How to Make a Shower Pan

[Music] now before you start make sure that your subfloor sand good enough shape to handle all the way to this mortar bed now the first thing I do is I'll measure in between each of the two by fours on the wall and I'll cut a two by six block and this gives a nice solid layer behind the liner and also helps support the mortar itself [Music] now if there is a pipe or some wires in the way normally you can get a 1 by 6 and that will fit now the next thing you're gonna want to do after you get all of the spaces in between the two by fours filled is put down a layer of tar paper what the tar paper does is it keeps the moisture from inside of the mortar from wicking down into the wooden subfloor and then they'll make your mortar bed not cure properly [Music] and once you get all of the floor surface area covered with the tar paper you'll want to tack it down with either staples or roofing nails and I also normally put a metal lathe down at this point and that helps strengthen up the mortar bed but for the type of mortar I used it said that you didn't have to if you kept it above 3/8 of an inch some people don't use lace at all but some people swear by them I've actually done it both ways I've never had in the shoe [Music] now the easiest way to mix this mortar is to get a mixing tray like the one here and just a regular garden hoe you'll also need just a flat trowel and then I use this heavier float to help me stamp down the mortar but a 2x4 and a hammer will work just the same [Music] [Music] [Music] when you add your water only do a little bit at a time because if you make that too wet you're not going to be able to maintain the slope that you need you can always add more water but once you you go too far there's no turning back and you might just have to throw the motor out and this mortar that I'm using I've never used it before I normally just use the tops and mix that you can get at most home improvement stores and it's with the concrete and the tops and mix is like six dollars a bag and this stuff was I think fifteen dollars a bag but the only reason I got is because my supplier was out of the stuff I normally use and gave this stuff to me at the six dollar price rather than the 15 if I didn't get that discount I don't really see the benefit and that much of a price difference so the top sand mix is what I would go with [Music] [Music] and we when you check them order to see when it's ready if you can make a ball and toss it without it breaking apart that's when you know it's ready [Music] once you get it all mixed go ahead and dump it out as you can see I left a little bit dry in the bottom that I didn't actually mix shipping doing a little bit longer but you can go ahead and mix it while it's on the ground I'm gonna start this what I'm doing is I'm making a border about the width of my trowel and I'll use the top plate in the wall to give me a guide and that makes it an inch and a half thick so I'll just make I'll go ahead I'll start I'll make the border all the way around make sure you you're packing it down you don't want any voids in that dry mortar [Music] this is kind of a longer shower so I do half at a time some of the smaller ones you can go ahead and do the entire border and then fill in and that's when you taper down towards the drain [Music] the fisheye lens on my camera makes the more not look as thick as it actually is but it's an inch and a half all the way around and once I get that I go ahead and I put mortar in the middle and had to start tapering it down towards the drain [Music] and don't forget to put some tape over your drain you don't want mortar falling down and then end up clogging your drain I just use HVAC tape and that normally holds pretty good go ahead and pre-cut some boards that reach from the drain to the border and that way you can use them and see where you need to add mortar and make sure you're keeping your slope right those base layers good practice for your final one this one isn't as important as long as you have your slope that's needed for underneath of the liner if water gets there it needs to be able to make its way to the weep holes in the drain but it doesn't have to be perfect but the next one needs to be pretty smooth this one it doesn't really matter you just need the slope you want to keep it about an inch to half make sure you get the thickness but don't worry about perfection use this as your practice layer [Music] so once you're done with that one make sure you let it dry overnight before you start anything else so the next thing you want to do is you're gonna lay out your liner and see how it fits and you're gonna want your liner to go a couple inches higher than the height of your curb so for most the two by six it goes up to the top and that's that's pretty good as you can see here's my curb as long as I have a few inches which I do have plenty you're good to go next you're gonna want to take this top part off of your drain and then you want to put a bead of silicone around the edge of that base of the drain [Music] now you want to really smooth out your liner to get it as snug and as smooth as you can make sure that's pressed down into that silicone you just put down the more smooth and the tighter you have your liner the easier it's going to be to make your last mortar layer look good [Music] now you want to find those tops of those four bolts and you're gonna cut a tiny X on the very top of the bolt just enough to where you can press it through because you want those bolts to pop through that liner [Music] [Music] and then you're gonna do the same thing for the actual drain hole once you have all four bolts coming through the liner you let's cut an x over top of the hole only and you're gonna push down the excess liner once you get it open and it's gonna remain there as you put your cap to your drain on and if you need to cut some of the liner off you can go ahead and do that if it won't fit in like I had to