Shower pan liner installation: Preperation for schedule 40 CPE Choroloy pan liner. The reason why I recommend Choroloy, is that it is a non-plastisized material, it does not break down like vinyl pan liners do over time. In preperation for a pan liner installation, I dump some deck mud, (4 part sand, 1 part cement and just a little bit of water to make a damp dry pack where it holds together when you close your fist and let go). This is called a "Pre-slope" You strike off of the flange of the "Easy Test" drain assembly to about 3/4" against the wall. If the shower is about 3x3 or 4x4 this will give your more than enough slope. Take your wood float or block of wood, beat the dry pack down and strike it off, I usually eye ball it. If you wish, make a level impression in the mud around the perimeter of the stall shower and take a stick and use that striking off of the flange and the perimeter impression you just made. Wood float it smooth, then take your flat trowel and trowel it smooth. Come back the next day, take the top part of the "Easy Test" Drain assembly apart, smooth around the opening so it is flush with the bottom part of the flange, vacume up the sand, install your pan liner over that. I use Vulcum sealent around the drain under the pan liner. This pre-slope can also be acheived by cutting a piece of plywood into 4 sections with a 1/2" furring strip around the perimeter of the shower walls and nailed flat to the subfloor around where the drain will be located, this method is used when you are hot mopping the shower floor. Hot mop is OK, but this too will become ridged and brittle over time and can leak. Lead pans are good, but corrode over time and they can leak. Choroloy under concealed conditions will last indefinatly. So for this exercise, we will be using Choroloy. When you install your pan liner, run it about 8" up the wall (makes building inspectors happy, but completly redundant, all you really have to be is just above the shower curb height. Fold your corners staple the top above the curb height. NO STAPLES BELOW CURB HEIGHT! Now, paper and wire up your walls, fill your pan with water, Don't cut a hole in the drain, leave that, it acts as a plug for water testing your pan. ALWAYS MAKE TWO WATER TESTS! One after you have papered and lathed your walls, and then after you have floated and set your walls and your ready to float and set your pan. 3x3 stall shower wall mud: 8, 5 gal buckets of sand, 1 bag of cement and 1 bag of lime or 1/2 a bag of clay. Dry mix all of these together until consistant gray. 2 7/8 5 gal. Buckets of water, mix this together until you reach a nice full bodied mortar. Bucket the mud into the house. Trowel the mud on the back wall, pop your two, (wetted down) 1/4" thick by 1 1/2" wide strips into the mud with a straight edge and level until plumb. Make them so the mud is approximately 9/16 to 5/8" thick at the top where the A-106 or the A-4402, or the A-4200 trim will be. Take your straight edge, shave the wall with a side to side motion apllying VERY LITTLE PRESSURE! You do not want to push your sticks in while shaving your wall. Repeat thes steps for the other walls. Pull your sticks, back fill the void with mortar. Break open all your boxes of tile and place them in 5 gal buckets of water so the tile is soaking in that water, go to lunch. After lunch, wood float your walls down until smooth with a wood float, ( a wood trowel).

After you have smoothed all your walls down, sprinkle dry portland cement at the bottom of the walls. With your margine trowel, scoop out some mortar from your bucket, dump it at the base of your wall. Now, with your level and rubber mallet, tap down that mortar with your level to make a level edge to stack your tile on, about 1" high or whatever allows full tile where your wall will stop at the top, meaning your block of mud might be say anywhere from 1" to 3" thick. Now, mix up some pure portalnd cement mixed with alittle fire clay, mix it real thin, let it set for about 5 minutes, then remix. Now, with a flat trowel, smear some of your portland cemet on your first wall to stack about two to three rows of your 4x4 tile. Pull some of your tile out of the buckets where they are soaking, stack your first row on your level mud screed you made, stack about two rows, take your level and tap it down nice and level and straight, now you can stack your wall all the way up.

e-mail me if you want further instructions. Sincerely,

John Wilson

Premier Bathrooms, Inc.

Copyright © 2009
John P. Wilson