Here’s the real story. Shower floors leak. Water goes right through the grout and even the tile. If you want to build a tile shower then you or someone must know how to make a shower pan. That liner is the key to a leak proof shower. Trouble is, it’s hidden. Here’s what you can’t see.
From the ground up…
Well, maybe not the ground, but the sub-floor or the concrete base. See, you start a shower pan from the bottom and build up. The base is tricky. See, if the base moves, guess what? The floor cracks. Masonry, including the tile grout, won’t stand movement. Make the base rigid to start.
Then the slope…
Over the base, which is usually covered with felt, goes a layer of sloped mortar. It’s called deck mud. It’s a special blend of water, cement and sand. It’s sloped just right to send water to the drain. Then comes the trick…
The membrane to drain…
The real trick to the pan is the waterproof liner. It’s a vinyl sheet that’s folded and glued just so, right over the sloped mortar. The liner forms a waterproof pool that’s built into the floor. The drain is tricky too, but that’s another story.
More mud…
Above the liner goes the mortar base that the tile is installed over. It gets sloped too and it sometimes gets a layer of reinforcing wire. Know why? To make sure it’s stable and not moving at all.
Is there an easier way?
Building a shower pan is really quite simple. But it surely isn’t easy. There are some real tricks. Get it wrong and it’s disaster. What about another way? Here’s the deal. Kerdi makes a shower liner kit that eliminates all the mud work. How does that sound? You also have an option to build shower benches and even custom shower sizes too. All with no skilled mortar work involved.
If you want to see how to make a shower pan the way many pros do it, check out the Kerdi system.