Leak-Proof Shower Floors Installing a CPE Shower Membrane

Leak-Proof Shower Floors

Installing a CPE Shower Membrane By: Tim Carter

©Copyright 2011 -Tim Carter

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One Shower Pan Liners Then and Now: My Favorite Membranes Chapter Two How to Create the Critical Sloped Sub-Floor for Your

Shower Pan Liner Chapter Three Important Shower Drain Assembly Instructions Chapter Four Wall Framing for Your Shower Tub Chapter Five Exactly How to Install the Liner Chapter Six How to Best Navigate Shower Pan Liners and Corners Chapter Seven The Final Steps: The Curb and Cutting Your Membrane Copyright Information and Distribution Request

The information in this book strives to be like a plumb bob at rest – delivering true and accurate information to those who look at it.

Over the years, I have come to discover that many of the tasks I have completed and feel are routine actually are a mystery to the vast majority of homeowners out there. To me installing a shower pan liner is as difficult as making a large Sunday morning breakfast with eggs, bacon, fresh biscuits, orange juice, etc. I am the Sunday morning chef at the Carter household. It is not hard to make the breakfast, there is just a certain order in which you do things to make sure all of the food is cooked and ready at the same time. Shower pan liners are no different. After you read this book, I am confident you will feel very confident in your abilities to success-fully install a leak-proof shower pan liner. When you view the photos in this book, I think you will breath a sigh of relief. Get ready, the mystery of shower pan liners is about to be solved for you!

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Helpful Tips While Reading: From time to time as you read this book, I will alert you when certain information requires added attention. Pay attention for the following:

When you see text that is between two pieces of Caution Tape, be alert! The text has impor-tant information that is vital to the overall success of the project. It may also contain important safety information.

From time to time, I provide in-depth and often interesting scientific background information about the topic. When this happens you will see these pieces of tape:

The information in between the strips of green formula tape may help you win a round of Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy, but don’t feel the need to memorize the information! When you see this icon, you are at the end of a chapter and it is time to proceed to the next step.

Introduction

Ceramic tile shower floors leak. They do so each and every time you take a shower. But by no means does that mean they have to leak onto your wood sub floor or onto your concrete slab. Many people think that a ceramic tile shower that is in fantastic structural shape - meaning no cracks in the grout or the tile - is waterproof. Nothing could be further from the truth. Beneath the tile is a bed of cement mortar that sits inside a waterproof membrane. Years ago the membranes were thin sheets of lead. Plumbers with great skills would form the lead sheets to fit precisely into the rough dimensions of the shower. The lead would completely cover the floor and lap up the sides of the wood framed walls. Where two pieces of lead joined together, the plumbers would use a soldering iron and sticks of lead to make a leak proof joint. Talk about craftsmanship! The lead would also be soldered to the brass drain assembly so that, in essence, the lead pan acted as a hidden sink or tub fixture. In fact, the plumbers would test the lead pan assembly for leaks by plugging up the drain and then filling it with water. They would come the next day and look for leaks. If the assem-bly was water tight, then the pan was ready for the ce-ramic tile sub-contractor. But working with lead is a thing of the past. For one, it is indeed a toxic material to work with. No doubt many old plumbers suffered from lead poisoning over time as they worked with lead solder on a daily basis. But the lead shower pans had a built-in liability. Over time, they would develop leaks. It took many years for this to happen, but it couldn’t be prevented. As water would saturate the ce-ment mortar under the tile, it would leach out minerals from the water. This mineral filled water was in constant contact with the lead pan and the metal drainage system. This combination created electrolysis within the shower pan. The electricity generated by this low powered battery would actually begin to corrode the lead. Technology to the Rescue The plastics and synthetic products industries came to the rescue. We can now buy different plastic or rubber-like materials that allow us to quickly install a shower pan liner that is far better than any lead pan. The new prod-ucts are often available in wide sheets — five feet wide or more. This width often eliminates the need for any seams in the average-size shower. This quality alone is a huge advantage over lead. The secondary benefit is that the sheet membrane products will not corrode. Finally, they are very easy to work with. The average person can in-stall a plastic shower pan liner

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Chapter One - Shower Pan Liners Then & Now: My Favorite Membranes

The Different Membranes

Shower pan liner materials are quite differ-ent from one another. But some are far better than others in my opinion. Here is a quick review of what is out there: CPE—Chlorinated Polyethylene - This is a permanently flexible rubber-like material that is impervious to water and any chemi-cals you would find in the average home. It is easy to work with and comes with sol-vents that allow you to permanently weld two pieces together. PVC– Polyvinyl Chloride - This is a plastic material that contains plasticizers to keep it supple and pliable. It also can be welded together with solvents. The early PVC prod-ucts could get brittle over time and possibly crack. But many modern PVC liners work well. Hot Mop Asphalt - This is the old fash-ioned hot tar put on roofs. Trouble is, it can crack as the wood framing moves! Sheet Bitumen - This is a mixture of plas-tic sheeting and asphalt. It is similar to the ice dam products you put on roofs edges. It is not easy to work with. Paint-on Plastics - These are liquid mem-branes that you paint over wood or con-crete. These products are the least appeal-ing to me for all sorts of reasons. Code Listing - Be sure that the liner you buy has a Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) listing. This listing means that code officials approve it since the liner actually is an inte-gral part of the shower drain.

