My contrator laid a layer of concrete over backer board today to use as my shower pan. He did slope it to the drain as the shower will have no door.

I know nothing about pans and tiles, but he says he will waterproof it and up six feet of the backer-boarded walls tomorrow. He also says that I can start tiling the next day.

:confused: Is this sufficient for a shower before I tile the floors and wall?

Hi TMM:

You can check out this link... with great pics... to see if your guy is on track.

How to Build a Shower Pan

I don't usually use the concrete backer board on the shower floor, but I do lay down some cement and pitch it to drain BEFORE applying the shower pan membrane.

After cement dries, I apply the membrane, install the drain AND THEN I TEST THE SHOWER PAN BY FILLING IT WITH WATER TO JUST NEAR THE THRESHOLD (I plug the drain with a 2" test ball to do this) for 24 hours!

If your guy doesn't do that.. well... I would want to know how he knows the pan won't leak?? This basic PAN TESTshould be performed.

After pan tested, I put small gravel rocks around the drain itself to allow weepage of water doen the drain and then I pour my floor.

The next day... you can install concrete board and TAPE ALL JOINTS! With a modified thinset mortar or similar.

Then I install tile, etc. the next day.

Be clear all tradespeople have different ways of doing things. I have given an overview of how I do things. If your contractor does it slightly different probably not a big deal! Just make sure he does something similar to what was just presented!

Check out the link, talk to your contractor about PAN TEST and raise any questions that come up as you review the link above.

Good luck with this and don't hesitate to come back with any more questions you may have!

MARK


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Thanks. Good advice. When you say membrane, could that be the liquid waterproofing he is actually doing as I type?

No... the membrane pan that I am talking about can be found at the custom shower pan link I posted above.

I am not familiar with liquid waterproofing... maybe someone else here is though.

Hopefully, Bob (ballengerb1) will pop in today and check this out. Maybe he knows more on that subject!

Let me know how it is going meantime... ;)

Mark

Thanks. I think I need to go to plumbing school -- ha ha! I surely don't know anything about showers and their 'pans'!
TMM