Re: New basement shower installation

Posted by Brian on June 20, 19100 at 09:53:31:
In response to Re: New basement shower installation
David, 2" of concrete is plenty. You could even go down to 1-3/8. 1/4" slope is also sufficient. For your mix use 1 part portland cement to 4 parts sand. Add just a little water. The mixture should look and feel much to dry to use. This is correct mix. Dry mix the sand and cement and lightly sprinkle with water. When you can pack it like a snowball, it's ready. Like I said you will think this is useless but if you get it too wet it will be like regular cement and that's not what you want, you want a dry mix. You should install a PVC shower pan liner even though the shower is on the ground floor. However, the liner should be sloped also towards the drain, so you should actually have two separate layers of concrete, one sloped with the liner and on top of that, one sloped for the tile base. The dam should be 6", you could get by with less. Just use your own judgement. I tiled my floor 24 hours after sloping the dry mix and haven't had any problems. When you apply your mosaic floor tile, use latex modified mortar (Custom brand "Polyblend" for strength. With regular thin-set the tiles will come up. Check out Pasco's link. They have some good info. One last thing. Your drain should be a two-story drain. The holes in the drain will allow any water that enters the liner to be drained. If you don't have weep holes, it will do no good to install a liner other than it will hold the water.

Posted by Brian on June 20, 19100 at 09:53:31:

In response to Re: New basement shower installation

David,
2" of concrete is plenty. You could even go down to 1-3/8.
1/4" slope is also sufficient. For your mix use 1 part
portland cement to 4 parts sand. Add just a little water.
The mixture should look and feel much to dry to use. This
is correct mix. Dry mix the sand and cement and lightly
sprinkle with water. When you can pack it like a snowball,
it's ready. Like I said you will think this is useless but
if you get it too wet it will be like regular cement and that's
not what you want, you want a dry mix. You should install a
PVC shower pan liner even though the shower is on the ground
floor. However, the liner should be sloped also towards the
drain, so you should actually have two separate layers of
concrete, one sloped with the liner and on top of that, one sloped
for the tile base. The dam should be 6", you could get by with
less. Just use your own judgement. I tiled my floor 24 hours
after sloping the dry mix and haven't had any problems. When you
apply your mosaic floor tile, use latex modified mortar (Custom
brand "Polyblend" for strength. With regular thin-set the tiles
will come up. Check out Pasco's link. They have some good info.
One last thing. Your drain should be a two-story drain. The holes
in the drain will allow any water that enters the liner to be drained.
If you don't have weep holes, it will do no good to install a liner other
than it will hold the water.

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