When I first started to install shower pan liners over 25 years ago, I simply swept all debris and sawdust from the sub floor area inside the shower area and got to work. If the sub floor was out of level, I figured that it wouldn’t really make a difference since the liner material was water-proof. So what if water sat in one corner or along one edge? Once the height of the water could reach the drain holes and slots, any excess would go to the drain. Being a master carpenter as well as a master plumber, I did do one thing I never saw any other plumber do. I would use my router to create a depression in the wood sub floor for the drain assembly to drop into. Without this depression, the top surface of the drain would sit up one eighth of an inch above the sub floor. This meant that there would be a constant pool of water in the liner one eighth inch deep at all times. I felt by lowering the drain assembly into the wood, I would at least give the water a chance to get into the drain easily. Now the industry standard is to create a sloped surface on the sub floor that the liner rests upon. This can be done several ways: • Use plaster or an equivalent floor leveling

compound to create a low slope bowl shape inside the shower area so that surface has fall from all points towards the drain assembly.

• Use a sand / cement mixture similar to what will be used to form the mud pan once the liner is installed. Install it so that the surface has fall from all points towards the drain assembly. Figure One shows very clearly this method. The gray colored material inside the shower area is a sand / cement mixture. The reddish-brown border at the edges of the sloped mix-ture is simply red-rosin paper that was in-stalled to protect the shower pan liner where it would contact the wall framing. The slope towards the drain is very gradual, no more than one quarter inch of fall per foot of run to-wards the drain. Keep in mind that this slope should be reasonably close but by no means perfect. The cement mud mixture installed after the liner is installed must have a uniform and perfect slope so that the finished ceramic tile is in the same plane.

• Purchase a factory-made kit that lays on top of the sub floor and automatically creates the necessary slope once you trim it to fit the shower area and the drain assembly. These fac-tory kits are often sold at tile stores or plumbing supply houses that carry the superb CPE liner material. The kits are made with a dense foam that has the code-approved slope built into the product. The weight of the liner and the cement mud installed after the liner is in-stalled hold these kits in place.

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Chapter Two - How to Create the Critical Sloped Sub-Floor for Your Shower Pan Liner

Figure One

You can buy the best liner, fit it perfectly, fold the corners as good as any professional, but if you do not have the correct drain assembly that ac-cepts the liner, you are toast. Figure Two shows a typical shower drain assembly that is made for shower pan liner membranes. This drain consists of three pieces. The part in the center is the primary drain receptacle. All wa-ter is funneled to the center of this part, drops down the hole and from there into the P-trap that is below the floor. If you could look down the hole in the center of the part right now, you would see the standing water in the drain trap.

The circular part to the right that has a hole in the center and the four keyhole shaped slots is the clamping ring. Once the liner is cut to fit the drain hole - a very precise procedure - you in-stall the clamping ring and tighten the four silver bolts to make a watertight connection between the drain assembly and the membrane liner. The strainer is the dark colored part. It is a threaded part that screws into the clamping ring. The screws allow you to adjust the strainer to the height of the tile. The strainer in this photo has a protective dark plastic over the polished chrome strainer plate. Once the tile job is com-plete and all grouting is done, you remove the plastic. If you remove the plastic at any other time, you run the risk of scratching the polished chrome.

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Chapter Three - Important Shower Drain Assembly Instructions

Figure Two

Clamping Ring Strainer

The first liner I ever installed came out great except for one thing. I folded the membrane liner corners as the manufacturer suggested. I then applied my one-half inch thick cement board over the membrane and held it up off the cement mud floor one quarter inch. I thought at the time that the cement board seemed to bulge out at the corners ever so slightly.

When I went to install the tile the next day, it was painfully obvious that the cement board did bow out slightly at each corner. I had to cut my corner tiles at a slight angle to compensate for this problem. As I was cutting the tile, I thought to myself, “Heck, I could have easily tucked the liner back into the framing if I had left a small space.” Figure Three clearly shows a gap be-tween wall studs that can really help you make your tile walls perfectly straight. When you, or the carpenter, frame the walls for the shower, simply hold one wall stud back one-half inch from the corner. The half inch gap pro-

vides plenty of room to tuck the liner into the wall cavity. Remember, once the other sides of the shower walls are finished, you will never see the liner that is actually in the wall corner cavi-ties. While on the subject of wall framing for tubs and showers, here are some valuable tips:

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Chapter Four - Wall Framing for Your Shower Tub

Figure Three

• Use perfectly straight studs. Consider metal studs if necessary. Perfectly plumb and straight walls make for perfect ceramic tile installations.

• Studs laid out on 16 inch centers produce a 14.5 inch space between the faces of the studs. Make sure that the center of one of the spaces is lined up exactly with the centerline of the faucet. It is nothing but trouble to notch a misplaced wall stud that is in the way of the shower valve.

• Place an extra stud at or immediately adjacent to the edge of the tub or shower enclosure. In fact, place two studs side by side. You want solid framing where the cement board will stop and any moisture resistant drywall will begin.

• Place a stud in the centerline location of where a shower door might be. You want the shower door tracks to screw into wood, not air.

• Place plenty of 2x10 or 2x12 blocking in the walls to accept grab bars for physically challenged individuals. Buy the grab bars before you frame and note the spacing so you know where to place the blocking. Take photos after the blocking is up so you know where it is after the tile is complete.

