The least expensive quote was $2800.00. All well in good if you have 2800.00 sitting around in your account and I did not want to finance the project so plan B, yup DO IT MYSELF!!!!!
THIS NOT A WEEKEND PROJECT: Well mine wasn't/hasn't been/ isn't.
In the beginning there was a shower:
This is the standard shower built prior to 1970, chicken wire and cement and mortar. My shower had approximately 4 inches of cement and about 3/8 inch of thinset. Also there is not vapor barrier nor insulation in the walls of this shower. The shower width is about 3 feet 6 inches from wall to wall (Yeah its small). There is no sub floor but the shower is directly set on the house's foundation so I will be working from a concrete floor. Are you thinking about the drain yet? Well you should, I did.
I used a hammer to start tearing away at the walls but quickly realized the all important sledge hammer. I used a 5lb sledge hammer, which made the job go quicker, because of the small working space. Remember to be safe wear goggles and gloves.
The Reveal:
My dad stopped by and broke out the floor of the shower (Thanks Dad, why do i think you were having fun demolishing something, lol). Well low and behold the shower pan had failed alright it had 4 large holes in the front of the pan. There was about a 1/2 inch of water on the concrete slab of the shower and some of the studs had already started to mold. Vacuumed out most of the water, now had to wait 5 days for the studs and concrete to dry out.
Now the pan was not the PVC pan we use today but rather a fiber based paper shower pan that went only up 2 inches of the wall. Today's codes require shower pans to go at least 6 inches up the studs of the wall. Mine is at 8 inches. :-) Also, found out that on the back wall of the shower where my AC unit is there was no wall separating the bathroom from the AC so looks like I'm buying additional green board. To kill the mold on the studs and joists, I used a bleach and salt water solution from a spray bottle and thoroughly soaked the wood and let it dry.
Oh were you wondering what I did with the debris, it is in a pile in my backyard. I'll dispose of that later.
Rebuilding:
OK so got all the tile and floor out this took about two days to complete, yeah I took breaks. But anyway, step 1 is complete, demolition. That was the easy part of the shower it just made for stronger muscles and a sore back. Thank God there is a massage pallor up the way from me. :)
Before I start placing Hardie Board on the walls I decided I would protect the studs from any additional water damage in case there was another leak so I used 15lb roofing felt. Others will tell you to use the plastic barrier, but to save on costs and hassle roofing felt is an acceptable barrier to use. It's easy to cut and manageable for just one person to place. I held the roofing felt in place with 1 1/16 staples, not roofing nails.
Notice the valve stems: My gosh these things were long so I decided to replace these with shorter ones. Initially i was going to look at replacing the entire valve system with a single valve design, but decided against it later.
Before I get started with placing up the Hardie Board I decided to take a look at the drain (mentioned above). I sat and contemplated for a minute and decided to try to twist it out using various methods and various tools: Pipe wrench did not do anything but dent the drain, plumbers drain wrench, wrong size and did not work. Chisel, yup chisel mine broke. So I called a friend and he took a look. Its great knowing a licensed plumber/HAVC person. He looked at the drain and realized it was poured lead casting and so the only way to replace the trap would be to bust out the concrete floor. Luckily we did not do that, :-) Using a pen chisel Bennie managed to break off a piece of the drain and then used the hammer to bang the drain out. The original installer cross-threaded the drain which makes it even harder to remove.
Preparing the Pan:
Alright, The drain is out and the concrete floor and studs are dry. The mold has been killed off thanks to the salt and bleach solution I used on the studs. Now it's on to slope the floor of the shower. Now this is the important part. The slope needs to be 1/4 inch slope per foot to the drain. Make sure you get this right or you will be facing drainage trouble. The Slope bed is made from using Quickcrete Sandtopping mix. This has the right mixture for the mortar bed. Now I am placed mine directly on the concrete slab, there was no need to build a floor for thi, however, if you have a wood subfloor make sure you use at least 3/4" plywood and build a backing around the shower wall (at least 6 inches high). Follow the instructions by the manufacturer to get the right consistency ( all you need is water no additives). I poured about a 1/3 of a bucket of topping in the floor of the corner of the shower and then spread this out toward the drain keeping in mind that the walls and corners need to be higher than the drain (use the studs for the depth of the slope making it the highest point then sloping down to the drain). A level is also a good tool to have, you will want the level to have about a 1/4 bubble from the drain up to the wall of the shower. After about 24 hours the slope dried and to make sure i had it right I used a marble. Test each corner and each wall for the correct slope. If the marble rolls to the drain without assistance, your slope is correct. Oh you can also use a AA or AAA battery to test the slope, it may seem a backwoods way of doing the test, but if it rolls to the drain the slope is good.
Slope correct, marble moved = good so far. Now, I went to Lowe's ( I am particular about using Lowe's, but hey that's me) and got a PVC shower pan liner. They have some prepackage usually about 30 x 30 sheet @28.67 before tax. I being all knowing saved a few dollars by having them cut the exact size I needed. Woo who, I saved $4.00. I know what's $4.00? A lot if you don't have it, LOL. Anyway, so i unfold this large sheet and lay it in the shower. Now DO NOT MAKE ANY HOLES or CUTS in the liner. So with this though how to put thie oblong thing Good thing I read up on this before hand and watched countless YouTube videos. I folded the corners in, Dog Eared, and stapled them to the studs. Some will say you should nail them into the studs, but remember NO HOLES so what makes the littlest hole yup a staple. You can only staple at the top of the membrane so do not go lower than 2 inches.
