OT: Building a shower wet room

[Chris_Allen]

The Mrs really likes the idea of a walk through shower, so I didn't hesitate in ripping out the old 1970's maroon bathroom from upstairs. It is now completely bare and I have the layout sussed.

What is concerning me is how to ensure the drainage is good enough so there aren't any pools of water on the floor and that any leaks won't get through.

I was thinking of building a small sloping floor that was tanked, probably with the stuff you make garden ponds with. Dedicated channel drains are around £300, which is ridiculous - so I'm looking for sensible alternatives.

One idea I did have was to purchase a normal shower tray and tile over it!

So, I'm open to suggestions and ideas on this one.

[Gregory East]

My Mum has one. It was put in by builders to hospital specs for my terminally ill Dad. Not a huge fall to the outlet but it's a single piece of heavy vinyl, goes up the walls maybe 4" and then it's your regular bathroom panelling.

All in all not very user friendly imho. Water gets under the curtain so you need to mop up afterwards.

[AntonZ]

What kind of floor do you have? I have concrete floors upstairs. When we bought the house, I did the upstairs bathroom before we moved in. I intended to just rip out the old tiles, replace with new. Turned out that the tiles were what kept the upper layer of the floor together. Removed everything to bare concrete, then did a new cement floor with gradual slope towards one point, the drain. I can give more details, must have pics as well somewhere, but my way involved quite a lot of weight. If you have wooden floors, it would be of no use to you.

[gilscales]

when i do remodels on baths i strip everything down to bare studs and then hot mop the shower pan area, my tile guy floats spec mix to get the slope then tiles over it, best way to do it, no seams to leak in the future, any other type of liner will have seems for potential leaks except a one pc. pan, here are pics of one of the last ones done, the bench seat and about 12" up from the floor were covered in thick roofing felt and hot mopped with molten tar, why dry it is leak tested for 24 to 48 hours and then the tile guy waterproofs the the rest of the walls with roofing felt, then puts up wire and floats the wall plumb with spec mix (cement) then tiles

[LelandCrooks]

Don't know if you can get it there. The last one I did, I had a floor custom poured. It's the same material they use for the fake stone countertops, textured and sloped. You can get it any color, style or shape. It wasn't too bad as I recall, $300 or so. That was 12 yrs ago though. SWMBO has never forgiven me for moving us out of that house. I gutted the upstairs, made a 900 sq ft master bedroom, 20ft long walk in closets, glass tile shower, cathedral ceilings.

[Scott Brochu]

When I did my shower I had a custom floor pan built from the local tin smith made out of copper.
Installed by putting concrete board over that on the side lips and nothing but 4-5" of mortar sloped down to the drain which was a comercial type drain (brass). After that dried came back and tiled with small tiles.
I made my side walls/lips out of standard 2x4's.
I wanted the gym style shower look. I had to install glass blocks after due to the jets of water coming out of the wall getting the whole bath wet.
I love it though, the whole fam could fit in there. 4.5'x4.5'. I call it my car wash.

Sorry about the mess I just took the pic and it is dirty, It needs a good cleaning.

The finish grade with tile is flush to the drain grate. The 4-5" mortar is a half inch away from the top and tiling mortar does the rest; 1/4"mortar 1/4" tiles. The slope was done by eye and is about 1/2" pitch to the drain.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

One idea I did have was to purchase a normal shower tray and tile over it!

So, I'm open to suggestions and ideas on this one.

I seriously considered doing a tile floored shower myself but there are too many potential pitfalls. I finally decided to use a molded shower pan, with the rest of the bath tile floored, and with tiled walls, so the only bit of 'factory' is that section of floor where the drain is. If you go on line to see how a tiled shower floor is supposed to be done it's over a plastic pan that costs a lot more than a molded shower pan anyway.

[Chris_Allen]

The floors are joist and floor boarded. The soilstack (poo pipe!) is situated too far away to have a reasonable underfloor incline, so the shower base has to be raised anyway.

I'm going to take some pictures tonight.

[Rune Bivrin]

Standard procedure (and pretty much the only way approved by the insurance companies) here in Sweden is to build up the floor using a special cement which lends itself to creating slopes and evens out well. On top of that you paint with an expensive combo of primer and rubber paint, essentially covering the entire floor and walls in rubber. Particular measures involving sheets of thick rubber are taken with regards to the drain opening.

On top of this you tile to taste.

I've done it a few times, and it's not too difficult. But it's very important to have the floor rigid, particularly if you're going to bring in a bathub with 400 litres of water...

[Harley]

The Mrs really likes the idea of a walk through shower,So, I'm open to suggestions and ideas on this one.

I use to like the idea of walk through showers too...until I stayed in a couple of motels with them. I found they were drafty, more likely to get you to catch cold and looked like a bitch to maintain and keep sealed. The War Office also agreed after the same experience.

I like the enclosed shower, glass door, solid wall three sides if possible, otherwise 2 with a gentle exhaust fan right above.

We have strict standards here on the type of construction you can use in such arrangements and so there are good guidelines available. Marley also have an excellent plumbing guide which can provide ideas.

[bzb]

The War Office

[Gauss]

When we lived in Japan, our apartment had a shower room. Man I miss that. The door was hinged, but with frosted glass. The floor was one big plastic tray, about 5'x5', and there was a tub on wheels (tall tub - Japanese style). Together with the on-demand gas water heater, it was great. With no central heating, however, it was a race to get to the faucet before your feet froze in the winter though. I think I've got a picture still...

Alas, just a shot of the door from the hall, and a little peek at the toilet room. The shower room floor plan was square, and a little larger than two hallways wide. You can see how efficiently the space was used.

[Harley]

The War Office

99% the absolute darling
1% the nuclear button.

Press the wrong button....look out!

[wallywally]

Google "Redgard" it's made by custom building products. I don't know it is available to you but it's a good product.