No amount of caulk in the world could have prevented the water from seeping out of that shower. It was positively porous!

tsgrimes:

You really need to give a very detailed description of your pictures. They may seem obvious to you, but they aren't to viewers. Something like "View from standing in shower corner facing the door which is on the leftâ¦."

It may be moot anyway. Tap on the tile and I'll bet you get a hollow sound especially in the areas near the leaks. I'm fairly sure you've got jerzeegirl's problem.