Your wall framing is right. There are gaps at all corners, including where the curb intersects the walls. The sub floor is sloping to the drain. You are ready my friend for the payoff. It is time to install the membrane liner. I am very partial to the CPE membrane material. It is easy to work with and I love the way I can weld pieces together with a solvent. I always buy the shower membrane called Cloraloy®. This product is in my own home in my master bathroom shower. It has performed flawlessly for 16 years and I expect it to last the lifetime of the home. You can order this product online, if it is not readily available in your town or city. The first step is to purchase a piece large enough so that one solid piece will do the entire job. Some showers are so large they may require seaming two pieces together. As you can see in Figure Four, one piece of Cloraloy® was able to do this shower pan. Note how I have it loosely laid in the shower pan area. I used the handy blue lines to insure that the membrane is laying square within the framed opening. You want the liner to lap up onto the walls a minimum of six insches. Eight inches lapping up the walls would be preferrable. If your shower is too wide for one piece, it is highly desirable to see if you can center the main sheet and get this sheet to lap slightly up onto each wall. I would always want a seam to be on a wall if at all possible rather than on the actual floor area of the shower pan. Since the liner membrane is manufactured in huge rolls many feet long, you should always be able to get the liner to lap up high enough onto at least two opposite walls without seams. Cut the Drain Hole First I always prefer to cut the drain hole out first. Perhaps it is because I want to be fresh and alert during this very critical step. With the liner squared in the opening, kneel inside on the liner and use your hand to feel the drain assembly. You cut a small hole first in the center of the drain and slowly begin to make successive cuts that enlarge the hole. Figure Five shows this initial cut. I use a standard razor knife to cut the CPE membrane material. The margin for error once you are making your final cuts is less than one quarter of an inch. It is imperative that you cut slowly and carefully. Figure Six shows the first hole completed. You can see down into the

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Chapter Five - Exactly How to Install the Liner

Figure Four Layout Lines

Figure Five

drain hole. The diameter of this hole is approximately two inches. The final diameter of the hole will be approximately four to five inches so you see there is still much to cut. If you look at the white clamping ring in Figure Six, you can get an idea of how large the final hole must be. The final cut must be a circle that stops at the outside edge of the small slot in the four keyhole shaped knockouts you see in the clamping ring. As you can see, there is very little white plastic between these points and the outer edge of the ring itself. The bolts that are used to clamp the ring are excellent reference points as you enlarge the hole. Figure Seven shows the final stages of

the cutting process. Note how the cut follows the curve of the sloped part of the drain assembly. The cut is also made just on the outside edge of the treaded holes that the bolts screw into. You need to cut to this point so that the water that leaks though the tile, grout and into the cement mud can find its way to the weep holes. Figure Eight shows the hole successfully cut and the clamping ring in place. There are eight weep holes locations on the ring. Note the four holes at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions on the ring. Water can flow down the tiny grooves into the hole and down into the drain. The other four holes are the large holes made for the bolt heads. You can see in Figure Eight the reflection of the standing water in the trap below. You should also be able to see how any water that would flow across the CPE membrane would go immediately to the holes and drop into the drain. The clamping ring bolts, once tightened, make a waterproof

connection between the drain assembly and the clamping ring. Do not overtighten these bolts! You can crack the plastic clamping ring.

Figure Six

Final cut stops here

Figure Seven

Threaded Holes

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Figure Eight

Believe it or not you are almost finished with the job of installing the liner. This is especially true if you have a standard square shower. The one that is illustrated in this eBook is a little differ-ent as it has a clipped 45 degree corner and the CPE membrane laps up two walls and onto a whirlpool tub deck! But don’t let that confuse you for now. 99 percent of most showers have four simple inside corners. The next step is to work on the inside corners. Fig-ure Nine shows you what happens when you turn the corner with the liner material. You end up with excess material at an inside corner. The exact op-posite happens when you try to go around an out-side corner. When you try to go around an outside corner within a shower, you don’t have enough liner to make this happen. You are forced to cut special patching pieces. These same patches are required when the membrane goes up and over the shower curb. We will be discussing this shortly, so be pa-tient. The excess material in Figure Nine is what caused my cement board to bulge out as I dis-

cussed earlier in this eBook. I think you can see why this would happen as there would be three layers of membrane material squeezed between the wall framing and the cement board. That may not seem like a lot of material, but it makes a difference. Study Figure Ten. The wonderful gap in the framing at the corner allowed me to tuck all of that excess material back into the wall cavity! There is a slight wrinkle of membrane material at the corner but it will in no way interfere or cause the cement board to bulge once it is applied over the liner. See how crisp the inside corner is where the floor meets the wall framing? This is what you are aiming for. Trust me, it

is not hard to achieve. Also, look at the blue layout lines. See how the ones on the floor are parallel with the wall to the left? I have also started to tack up the liner on these two walls so it does not flop back down into the shower area. I happened to use a staple gun and held the staples very close to the top edge. Galvanized roofing nails could have been used as well. Once you have the first corner com-plete, move on to any others. You will quickly discover it takes less than 30 seconds to tuck the liner material into the corner gap.

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Chapter Six - How to Best Navigate Shower Pan Liners and Corners

Figure Nine

Figure Ten

Oh you are so close now. But you need to be alert during the final steps. Up until this time, we only had to cut the CPE liner at the drain opening. But as the CPE membrane starts to bend over the curb, you run into a situation where the liner must be cut. Don’t worry, you can and will deal with this challenge. Figure Eleven shows the CPE membrane wrapping over the curb that stops water from flowing out of the shower and onto your bath-room floor. I have drawn a dashed black line on the liner membrane to show you where I am going to cut it. Cutting the membrane al-lows it to lay flat on the top of the curb. It also allows some of the membrane material you see on the wall to overlap onto the top of the curb.

