The tile shower pan built the traditional way is built from the bottom up in layers. The heart of the pan is the vinyl membrane that really stops any water that makes it past the shower floor. You do realize that shower floors naturally leak??? The pan is built to catch that water. After the liner membrane is in place, a second layer of mortar goes over the liner and it’s the base for the tile. Here’s how it goes on.

The second mortar layer of the pan is constructed of what’s called deck mud. It’s a simple mix of portland cement, sand and water. That’s all. It’s put on and then formed using a flat trowel and pieces of boards. The mortar is sloped at about 1/4 inch per foot to make sure the water moves right to the drain. (more…)

The tile shower drain is tricky and much of the tricky part is buried in the shower pan. You see the whole shower pan is designed to route all the water to the drain. All the water includes the part that leaks right through the floor. That happens because tile floors are never waterproof. Some water ends up passing right through the floor.

The drain includes holes that are on two layers. The top layer you can easily see. The lower layer is down in the floor. (more…)

On a recent Oprah Show, Dr. Oz said, “The best thing you can do for your hair costs less than 9 cents a day. Get a charcoal filter and put it in your shower head.”

However, I would like to add that when you shop for a shower head water filter, be sure that it also protects you from cancer causing chlorination byproducts, commonly called THMs. Most of the showerhead filters on the market reduce chlorine, but only a couple of them reduce the disinfection byproducts. (more…)

Remodeling a bathroom can be an extensive and time consuming project and requires a workable bathroom remodeling plan in order to achieve what you want done at a reasonable cost and within a convenient time frame. Creating a good plan can save you both time and money once you put in motion the bathroom remodeling plan that works best for you.

Creating the Bathroom Remodeling Plan

One of the first steps in creating the plan is to decide what needs to be done to remodel, repair and upgrade the existing bathroom. Next, determine what items will be needed in terms of new fixtures and materials. Do any measuring that will be required such as the total area of wall space that will be covered if you plan to apply wall paper. If existing wall paper is to be removed, be sure to include the cost and time required for removal of the existing wall covering. (more…)

So it’s that time of the year again, the nights are getting darker, and the weather has turned cold and miserable.

As it’s getting colder and colder it’s just your luck that your boiler starts playing up and finally stops working completely.

You call your local plumber out to try and fix the old beast, but after he tinkers under her case you both decide that it is time for a completely new unit. (more…)