Tile shower pans built the traditional way with mortar work well and will for years. The key to a waterproof shower is getting the waterproof membrane installed properly. For a problem free shower, the liner membrane must be right. One key to the membrane working is the first mortar layer.

Some installers only use one layer of mortar when building showers. The best way though is to use two layers of mortar. Here’s why.

The real trick to a tile shower is the waterproof liner membrane that’s installed in the mortar shower base. Now you can put down the membrane on the subfloor, attach it to the drain and then lay on the mortar base for the tile. Here’s the problem… (more…)

The shower pan liner membrane is usually a vinyl sheet that’s installed in the mortar base of the shower. All kinds of liners have been tried in the past, including liners of steel, iron, copper, lead and even tar. None of these materials were completely satisfactory. The currently used liner sheets seem to be the best solution yet.

Don’t even think about building a masonry tile shower without a liner membrane. Why not? Well, you see, a shower floor is not waterproof. Water seeps right into the grout of the floor and then down into the shower base. The only thing that keeps the shower leak-proof is the liner layer. It’s made to catch all the water that seeps into the floor and route it to special drain holes built into the floor. (more…)

After the shower pan membrane is in place, then the wall boards go on the walls. That’s the right order… the liner membrane and only then the wall boards. The best practice for building shower walls is using cement board. Here’s how you do it…

The liner membrane is installed right over a sloped mortar layer and then sealed to the base of the tile shower drain. Then the liner is run right up the wall against the studs. That gives you a waterproof liner that’s up the walls several inches above the height of the curb. Only after the liner is in place do you install the boars for the wall. (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…)