The membrane material in the inside corner on the shower side of the curb can be tucked into the gap in this corner. Figure Twelve shows the cut. I have sliced the material so that the CPE membrane can lay flat on the top of the curb. The crease you see in the photo flattened out after I took the photo. It did so as soon as I adjusted the liner material. The ex-cess membrane material on the wall will fold back into the gap in the framing in the corner. The flap of cut material that is being held in place by my thumb will remain up

on the wall. This leaves the triangle of wall exposed without any membrane. We solve that by cutting a patch of membrane. The patch is cut from scrap membrane material that was trimmed from one of the ends of the membrane. I always order an extra foot or two of material so I have plenty of scrap on hand. Figure Thirteen shows a square patch of membrane material. It is approxi-mately two inches square in size. I have made a cut in the patch that begins on the centerline of one edge and extends in a straight line into the cen-ter of the patch. The patch is going to be applied to the membrane so that the flap I am peeling

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Chapter Seven - The Final Steps: The Curb and Cutting Your Membrane

Figure Eleven

Figure Twelve

Figure Thirteen

Cut Stops Here

upwards will lay on the curb while the other 75% of the patch adheres to the membrane on the wall. The point is to overlap the patch on the liner membrane so that you do not have a hole in the liner where the original angular cut was made that you see in Figure Twelve. Keep in mind that you do the exact same thing at the other end of the curb. It basically is a mirror image of the curb end you see in Figures Eleven and Twelve. Solvent Welding the Patch The CPE Cloraloy® on this job uses a solvent made by the same company. It is called Nobleseal®. It is a clear chemical that has the viscosity of water. You apply it to the printed side of the Cloraloy® that you see in the photos. The chemical evaporates very quickly but as you spread it around with the swab that comes in the can, it softens the Cloraloy®. You apply some Nobleseal® solvent to the smooth side of the patch as well. You will notice that as the solvent evaporates the membrane gets sticky. It is time to react. Place the patch on the membrane so that the two sticky faces touch one another. You will have about five or possibly ten seconds to orient the patch in the right position. Press firmly with your fingers to make the two pieces weld together.

Figure Fourteen shows the patch in position. I used the black marker to make dashed lines so you could see the outer edges of the patch. Without the black dashed lines, it would be nearly impossible to see where the patch overlaps the membrane. The membrane has actually been folded over the side of the curb that faces the bathroom. I used a few staples to hold it in place until such time as I could nail the cement board over the membrane.

Victory! Figure Fifteen shows the shower liner completed. In fact, it shows the cement mud bed already poured in the liner! If you want to learn how to do that job, you may need my Cement Mud Floor for Ceramic Showers eBook. Click the title to get it. But before you do, join me in a toast for a job well done. On the whirlpool ledge, you can see a delightlful glass of Wild Cherry Pepsi with crushed ice that I have waiting for me. Bottoms up!

Figure Fourteen

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Figure Fifteen

All United States of America copyright laws protect this electronic book. You are permitted to make as many copies as you like for your own personal use. This means you can archive the original PDF file you received on other backup discs or even on other hard drives you own. You can also make multiple hard copies for your own use. But, it is illegal for you to make copies of this book to distribute to others. What’s more, it is even illegal to send, forward, email, etc. a copy of the actual PDF file to friends, neighbors and/or relatives. But some of you may not be able to resist the temptation to forward a copy of this eBook to a friend, family member or co-worker. If you do, please urge them to visit AsktheBuilder.com and see if they find an eBook they might like to buy. My family and I appreciate any and all referrals.

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Shower Pan Cement Mud Floor Installation

Shower Pan Cement Mud Floor Installation

A Solid Base for Ceramic Tile Floors

By: Tim Carter ©Copyright 2011 - Tim Carter

Table of Contents

Introduction Copyright Information and Distribution Request Viewing Difficulties - Help Acknowledgements and Credits Chapter One Mud Floor Materials & Tools Chapter Two Mixing Materials and Ideal Consistency Chapter Three Important Gravel at Shower Drain Chapter Four Slope Considerations and Tile Size Chapter Five Installing the Mud Chapter Six Achieving Correct Slope Chapter Seven Completion - Touch Up AsktheBuilder Products

The information in this book strives to be like a plumb bob

at rest – delivering true and accurate information to those who look at it.

You have the hardest job behind you — that is, installing the Shower Pan Liner. It is now time to install the concrete base that will support the ceramic tile. This job is more precision than most. You will use a few back muscles mixing the mud and moving heavy buckets of material around, but in reality, you do not need much material to pour the mud floor in an average sized shower. I’ll never forget the first time I poured a mud floor. I mixed up the mud way too wet. It was a mess! I also did not do a good job of getting the mud to slope evenly to the drain. I had high and low spots that caused big problems when I went to install the tile. I also was not fortunate to have an eBook such as this! I will do my best in the following pages to make this task for you a very simple one. I ask that you read the entire book before you proceed. You should also have excellent lighting in the work area. Let me assure you, you will need it.

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Helpful Tips While Reading: From time to time as you read this book, I will alert you when certain information requires added attention. Pay attention for the following:

From time to time, I provide in-depth and often interesting scientific background information about the topic. If you see a shaded text box as the one just below, you may want to pay at-tention. Why?

When you see the plumb bob icon, you are at the end of a chapter and it is time to proceed to the next section of the eBook.

