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Shower Base Pan -- First of 4 Options



Shower base pan installation becomes necessary because without a pan ceramic tile shower floors leak. Neither the grout not in many cases the tile will hold water. That means the water and vapor pass through the floor and the walls too, by the way. At least 4 options exist to stop the water.

Option 1 -- Traditional Shower Base Pan

For many years the main method used to build a shower base pan has been mortar construction. Usually left to pros, the procedures to pull this off are a little bit mysterious. That's mainly because there is so much of the critical parts that get buried in the floor. That and the fact that installers differ on how to do some parts.


But in general here's what happens.


A sturdy sub-floor gets put down, equivalent to about 1 1/2 inches of plywood. That's necessary to prevent movement of the base to prevent cracking of the finished tile.


Then down goes a layer of mortar that is sloped to provide movement of the water to the drain. A special drain goes in that has drain holes on two levels. That's critical to make this work.


Over the first mortar layer goes a vinyl sheet called a tile shower liner membrane. This sheet actually catches any water that makes it through the floor. Critical to functioning of the shower, the liner must be carefully sealed to the tile drain base and carefully sealed at the corners and over and around the curb, which is also built up from scratch.


Once the liner is in place, a layer of mortar goes over the liner following the same basic slope as the first layer. Another trick is how you cover the liner membrane with mortar and still leave the covered drain holes open. Otherwise the liner caught water has no way to get away.


After the second mortar layer is set, the shower pan is complete and ready for laying the shower floor tiles.


Advantages of this construction are as follows:

  1. Installation is relatively inexpensive compared to other methods.
  2. Works well for many years.
  3. Easy to build custom size showers.

Disadvantages include:

  1. High skill level for handling mortar successfully.
  2. Hard to understand.
  3. Tricky to get liner membrane sealed perfectly.
  4. Water still pools in mortar between surface of floor and liner.
  5. Delays in installation for layers to cure.

Because of these disadvantages other shower base pan options offer alternatives...


Read on for more choices...



Shower Base Pan | Tile Ready Pan | Schluter Kerdi | Other Shower Bases