Shower Stall Floor Rehab

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samcolt

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Gentlemen,

The attached pictures are the shower stall floor and drain in the basement at present, after taking out the mud bed and tile. This floor had no shower pan liner under the mud bed and naturally there was heavy damage to the built up kirb and surrounding studs.
I'm assuming the CI is below what looks like a brass plate for the shower floor drain screen. The CI is corroded as is the the trap.
The pan as seen here is painted. I don't know if the drain was stubbed up, and the kirb and pan were added later after the main basement floor was poured. The house was built in 1959.
I guess what I'm asking is, do I break out the existing pan as seen, and remove the CI and replace with PVC adjustable flange, or is it possible to unscrew the CI flange and replace, then redo with new pan? or is there a shower drain flange that fits in the existing 2" drain and is adjustable for tile height?
Your thoughts and wisdom is greatly appreciated, thanks for your time and help.
 

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Jadnashua

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I can't tell for sure, but it looks like that is a floor drain, repurposed as a shower drain. IF that's the case, you need to chip some concrete and remove it. When you are doing that, check the solidity of the existing CI pipe and the p-trap. In fact, it may not be properly vented, either. Is there a pipe going up in the now open walls? If so, that would be the vent. While it can work, depending on how the rest of the plumbing is run, it still would not pass current codes, so that needs to be addressed as well.

Once you've resolved that, you have to decide which one of the approved shower construction methods you're going to use. That will determine which kind of drain you need. There's lots more, but that should get you started. My suggestion, get your plumbing help here, and your tiling help at www.johnbridge.com/forums. Much less adverversarial and much more DIY'er friendly. If you use a clamping drain and a conventional construction, the drain will need to be higher; if you decide to use something like Kerdi from www.schluter.com, the drain will still need to be higher, but the height won't need to be as high.
 

Cacher_Chick

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I would cut the floor and install a new riser, and maybe a new trap too depending on what it looked like.
Don't cheap out on this as your goal should be for it to last another 50 years.
 

Jadnashua

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On a concrete slab, your bonded mudbed can end up nearly at zero at the drain...but, you have to decide whether you want to build a conventional shower with a clamping drain, or a bonded membrane shower with a bonded drain. If the existing floor isn't perfectly level (rarely happens), to get the drain to sit flat, it is far easier to do it if it's a little above the existing slab.

I think now you may see the adversarial aspect I mentioned...while there are a small group of professional plumbers on this site to offer their experience, one 'pro' seems to think that this tiling section is his forum, and disses anyone else that may make a suggestion.

While I personally prefer a bonded membrane shower, and like Kerdi from www.schluter.com, there are other choices that may offer similar benefits, and if you build it right, a conventional liner over a preslope will last you until you wish to remove it...IOW, there are lots of ways to build a successful, long-lasting shower. Building a shower that works isn't technically hard, but it IS VERY detail oriented...failing to understand and follow the manufacture's installation instructions and follow them, is potentially a recipe for disaster. And, if you follow the manufacturer's instructions, you do not need to do anything else to the install for it to be successful. Obviously, your skill and planning on the finishing of your shower will affect how it looks, but the bigger part is how it is built. A properly constructed shower, in whatever method you choose, should not be damaged by water even before the tile is installed. Neither the tile nor the grout is the waterproofing...it is the decorative, wear layer.

Unless you want to furr out the concrete walls, a conventional liner may be a little tricky...when you make the folds of the liner in the corners, unless you have some wall depth there, you can't then get the liner flat, and the tile will still need a layer that the thinset can stick to. Plus, thinset doesn't bond to the liner, so it needs a suitable layer on top of it, which would require a wall to attach it to so it doesn't flare out at the bottom. In this case, if you don't want to add walls over the concrete, a surface membrane would work out better. Both are possible, they just require different prep. A surface membrane like Kerdi could go directly on the concrete slab walls to waterproof it, negating the effect of a conventional liner and how to make it tileable at the walls.
 
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