mud pan for shower

[Kodiak]

I have my shower and pan/drain all framed and and am looking for someone to do my drypack motar bed. I have the felt and lath down and it is ready for mud. Shower is roughly 4.5'x3'

any of you all know of a good mudman?

I always do my own tile i just dont feel compfy doing the mudpan.

[sparcebag]

Why do you feel uncomfortable doing it? if ya got it this far and you do tile some morar is pretty simple.All slope down to drain.

[reddog]

I agree, if you can do tile work, you can do the pan.

[Kodiak]

mixing it up outside in the cold and taking it in and packing it then putting in a liner, then putting in the top pan sounds like no fun to me. I really dont have the time right now to be honest.

[Stratosman]

Tell you what, I do about 20 of these a year, and just poured a pan yesterday as a matter of fact, they are a piece of cake...why are you mixing it outside, you are right, it is too cold. Is there room where your work is? Protect and go! Have you ever done one before? It sounds like you have describing your steps, paper, lath, pre slope, liner, durock, second bed, ect..

How are you doin the curb? Mud?

You CAN do it Kodiak!

[Kodiak]

mud curb, i am yet to do the preslope/liner/second bed.

something about mixing mud in the house doesnt sit well with me

[Ryan Berger]

mud curb, i am yet to do the preslope/liner/second bed.

something about mixing mud in the house doesnt sit well with me

not messy at all,,, we just use a sled similar to a small otter sled

[Kodiak]

bucked up and did it this weekend after having contractors keep rescheduling,,,,thanks but no thanks pal'e if your gonna keep rescheduling your cut off.

[Gus]

Didn't happen to take any pictures of the process did you? I'm planning to tackle this myself in the next month or so.

[Stratosman]

Hey Gus,

I don't have any pics of the process, but I have done tons of these in all different types of apps and styles. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask...a poorly built pan can cause major headaches and $ down the road, trust me, I have tore out alot of pans that were done incorrectly.

[Tom7227]

I did the whole nine yards myself on the bathroom. A great thing was a video that I got from The Tile Shop where I got my tile. $10 or something like that and I bet I watched sections of it at least a dozen times as I went through the various steps of the process.

[Kodiak]

Hey Gus,

I don't have any pics of the process, but I have done tons of these in all different types of apps and styles. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask...a poorly built pan can cause major headaches and $ down the road, trust me, I have tore out alot of pans that were done incorrectly.

so what have you found that people have not done correctly?? i see a lot of people at home depot and tile liquidtors buying tile all wide eyed,,,,like they have never even picked up a hammer before...

[Kodiak]

sorry no pics

[Stratosman]

You name it...from no pan liner to incorrectly installed liners. Curbs built with wood and durock, screwed down durock through the liner to hit the wood is a common one. A big problem area is where the curb intersects the wall or the returns, alot of times the liner is just cut and folded over with no consideration to waterproofing the corner, I solvent weld the pre-made corners at this area and then go as far as troweling on a liquid membrane over the mud curb as insurance.

The last two that I tore out were all wrong, both had the durock screwed to the curb through the liner, one had cut the liner to fit only the floor, didn't wrap up the walls. And put liner on the curb seperate. Other had nailed the liner to the studs and curb framing below where the finished elevation of the tile pan would be... A few examples of the recent debacles I have ran into. I don't think that I have ever seen a pre-slope prior to the pan liner either(something that should always be done.)

The last of the above two examples had significant rot, so much so that I had to re-frame the entire shower, pull out sublfloor in entire bath and re-do, also had the top 2" of 2 floor joists rotten so I had to sister new ones along side to regain the hieght I needed. I don't mind it, makes me more $$, but you should see the look on the homeowners faces when they see it!

Oh yeah, as far as what you mentioned about people buying tile all wide eyed, I always get a kick out of people buying tile and supplies at the big box stores and I hear the "expert' in the apron telling them how to install correctly, more often than not it's a recipe for disaster...arming them with just enough information and confidence to be dangerous. More than once I waited till the guy in the apron left and talked to the customer myself. Now I am sure there are people working at those places that know exactly what they are talking about, so I don't want to offend anyone, I am just relaying my experiences.

[River Dan]

I've done several and havn't had any issues, here's one I just finished

note the solid blocking between studs and the flashing tins, I ran flashing tins all the way up on the inside corners, this base is put down before the membrane goes in, so your membrane has pitch underneath

Here is the next step of putting the membrane down and putting the drain on, make sure you don't seal the weep holes on the drain, notice no nails in membrane, except for ones 10" up on walls, there are no cuts on the pan its one piece held down with membrane glue, I make the base 1 1/2" thick middle and a 1/4" per foot out thicker, I clamp and glue my curb on using cement board, wish I had the next couple pics but there lost sorry

[Stratosman]

Hey Dan,

How do you clamp and glue the cement board on the curb with the liner there? Never heard of that way before and simply curious how it works. I always bend metal lath over the curb, nail on the outside and make forms and "pour" a concrete curb.

[Kodiak]

10-4

i do the lath and nail on the outside method also

yeah they do arm them with just enough confidence..scary stuff, but good buisness for you down the road. ahha

[River Dan]

I glue the membrane to the curb that I construct out of 2by3s proper folding is a must the glue helps flatten the folds, clamp durrock on the inside and outside using PL and after it sets up I mix up my dry pack/ sand mix, mark out the height on the durrock so I have the right pitch and do the base, the cement locks the inside in really well, then I glue the top of the curb on last, be doing them for over ten years and havn't had one call back, most have been done in higher end homes. Leaks come from nails in the wet zone, keep fastners up and use the correct glue for the membrane if you must cut or seam