Removing fiberglass one piece shower and replacing with something.

[AZTeacher]

So I am a teacher on Christmas break, and my wife decided she wants me to to remodel a bathroom in the house. I have a one piece fiberglass shower that I am pretty sure I can tear out, but I am not sure what to replace it with. Ideally I would like to buy a shower pan and tile the walls. I don't know if I am handy enough to try to make a mud shower pan for tiling.

The problem I am having is that I can't find a shower pan that will fit my current drain measurements. It is a 60" shower stall, but the drain is around 14 1/2" inches from the wall. I can't use a retrofit for this drain whole.

Do you know where I might locate a shower pan with a 14 1/2" measurement for the drain?

 

[Verdeboy]

There is another forum, where they can walk you through your entire project.

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Basement_Lurker]

From what I judge your skill level to be, I wouldn't recommend that you try a mud pan. Even if you do go with a kit, you still need to be fairly skilled with the construction.

Since you only plan to do this project while you are on break, I suggest you go with a fiberglass shower pan, support it with a mortar bed, and then use a backerboard/tile setup for the shower surround. You will not be able to find anything to match your existing drain, you will have to move/modify the drain in any case to match the shower pan product you decide to install.

 

[hj]

break

If you are remodeling the bathroom, I hope you have more than a 2 week break. Two months may be more like it.

 

[Jadnashua]

With a drain location there, it sounds like it may have been originally plumbed for a tub rather than a shower. If you plan to get this inspected, you'll need a 2" drain line - you might have a 1.5" one there now. This can complicate your efforts.

You didn't mention the width, but Kerdi from www.schluter.com has a tub replacement pan with the drain offset to one end. They have a couple of videos on their site that describe how things go together. It's a neat shower system since it makes the walls and floor entirely waterproof, not just water resistant. This means that the shower dries out much faster and you can use plain drywall on the walls.

If you wish, (and it's cheaper than using their pan), you can build a mudbed. This is easier than a conventional shower where you need to make two layers of mud with the liner in between...a Kerdi shower puts the waterproofing layer on top of the first sloped layer and you can tile directly to it, rather than a typical pvc liner which needs a second layer of mud on top of it to tile to. This also means that you've got about an inch of mud that will get and stay damp above the liner, rather than just the tile and thinset when you use Kerdi.

Kerdi goes up on the walls and floor sort of like wallpaper, except you use thinset to hold it up rather than wallpaper glue. Check out the videos and www.johnbridge.com who can help you with other questions.