Introduction

When you see text that is in a yellow shaded box such as this with a piece of Caution Tape above, be alert! The text has important information that is vital to the overall success of the project. It may also contain important safety information.

The information in a light green shaded box such as this one with the green formula tape above it may help you win a round of Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy. But don’t feel the need to memorize the facts and figures I include in these sections. It is simply background informa-tion.

All United States of America copyright laws protect this electronic book. You are permitted to make as many copies as you like for your own personal use. This means you can archive the original PDF file you received on other backup discs or even on other hard drives you own. You can also make multiple hard copies for your own use. But, it is illegal for you to make copies of this book to distribute to others. What’s more, it is even illegal to send, forward, email, etc. a copy of the actual PDF file to friends, neighbors and/or relatives. It is also illegal for a public or private library to lend copies of this eBook to patrons unless they do so with encryption technology that prohibits the patron from making additional copies of the eBook. Allowing a library patron to simply download this unencrypted PDF file is violating the copy-right since the patron can very easily make electronic copies for distribution. Libraries work very well for traditional books which are very cumbersome to copy. You can copy huge electronic files with two or three mouse clicks. But some of you may not be able to resist the temptation to become a software pirate. In the privacy of your own home, you may find yourself forwarding a copy of this eBook to a friend, family member or co-worker. If you do, please urge them to visit AsktheBuilder.com and see if they find an eBook they might like to buy. My family and I appreciate any and all referrals.

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If you open this eBook and can read the text but do not see any of the graphics or photos, the problem is in your computer. Undoubtedly, you do not have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Remember, it is free. Click this graphic to get it: Oh yes! You might not be able to see the cool graphic. If not, then click the text link or copy and paste it into your web browser program.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html Remember, you may have to Restart your computer to make everything work just right. Printing Tips: Be aware that you do not have to print all pages of this eBook. Printing the fancy front cover and the Introductory pages may just be a waste of color ink and paper. When you click the “Print” function in the Adobe Reader software, a dialogue box opens. Within that box you can tell the printer exactly what pages you want to print.

Viewing Difficulties and Help

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It didn’t take me long when I was building each day to figure out that I needed to surround my-self with quality sub-contractors. These were people who helped me create the new homes, businesses and room additions that became my trademark of quality. Quality is everything and I soon discovered that consumers placed a high value on this characteristic. It should come as no surprise that I have adopted the same philosophy in my current media career. I am con-stantly striving to work with people who feel the same way as I do about quality. AsktheBuilder may seem like it is just me, but there are many people who are responsible for my success. The list is large. Some I have known for years, others just in the past several months. No doubt the biggest thanks should go to my lovely wife Kathy. She has supported me since day one when I decided to jump feet first into the writing and publishing world. In fact, the idea to write the syndicated newspaper column was hers. My children, Meghan, Tristan and Kelly, also need to be thanked. When I am grumpy because of deadline pressures or tired from working too hard, they have suffered. Who else has helped me get to this point where I can so readily share my knowledge with oth-ers? Let’s start at the beginning. I owe much to:

• Roger Henthorn - for his years of computer support • Marty Hovey - for his computer, programming and graphic support • Richard Anderson - for his constant moral support of my new career • Laura Bennett - for her fresh perspective of the publishing and public relations in-

dustries • Jaclyn Easton - for her mention of me in her best-selling StrikingitRich.com book • David Weiner - for selecting me to become a Home Ranger • Randy Cassingham, author of This is True® - for introducing me to Hotshots • Mary Westheimer - for connecting the dots between instant-need and my content • Michael Keating - for his photographic talents. His photos grace the website and

eBooks. • And countless others who have helped me get to this point

I also wish to thank Jon and Risa Cohen for allowing me to take photos of the mud pan instal-lation that you will see in this eBook. I will be forever grateful to them for allowing me to help them install the mud floor in their remodeled bathroom!

Acknowledgements and Credits

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The materials and tools you need to successfully pour a mud floor for a ceramic shower are not hard to assemble. You will need the following:

Mud Floor Materials The materials to make your mud could not be easier. Figure One shows you exactly what I used. You can see the bag of Portland cement, a small amount of pea gravel on the bag of ce-ment and a bucket of medium sand. There are three other buckets of sand in the photo. I al-

ways prefer to have plenty of sand for the job. For the mud floor I installed for this eBook, I only used two of the buckets of sand. I purchased my materials at a building supply store that sells drainage pipe, gravel, sand, etc. You may be able to get the same materials at a business that sells brick and block. Do not use mortar mix in place of cement. Bricklaying mortar looks almost identical to Portland cement but it is not the same, not by a long shot. Also, avoid the pre-mixed bags of sand mix or mortar mix sold at many new home centers. The bags of sand mix contain sand that is far too coarse. It is a nightmare to work with. The

bags of pre-mixed mortar mix are a mixture of sand and mortar, not Portland cement. Bricklay-ing mortar contains a large percentage of lime and some Portland cement. It simply does not develop the strength that pure Portland cement has once dry and cured. The pea gravel is a very important material. It is used around the drain assembly to protect the drainage holes from getting clogged with the mud mix. If you allow the small drainage openings to get clogged, you will have serious leakage problems down the road as the liner fills with wa-ter.

Chapter One - Mud Floor Materials & Tools

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• A sack of pure Portland Cement • Medium or fine sand • A small quantity of washed pea-sized gravel • A wheelbarrow or mortar mixing box • A magnesium or wood concrete float • A two foot level • A small 10 inch long torpedo level • A small pointed bricklayer’s trowel • One eighth inch or slightly thicker pieces of wood that are one inch wide and various

lengths from 12 inches to 18 inches long. They must be very straight.

