[Greenbuilding] DIY sloped tiled shower floor, simple version?

[John Salmen]

A curbless shower is pretty nice for accessibility – chairs, walkers and some peoples feet just don’t go over curbs or they trip which is more common than you think with pretty bad results for aging. Much more common probably than clogged shower drain as that is pretty apparent as your showering. The chance of a drain clogging while you are away having accidently left the shower running….

 

Flow rates are now mandated at 2.5 gpm for shower heads so the drain and slope and area have to accommodate that at a minimum – 1 ½” pipe will handle up to 6 (approx) and 2” up to 12 gpm (roughly). I think that is a code allowance accommodating bad plumbing and typically flows are much higher.

 

For inspection purposes though the assembly has to be waterproof and this is generally tested by blocking off the opening of the shower – sealing the drain and flooding to some set curb height and water level monitored. What destroys showers, floors, walls, over time is (like roofs) one small incipient then continuous leak (usually in a corner).

 

John

 

 

From: Greenbuilding [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Reuben Deumling
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2017 4:01 PM
To: ArchiLogic at chaffyahoo.ca
Cc: Greenbuilding
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] DIY sloped tiled shower floor, simple version?

 

I'm coming around to the curb idea. I thought I'd learned here in response to a previous question that a curb was unnecessary, but with a plugged drain scenario, yeah... 

EPDM pan sounds good to me. Would you slope the floor beneath the EPDM? Is this a matter of sourcing some of it and carefully folding the corners? 
Mortar - I can work with that. 

 

On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 3:33 PM, RT <ArchiLogic at yahoo.ca> wrote:

Reuben;

Can't see any sketch and I don't know what you've seen on-line but IMO, plopping down some mortar on top of an EPDM pan is a lot easier and quicker nd ultimately less costly in terms of time and materials  than futzing with wood and cement board to make a sloped shower floor tile base.

 

re: No curb

 

Let's say the shower drain gets plugged with hair (or worse) and someone has turned on the shower and let it run unattended (or similar) and a few gallons of water have not found their way down the drain.  Could easily happen.

 

How does the "no curb" design handle such a scenario ?  Is there a gutter somewhere else that leads to a drain ?

 

 

 

On Sun, 30 Jul 2017 15:23:23 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com> wrote:

 

Is there any reason I can't cut a bunch of shallow wedges laid in a radial pattern that feather toward the drain, nail cement board on top, tape the seams and lay down the tile? 

This seems a lot simpler than some of the instructions I find online. My sketch above doesn't include any membrane or treatment of the seams where this sloped floor meets walls. The shower in question is in the corner of a small upstairs bathroom. The walls will be tiled and I would like/think I can get away with avoiding a step/lip where the sloped floor meets the rest of the bathroom floor

 

All thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

Reuben





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=== * ===
Rob Tom T6015O
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

< A r c h i L o g i c at Y a h o o dot C a >

(manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "Reply")

 

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