do but you do want the liner to actually go into the drain a little bit [Music] and once you get that cap on and locked in place go ahead and tighten down the bolts [Music] now the corners are the trickiest part probably at the liner you don't want to make any cuts in the in the liner so you can fold it back like that if you don't have any other option and nail it but you might get a hump in your actual backer board if you do it that way I got lucky here and I got a nice spot where I can tuck the excess liner back in that little hole and then I just add a nail to the top of the liner making a nice square corner now as long as that liner is not cut it doesn't matter that it's going into that hole water went in there it would do the same thing so don't worry about that little gap there you might have to move some of the boards if you can rig up a way to get that excess liner behind the wall that's always the best or you can always just fold it behind it and you might just have to live with a little bit of a bump out in your actual backer board [Music] [Music] [Music] but they also sell a damn corner that you could put and cut out the liner and then you're gonna glue this pre-made damn corner on if you want the flush look and you don't have any other options but I'll go ahead I'll put a link in the description where you can get the damn corners you normally can't buy them at most home improvement source you got to wear them online but you can also use them on your curbs and any other turns you might have for this curb where I'm far enough from the actual rain head and the the water coming down I just used a piece of the liner just to come up the wall a little bit and then I'm gonna have the whole curb waterproofed up tight to where it will never see water [Music] this was getting a more direct shot constant shot of water I might put a damn quarter in but as long as you excellent job at your waterproofing if it gets to that point then you're in trouble in more ways than than just that then you go ahead and tack all of the remainder of your liner up at every stud and I just use a roofing nail [Music] [Music] now to get a reference point of where I'm gonna bring my motor how thick I'm gonna make it instead of trying to make a level line of an inch and a half I like to measure down from the ceiling and I get and I make a mark about two inches above the liner and then I'll take whatever that measurement ended up being I measure down from each point and then I'll chalk a reference line and that's gonna be above my mortar but it's gonna help to know how my tile is gonna finish so I just used as a reference line and I'll use my level to make sure that I'm actually level on the mortar bed itself and then as if I'd see anything that's gonna create a tiling issue I can go ahead and correct it in my mortar instead of being surprised that my ceilings out of level and trying to fix it then then make sure that you cover up your weep holes with rocks because you don't want the mortar to actually clog them and then they won't be able to serve their purpose and when you set the drain height just make sure that you are going from where your mortar is going to be to about a quarter inch below the top of that drain because you want it to be flush with your tile and then I just repeat the process making a border all the way around and I'm staying about a quarter to half an inch below my little reference sign that I made and I'll just keep putting the level on that border making sure that my actual shower floor is is level [Music] [Music] and using the 2x4 in a hammer is a great way to pack it down and make sure that you'll have any voids you don't want any gaps or voids you want to pack that set down as much as you can and it makes it easier work - once it's completely packed [Music] [Music] so once you have your border you can go ahead and start filling it in and tapering it down towards your drain [Music] and I mean this layer is a lot more important to be smooth I'm gonna make sure that you have your slope you don't want any low parts especially in the corners I see a lot of people messing up and having some low spots in the corners where water could potentially settle and find its way in so you gonna make sure your corners are higher and you got a nice smooth taper all the way down so when your feet are standing on it you're not gonna feel any humps or bumps or anything else if you have trouble keeping a smooth slope you can get these guides that you leave in and I'll put a link in the description if you want to check them out you just fill the mortar in between and you can guarantee you're getting the exact slope you need [Music] [Music] but also keep in mind that if as long as you're getting your slope in your water any dips or anything that you have after the mortar bed cures you can fill in and smooth out with just a thin layer of thin set so even if you don't make it completely perfect this this time you can there's still options to correct it and smooth it [Music] [Music] now that shave your shower pan the last step you want to do before you tile is waterproofing and I've got a video showing you how to do that feel free to check it out and if this video has helped you please give it a like and subscribe if you want to see some pretty neat things I'm doing with my 150 year old house I went a little over the top with it but it's been fun thanks for watching

Channel: SgtDonovan

Views: 1,836,840

Rating: 4.7966509 out of 5

Keywords: Shower pan, shower base, how to build a shower pan, concrete shower pan, concrete shower base, diy shower base, diy shower pan, tile shower floor, tile shower base, DIY shower, Tile shower, build, mortar, mortar shower pan, How to make a shower pan, making a shower pan, mortar shower, oatey pan liner, pan liner, tileable shower base, shower base for tile, shower base installation

Id: AUpk7iFDvw4

Length: 25min 6sec (1506 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 20 2017