Figure One

Required Tools You are going to need something in which to mix the materials. You can try using an empty five gallon bucket, but it is very impractical. A wheel barrow is very useful. A traditional mortar mixing box is also handy, but to work effectively with this box, you need a mortar hoe. Without the hoe, you will be on your hands and knees. You can try using a flat nosed long handle shovel in lieu of a hoe, but that also does not work well. I find that a small round point garden-ing shovel and a wheel barrow works very well. You will need a hand tool to spread the mud in the shower pan once it is mixed. I prefer a tradi-tional concrete float. These are made from magnesium or wood. A float is simply a rectangle of material with a handle attached to it. You will see my magnesium float in just a few minutes in upcoming photos. A small pointed trowel may also come in handy to place mud in difficult corners or as a fine touch up tool for scraping up excess mud as you work. These are very common tools. The blade on the trowel is approximately 4 inches long. A standard bricklaying trowel has a 10 or 12 inch long blade. This large tool is useless when work in a confined shower pan area. I find that two levels are absolutely necessary when installing a mud pan. I use my two-foot level to get the edges of the mud level. A 10 inch long torpedo level also comes in handy to check the edges of the mud as it slopes to the drain hole. Finally, you need some screeding sticks. I love to use pieces of oak that are 1/8 inch thick and about one inch wide or so. The oak is very stiff and strong. These sticks must be very straight with no curvature on the thin edge. You use these to create a straight line or surface from the top edge of the mud where it contacts the wall down to the edge of the drain. You will need sticks of various lengths to be able to get the mud surface just right. The length of the sticks varies with the size of the mud pan you are pouring. I prefer to have my sticks two or three inches less in length than the distance from the edge of the drain to the wall. You will quickly discover that the distance from the drain to all points around the pan where it hits the wall is different. The distance from the drain to each corner being the greatest distance in al-most all cases.

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The process of mixing the mud for the pan is simple. It is best to use dry or damp sand. Very wet sand will work, but it will be harder to blend the cement and sand before you add the neces-sary water to the mix. If the sand is too wet, it may actually contain too much moisture and make the mix too runny and wet. Figure Two shows the mixing process in the early stages. I have placed the correct amount of sand and cement in a mortar mixing box. The mortar box was handy and available. It was a small one that could be used immediately adja-cent to the shower pan. This was indeed conven-ient. I prefer to mix one part cement to three parts of sand. This makes for a very strong mixture once the mud mixture has cured. If you vary slightly one measure of sand from this formula, you will be fine.

Blending the Materials Figure Three shows the sand and cement blended or mixed together before any mix water is added to the dry materials. I poured a small amount of sand onto the mix so you can clearly see how the cement has turned the entire mixture gray. Blend-ing before you add water is a very good idea. It insures that all parts of the mix will have a uniform amount of cement so long as the blended mix is uniform in color and texture. It only takes a few minutes to blend the materials.

Do not get too aggressive when you first mix them as cement powder can pop out of the mix and blast your face and eyes. Mixture Consistency Figure Four shows the early stages of mixing. You add water slowly and in small amounts, perhaps four ounces at a time and less as the mixture gets wetter. Part of the mixture in the photo is perfect, while some is still dry and other parts are too wet. The consis-tency you are looking for is damp mud that you can pack into a tight snowball.

Chapter Two - Mixing Materials and Ideal Consistency

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Figure Two

Figure Four

Dry Too Wet

Perfect

Figure Three

Look at Figure Five. It clearly shows you the pea gravel installed around the drain assembly. The PVC drain has small holes in the clamping ring and larger holes at the bolts that secure the ring. These holes must be protected so that small pieces of sand and cement do not clog them. The pea gravel does a fantastic job of protecting the drainage holes. I washed the pea gravel and made sure that it was free of any sand particles. I then poured a small layer of the gravel around the drain. You do not need much gravel for this purpose. Keep in mind that you need to have enough mud mixture fill over the gravel so that it is solid once dry. I prefer to have one-half inch minimum of mud over the top of the gravel. Drain Strainer Height

Remember that the higher you adjust the strainer, the more mud you will be pouring. You never want the drain strainer unscrewed to the point where it is just ready to come out of the drain base. I prefer to have a minimum of one or two complete revolutions left before it comes out of the drain base. You must have some wiggle room left over after the mud has set up and dried. It is not the end of the world if the drain strainer is 1/16th inch low after the ceramic tile is installed. Flush is best and low is OK. You just never ever want the drain strainer higher than the installed ceramic tile. Once the mud has been installed and you are satisfied with the job, you actually twist the drain strainer out a half turn and then twist it back in to its original position immediately. This frees it up from the setting sand/cement mixture. If at all possible, you should repeat this procedure about four hours after the mud is poured. You are trying to make sure that you can adjust the drain assembly up and down should you have to do so several days or weeks later when you go to install the tile.

Chapter Three - Important Gravel at Shower Drain

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Figure Five

Drain Edge

The drain strainer in Figure Five is threaded. It adjusts up and down for height. This is very im-portant. The edge of the drain strainer is very close to the thickness of many common shower ceramic tiles plus the thickness of the thinset mortar that will be used to set the tile. You need to have a piece of floor tile in hand as you install the mud to make sure the drain strainer is at the perfect height above the mud floor. In other words, you do not pour the mud even with the top of the strainer!

