Redoing the shower at my parents house

[Rick the Home Inspector]

Paper side on insulation should always not be visible. You should have it facing the attic space. Paper will retain moisture over time and lead to a mold problem.

You flex electrical cables should be secured every 4 ft. also.

I always recommend hardie backer board on shower walls and never greenrock.

Good Luck,
rick

[jw33]

It's a Kerdi shower. You can put it on right over regular sheetrock no worries...

[8mpg]

More pics... didnt do much today. Got the drywall mostly done yesterday, just finished up the niche today...drywall work sucks

What we did yesterday


shower valve cutout...I was proud of myself... the cut was pretty good


Did the niche drywall today after some school junk





And the drain came in today


Tomorrow the Kerdi goes up after I get out of school, and the tiling begins Friday. Finally I can get some CORRECT measurements for the glass. That shit is expensive.

[fordracing19]

Isnt the valve awfully low?

[8mpg]

Isnt the valve awfully low?

Meh... it is a bit, but I didnt want to move it from where it was. Its about 36" off the ground

[8mpg]

Got very little done yesterday...just didnt have time to put in. And most of the time I did put in was a waste of time...

One step forward...two steps back

Got the curb put in and its the only good work. Started hanging the Kerdi and found that the thinset wasnt wet enough. Most people say it needs to be the consistency of yogurt or mayonnaise. I guess my perception of yogurt and mayonnaise is not the same as others.

Pics from yesterdays work...



A pro from JohnBridge forums showed me the bad areas....lol... the whole thing I have to say, Im very thankful Paul was there to critique.

[8mpg]

So, this morning I ripped the Kerdi down and was lucky I could reuse it. So it came down, sanded the walls a bit to make it nice and smooth, and redid the thinset and stuck it back on the walls

Taking a bit of a break and will finish all the Kerdi today. Though I mixed it thinner today, I still need to mix it even thinner. This consistency is should be more like cottage cheese...without the lumps. A bit watery.
After looking at it in the pictures, I can see the back wall didnt get great coverage on the right side so I went back and pressed on it some more. It looks better now...will try and get a picture later. Also, the drywall joints on the right side wall look better after a little pressing. For some reason I can see it better in the photos than I can in the actual room.





Another member posted a picture of the consistency and how the saturation should be...very helpful pic...just not yogurt-ish in my mind

[Doug Hatton]

So I'm guessing you can tell based on the color bleed through of the thinset? I can kinda see it based on the different pictures.

[8mpg]

Doug...thats correct. Look at the niche part. Orange as can be because there is no contact with the thinset. The rest is dark with contact. They also suggest pulling a corner to check the contact. I didnt take a picture on the 2nd day, but it was will saturated. It also helped big time using a 6" drywall to press it in. You ahve to push a little harder than you'd think.

Anyways...mas:

Got a decent amount of work done today... I have learned inside and outside corners are not fun. The niche requires a bunch of them.

Anyways, got the Kerdi finished up... I used a FULL 108sq ft and a 54sq ft...I was actually worried I wouldnt have enough. Almost forgot about the floor.





Got the tile started. There are some seams that Im not proud of, but I have learned how far out of square everything really is. I completely forgot the good ole flip the tile and mark the backside...but that would have been hard anyways with 16" travertine tiles. Almost forgot about the glass. I had to pull the trim tile near the door to leave a gap for the 1/2" glass. Off to the tile store tomorrow to pick up one more for the left side near the mirror. Need a 2" or so piece that will be on the other side of the glass, and a small filler in the middle of the back wall.





Tomorrow we tile the header and ceiling. Hopefully put in the deck mud as well.

[fordracing19]

Looks good Tim. I bought tile for a back splash yesterday but not sure if I want to borrow a saw and try to do it myself or just pay someone.

[8mpg]

More pics:
I thought today was going to be easy..WRONG. It was a beating.

Morning progress:




Ran out of thinset about 2/3 into the ceiling

[8mpg]

Well... for the people asking about doing a mud pan.. Here is a basic tutorial. Again, please note this is for a KERDI based shower and a Kerdi drain. Not a typical preslope/liner/mud base. In my opinion and the opinion of many of the pro's on JohnBridge forum...this is WAY superior. The drain is far superior over a normal clamping drain, but also costs 10x the price.

First thing to do is calculate how much slope is needed and draw a line. The max distance for the shower was 28" from the center of the drain to the furthest wall. You need MINIMUM 1/4" rise per foot of distance. So 28" requires just over 1/2" of rise. The starting height at the drain needs to be a minimum of 1" thick. So, I need minimum of 1 5/8" at the wall. Call me paranoid but Id rather have more than enough slope, so I bumped it to 3/4" rise over 28". I figured the height at the drain would fall between 1" to 1 1/4" when the drain is set on the mud bed. So 1 1/4"+3/4" gave me a 2" mark along the edge. Pencil it in all teh way around. No pics of that...

Now deck mud is made of portland cement and sand. Make sure you dont get masonry cement, it has lime in it and its not what you want. The ratio is 1:5 cement to sand. I ended up making 2 batches of deck mud. Each was 120lbs of sand which was just under 2 x 5gal buckets. Then I mixed in 1/2 a bucket of cement. Since the sand was probably 8-9 gallons, this made close enough of a mix.

Raked it really well to mix it thoroughly when it was dry.


Start mixing in water until you get a good snowball consistency. Just wet enough to compact but can still crumble. Your hands should be relatively dry when you let go of it.




You need to mix up some thinset to bond the deck mud to the cement slab. It should be a slurry... runny enough to pour out of the bucket...pancake batter consistency. I poured it around the entire perimeter and troweled it out about 5" from the wall.




Dump your deck mud around the perimeter and use a large flat trowel and compact it down to the line you drew on the wall. You want it level as you can get...wont be perfect. I mixed up some deck mud pretty loose with some water. and slapped it around the drain, then set the drain in. It measured to about 1 1/8" thick at the drain flange. Level the drain as best as possible.

Left to right


Front to back


I did 1/2 at a time. Slurry the part you are going to mud next, then dump your mud in

[8mpg]

When you put the mud in...make sure you compact it will with the trowel. You want a nice solid base..Tamp it down really well. Then its just screeding, tamping, and smoothing. You need at least a 1/4 bubble pitch. This is what I ended up with

[8mpg]

Just about done...I have to wait for the glass to finish up the couple of trim tiles. The rest of the tile is up...floor is down, grouted...fixtures in. Better pics tomorrow. The lights make it look much more yellow than it is.

Today was a great day.

From Saturday:





Finishing it up... Just needs some silicone and caulk.

[Lason]

Why is the shower valve so low??!! Looks to be below sink height.

Looks great though. Awesome work!