Ok, so back walls and sides are done now, I paused again and was figuring how do I put this over the shower curb when i was told DON'T CUT THE LINER (reminds me of O'Brother Where Art Thou..."Don't seek the treasure), hmmm.... Now you cut the liner, LOL. May seemed obvious to you but to me it was sort of a puzzle I had to figure out. I made sure the cuts were not too deep (long) but enough to fold the membrane over the curb and still have enough of the membrane on the side wall of the shower. Now time to make the hole for the drain. Ok, so you feel where your drain is under the membrane and using a utility knife or razor blade make a few slits in the membrane to reveal the drain. You want to make sure you cut to reveal the weep holes in the drain (mine didn't have any weep holes hoping this still works well). At my many trips to Lowe's I picked up a new drain, the PVC membrane and PVC glue made specifically for shower pan liners (ouch its expensive for the ounce I needed so what did I do? Yup got a small can). After I cut the hole I lifted the edges of the cut around the drain and using a qutip (cottons swab) I dipped the end into the container and placed it under the liner making sure it stuck well to the slope bed I made.
Ok so the can says you are to press and hold for a few minutes it was at this point I felt a painful burning on my index finger. Apparently I sliced my finger a little and the glue found its way into the cut. OUCH!!! Washed the glue out and remembered i had to hold down the membrane till the glue set. So since its not a fast acting glue it takes some time, so I used some dumbbells and placed around the drain to hold down the membrane and I went and played a video game (took about 6 hours to set up, the glue that is not the game).
Time to Build a Pan (what a pain):
Remember the word AMATURE! This was a pain in the butt, I searched and searched asked people at Lowe's and Home Depot they seemed clueless to what I need to build the shower pan. One guy even asked in his country of country voices "why you building a pan...? We have premade ones," duh at the cost of a few hundred. So far I spent 24.00 for liner, 5.00 for glue, and 6.00 for the quickcrete Sandtopping mix = $35.00 not bad huh? Well i finally found out what the mix for the shower pan. It's actually called Deck Mud so if you are searching for the ingredients search for "DECK MUD." It's mixture of Sand and Sandtopping. 50lbs of play sand (really fine crushed sand) and 50lbs of Sand topping (5.00 + 6.00) = 11.00 so far the pan has only cost me 46.00 if my math is right (oh by the way I took College Algebra twice lol). Take that old timer that wanted over $200.00 for a shower pan.
Let me back up one minute. I forgot to mention the shower curb. I used diamond Lathe from Lowe's (8.70 a 8ft sheet , but didn't need but about 2 feet worth). Cut the lathe to fit the size of the curb and using a rubber mallet bang it into the form of the curb working from the inside out. The bend will hold the inside in place until the deck mud is down. DO NOT PUT ANY HOLES in the inside portion of the curb. After I got the bends in the lathe (make sure lathe does not scratch or puncture the inside liner) I used a staple gun and staple the lathe down the outside of the liner to the wood joists. I guess I should mention that underneath the liner and the lathe I put down a piece of roofing felt because I did not want the curb to be damaged any more from any water leaks, so this is just a precaution I took.
DECK MUD the stuff of dreams like when I was kid playing in the mud wishing it was stronger to hold up th the onsult of GI Joe figures and vehicles. Well this is the stuff I needed then and is now. Just pour the 50lbs of sand and sandtopping into a wheel barrel add water and stir til its the consistency of mud. It should hold shape when you form it into a ball, I threw mine up and down a few times to make sure it didn't come apart when i caught it or threw it in the air. So great mix time to pour. Now this is not a fast job it takes some time and some rhythm. I worked from the corners to the front of the shower. To do the shower curb I used a 2x4 as a guide. I hate old homes you find out so much stuff, like the walls are not straight and neither is the curb. YES THIS IMPACTS EVERYTHING UGH...
Building the curb is the long part of the mudding but with some time I finally got the shape of a rectangle. for the curb. Now it's on to putting up the backer board.
Backing up the Backer Board:
This is pretty easy, since I have hung sheet rock and mudded before this should be a piece of cake. I do have one tip do not but the scoring knife or scoring tool for using the Hardie Backer board material Its so not needed and a waste of money. I got this used it one time (thanks Lowe's guy, maybe i need to rethink my store of choice). Scoring with this SUCKS takes way too long, so bright idea.... Where's my skill saw. Yup that's right I used my saw to cut these bad boys up. Oh many places I seen on the net say "nail" in the board WRONG screw the boards in. (Remember the reason I dislike older homes, you the walls are not square) I had to do some sawing and manipulating to fit the forward facing wall board in the shower.. WHO BUILT THIS HOUSE, my gosh.
Well the framing and preparation of the shower is complete and ready for tile. See ya on the tile adventure.
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