Many people think the mud floor has to have considerable slope to adequately drain the water produced by the shower head. This simply is not true. In fact, a floor that has too much slope is uncomfortable to stand upon. It is a good idea to plumb a shower with a two inch drain pipe. This sized pipe can handle an enormous volume of water. In fact, the special drain fitting used for a ceramic shower with a liner is sized for two inch pipe. That being said, you can pour five gallons of water into a shower basin piped this way and it will disappear down the drain within seconds. It can take ten or twenty times longer for that same amount of water to come out of a shower head. This tells you that the slope of the floor has little to do with the actual delivery of water to the drain. So long as the floor of the shower is pitched ever so slightly to the drain and has no low spots that trap water, you will be in fine shape. In fact, even though my own shower has a slope of 1/8 inch per foot, surface tension still causes water to form small puddles of water on the tile after the water is turned off. The bottom line is simple: a slope of just 1/16th inch per foot is more than adequate. Large Tile Size Means Low or No Slope

Knowing that the floor slope is not consistent, tells you that the mud floor in your shower will actually be slightly curved in shape. Flat tiles do not sit well on curved surfaces. In the instance of a mud floor, there would be a hollow spot under the tile. Step on a tile over one of these hol-low spots and the tile will crack in time. Small sized tiles can be successfully installed over floors that have more curve to them. If you have ever seen a fancy tile fountain or other curved surface, you undoubtedly will see small one inch square tiles that work well in tight turns. I have four inch square tiles in my own personal shower stall. Not a one is cracked. Fifteen years ago when I poured my shower mud pan I did it with a 1/8 inch per foot slope. If I did it over today, I would make it more flat. If you choose to use large tiles, you better pour your mud floor dead level or nearly so!

Chapter Four - Slope Considerations and Tile Size

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You must know your tile size before your install your mud floor. The overall size of the tile de-termines the maximum slope of your shower floor. Larger sized tiles - meaning any tile six inches square or larger - must be placed on mud floors that are very low slope or nearly flat. Keep in mind that the slope of the mud floor in a square shower is not really consistent all the way around the mud floor. Why? You will find out in the following chapter that the edge of the shower floor where it touches the shower walls must be level all the way around the shower. If you do this and the drain is in the middle of the shower floor, then the distance from the center of the drain to any corner of the shower is longer or greater than the distance from the center of the drain to any other point on any of the walls. The height of the mud floor above the center of the drain along the wall is the same, but the distance you travel from the wall to the center of the drain is changing. This means the slope is different.

The gravel is around the drain and some or all of the mud is mixed. It is time to put the mud into the shower basin. Many people are a little anxious at this juncture. There is no need to fret or worry. Why? The mud can be scooped out. You can add more. It doesn’t get hard in 10 or 15 minutes. Depending upon the temperature, you have up to an hour or more to place the mixture. The point is, relax. Take your time to get it right so that the tile installation is that much easier. If you rush this part and make a mess of the mud floor, you will have nightmares when you go to install the tile.

Figure Six shows the first batch being placed. I have put some of the mud gently over the gravel around the drain being very careful that the gravel only moves the slightest amount. You can use the small pointed mason’s trowel to drop this mud into place. The rest of the mud was placed near the one corner. You can see that in the bottom right of the photo. At this point, the object is to establish the slope from the drain to one of the corners. This is the longest leg of the slope as we have previously discussed. Remember that this corner-to-drain slope is the most gradual in the shower basin. If

you choose to go with a one eighth inch per foot slope in this initial spot, the slope from the middle of a wall to the drain becomes steeper. An Offset Drain I did not design or install the plumbing for the shower that was photographed for this eBook. Look at Figure Seven. It should be very obvious that the shower is not square nor is the drain in the center of the shower. In fact, the drain is not even close to the center of the shower. The shower will drain. You will see that I will develop a slope from every point towards the drain. But can you see a problem? Note the distance from the drain to the left wall along the line of the or-ange printing on the liner. It is approximately one foot. Yet the distance from the drain to the corner in the lower right of the photo is nearly three feet! For the wall tile to look right once in-stalled, the top of the mud floor where it touches up against all walls should be perfectly level all the way around the shower. This means that the slope of the mud just to the left of the drain in Figure Seven is going to be very steep in re-lation to the slope from the drain to the corner in the lower right of the image. The point is sim-ple: Be sure your drain is located as close as possible to the exact center of your shower.

Chapter Five - Installing the Mud

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Figure Six

Figure Seven

Adding More Mud Figure Eight clearly shows that more and more mud is being added. I have already established the slope of the mud from the drain to the lower right corner in Figure Eight. Depending upon the clarity of your computer monitor or your printer you may be able to see the indentation my two foot level made in the wet mud. The level was pointed from the corner towards the drain. I have a placed a dashed line parallel with the indenta-tion to help you locate it. The slope from this first corner towards the drain was minimal. It was not more than 1/16th inch per foot. I have used the magnesium float you see in the photo to smooth part of the mud. It is not important at this time to try to get the mud smooth. All you want to do at this stage is make sure you are somewhat close. You should be able to eyeball whether you have a huge hump or low spot in the mud between the walls and the drain. The precision sculpting of the mud comes later.

