DIY shower base?

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Mar3232

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I have an odd sized bathroom and going to use tile on the walls of a shower stall but not on the floor. A premade base would be fine but would like to take advantage of my floor space.

I don't know why I couldn't fabricate a base from a high quality, thick plastic like perhaps HDPE? Like 1/2" thick or more?

If so, I guess the challenge would be the slope but where there's a will there's a way? Actually HDPE will bend
to some extent and you wouldn't need much.

Going with concrete if not, but have you guys seen anyone do it with plastic?

I guess on the base is code, right? I mean if it were flat and the base sides were high enough, why wouldn't (2) drains work?
 

Terry

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The reason they slope a pan is to let the water drain toward the drain.
If the pan is flat, some water will just pool.
If the pan is flat, but set on a floor that is out of level, then the water winds up on one side. If you're going to the bother of making a pan, at least slope it.
 

Mar3232

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Yeah, I know why they slope it Terry. It's just that I have this beautiful piece of 1/2 " HDPE. I may try it but sort of searching if anyone has done the same thing (for moral support) -- after all, it's a plastic that's used for swimming pool stuff and boats. Can take heat greater than a hot water heater, and actually the stuff is very attractive. My biggest concern would be sealing the edge pieces.
 

hj

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quote; My biggest concern would be sealing the edge pieces.p

That would be a BIG concern. When they use cultured marble for a floor, (it is also "flat"), they heat it and put a weight in the middle to curve it.
 

Terry

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If you just cut a hole in the plastic for the drain, there will be a high edge that the water has to go over.
Most pre-made pans recess the drain location.
 

hj

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Cultured marble bases just cut an opening for the drain to stick through, and depend on the safety membrane to maintain the water seal if the caulking around the drain leaks. THe same as a tile floor.
 

JohnfrWhipple

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....I don't know why I couldn't fabricate a base from a high quality, thick plastic like perhaps HDPE? Like 1/2" thick or more?....

Sure - and when it's made send it out for approval testing. In the end it should only cost you twice or three times what a ready made base costs.
 

Jadnashua

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Now, if you had a vacuum forming box, made friends with a big pizza oven owner, and carted it all to their location after making a proper form, you could vacuum form your own, curb and edges included. It is possible to solvent weld that stuff, but by the time you did all of that, except to say you did it yourself, you'd be better off buying one, or doing a traditional mudbed and tiling it. You could cut it into four triangles, essentially put them back together as four flat planes, sloped towards the drain, but then the stuff is probably smooth, and when wet, slippery, and not the greatest thing on a shower floor. Most of them have some texture.

IOW, not as easy as it might seem.

Now, if you incorporated in a linear drain, and had just the single, flat slope to the linear drain, you'd have a better chance of making it work, of put the linear drain in the middle, and cut the sheet in two, and have each slope to the drain.
 
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