Freestanding shower

Thank you, friends, very helpful indeed!

freespirit

in Bath & Kitchen 10 years and 8 months ago

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freespirit | 10 years and 8 months ago

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So we are doing a bathroom renovation in a Victorian house. The old bathroom was completely gutted to bare wood on the floor/beams on the walls and ceiling. We’d like to put in the freestanding shower (tile the inside of the shower and glass doors on 2 sides, the shower is in the corner) and put basketweave tile on the floor. Our contractor is not living to our expectations, so I want to make sure whether he’s doing things correctly: for the shower area (walls and floor) he installed the cement board (Durock), the walls in the bathroom are blue wonderboards. What else should be put on the shower floor to make it completely waterproof? what needs to go on the floor before putting the tiles (now it’s old wood with a couple of holes, the floor in uneven). Any insights would be highly appreciated!

daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 8 months ago

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The shower bottom needs more. Old school is a lead or copper pan, lead being cheaper. Newer technology, which most contractors are pretty clueless about is a membrane for the whole wet area….Schluter Systems being the most common. Get him to use the membrane system. If not, get someone else in to do it who will do it right.

jockdeboeraia | 10 years and 8 months ago

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lead pan, water proofing it and the walls in the shower area.

curated | 10 years and 8 months ago

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Since he seems to be going the traditional route…shower floor needs a concrete mortar pre-slope, then a lead pan, then a top layer of deck mud folllowed by tiles being installed with thinset. Walls and ceilings of the shower should be waterproofed with something like Laticrete. While this is not the new method of using membranes a properly built mud shower pan will last a long time. http://brownstoner.staging.wpengine.com/curated

greenmountain | 10 years and 8 months ago

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Your contractor is doing what many others would do. Those materials are not intended to be waterproof – they don’t prevent water from entering. They are designed to get wet, and not fall apart when they do. Cement board is inorganic, so it does not feed mold, but mold will live in it, when water passing through soaks in to wood studs, plywood etc. Schluter Kerdi membranes are waterproof, because when installed according to directions with a Kerdi drain, they keep your substrate dry. Lead pans are poison and obsolete. They are however listed in the NYC building code. Pan systems, lead or vinyl with a two stage drain, are complicated. One problem is they only go up the walls a few inches, and water soaks in through tile grout lines several feet up. I am being regularly solicited by companies offering membrane systems other than Schluter, which I test, if they send samples. I gather membrane systems are becoming more popular, especially for ADA compliant showers and barrier free showers, but I continue to use Schluter. Schluter trained me, but does not pay me to use or promote their products. Meanwhile, the US EPA lead paint course continues to explain that lead paint dust is bad to breath, or eat, but touching lead is ok. When the EPA recognizes lead also enters our bodies from skin contact, perhaps the building code will change. I understand NYC DOB inspectors are allowing shower systems without two stage pan systems to pass, but I am not a plumber, architect or engineer. Coop managements and their architects have approved my tiled Schluter showers.