Leveling the Outer Edge Figure Nine shows a close of up the angle wall in the shower. There are five corners in this shower because of this angled wall. I have already estab-lished a level mud surface where the mud butts up against the wall from the first corner to the second corner. I am now working on getting the mud level from corner two to corner three. Once again I have added mud between the wall and the drain and just have it close. You can clearly see in the photo holes where more mud needs to be added. I have plenty of time to do this later. In fact, those low spots may be high! I will determine this in a little

bit as I start to use the oak wood strips to screed or plane the wet mud. But I am not concerned with that at this time.

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Figure Eight

Level Indentation

Figure Nine

My entire focus at this time is just getting most of the mud placed and establishing a perfectly level perimeter.

Figure Ten is a very interesting photo. You should be able to clearly see very smooth areas of mud were it touches up against the CPE liner. These smooth areas are a result of me pounding the magnesium float straight down at these locations in an attempt to get the mud perfectly level. The float compacts the mud as I pound it. The rough areas of mud as you move towards the drain are sim-ply places where I have roughly finished the mud trying to approximate the final slope. It is nearly impossible to see in this photo, but the top surface of the drain is actually about 5/16ths of an inch above the mud immedi-ately adjacent to the drain. This offset allows the top of the tile to be perfectly flush with the top surface of the drain. Your measurement may be different. It is a function of the thickness of the tile and adhesive you will use.

Stick Screeds Figure Eleven shows that all of the mud has now been placed. The outer edges of the mud where it contacts the walls is now level all the way around the shower. It is time to establish the final slope between all points along the wall and the drain. I have found the best way to do this is with perfectly straight strips of oak wood. I prefer oak because it is so strong and it bends very little as I drag it across the rough mud. You can use any lumber you have on hand. A good alternative, if oak is not available, would be Douglas Fir or Southern Yellow Pine.

The sticks do not have to go all the way from the drain to the wall. The stick in Figure Eleven is about 3 inches short. That is fine as you can slide the stick towards the drain or back towards the wall to make sure there are no high or low spots. Screeding Techniques

Chapter Six - Achieving Correct Slope

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Figure Ten

Figure Eleven

Pay very close attention along the walls as you screed. The flat spot you created while getting the outer edge level must be planed down! In other words, prior to screeding there was a 2 inch wide flat platform created by the magnesium float. Some of this flat area must be removed with the wood screeds. You must gently remove material so that just the mud touching the wall re-mains. If you merely create a slope from the drain to the drain side of the flat platform, you will have huge problems when you begin to install ceramic tile. A hollow area will develop under the tile as it passes over the flat platform.

Working with the stick screeds is not too hard. The closer the rough slope is to the actual finish slope determines the amount of work you have to do. Do not worry about small low spots as you screed. The act of screeding is simple. You place the stick on its narrowest edge and make it work as a bulldozer or a snow plow. But if you add a secondary side-to-side motion in addition to the straight ahead motion, the tool works that much better. You can not effectively screed until most of the mud is in the pan. If you try to screed when just some mud is down you can actu-ally push the mud totally out of position along the smooth surface of the shower pan liner. With all of the mud in place, it is virtually impossible to get mud to slide out of position. For the screed to be able to move back and forth in a line between the drain and a wall, you can see why the screed must be 3 inches shorter than the actual distance that is being screeded. You can also see why you need screeds of different lengths as the distance be-tween the wall and drain changes. Do not try to scrape off or plane off one-half inch thick layers of mud! That is a disaster. The trick is to try to remove no more than one-eighth inch of material in any given pass. If excess mud is created in front of the screed, use the small pointing trowel to remove it from the area. You can also use this tool to fill in any small holes or low spots. Lighting is critical at this step. A handheld automotive or work light that is near the actual work area is perfect. Keep some rags handy to wipe off the edge of the screed each time you com-plete a scraping pass. Once the edge is clean, place the screed back on the mud surface to check for high or low spots. If wet or excess mud gets on the edge of the screed, you simply can’t see these defects.

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The job is complete! It is impossible to see definition in Figure Twelve. Heck, it is virtually impossible to see it in person. But the screed sticks and the level do not lie. If these tools are accurate, then the mud surface you see below has a uniform fall in any line that ex-tends from the drain to any point along the walls. Let me assure you that the mud in this pan is ready to go. This photo clearly shows how off-center the drain is in the shower. Small tiles will have to be used to conform to the slope and curvature at the left and upper left side of the drain assembly. This is the time to check for high and low spots. Clean off the screeds and start to slide them along the mud surface to see if the edge rests on the mud everywhere. Humps must be re-moved. Low spots can be carefully filled with excess mud. There is no need to trowel the sur-face with the magnesium float. The mud surface should be a mild sandy texture. The thinset mortar will bond very well to this sandy texture. Finishing the Wall Cement Board If you pay attention to Figure Twelve, you will note that you can still see the CPE shower liner on the walls just above the mud floor. I pour my mud floors this way on purpose. I have seen some people install the cement board on the walls and let it go down to the bottom of the CPE liner. They then install the mud up against the cement board. I feel this is a huge mistake. The mud floor will almost always be damp. If the cement board is embedded in the mud, then the cement board can wick this moisture up behind the tile. This is not the end of the world if you have a superior vapor retarder on the studs before the cement board is installed. But not all people think to do this. Wet or damp cement board can rot wood studs over time. This moisture can also supply mold spores with the needed moisture to grow and flourish. I want an air gap between my wall cement board and the mud floor. Once the mud floor has dried for 24 hours, I install the cement board. I prefer to raise it up off the mud floor one-quarter of an inch. This gap is eventually filled as the floor tile butts up against the walls.

Chapter Seven - Completion — Touch Up

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Figure Twelve

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