Tile Shower Installation - The Key Element

If you could see what makes a tile shower installation work from just looking at the floor of a finished shower then it would be a simple matter. It's about more than shower floor drains and tiles though. Here's why...

Tile and grout are far from waterproof.

To keep the water in a shower takes more than just putting in some tiles.

Somewhere in the shower base there must be something that actaully can stop the water. That can be a tile ready shower pan. In that case the base is watertight at the surface and thus the water that makes it past the tile just gets stopped right at the base. That is a good thing but tile ready shower pans are very costly and often for a custom shower pan installation the more traditional shower pan installation is a better alternative.

For the regular or more traditional method for building a shower pan the water proof layer is installed in the base between two layers of masonry. This set-up is called a pan but it really is not a pan. It's just in most cases a waterproof PVC liner sheet that when installed forms what looks a lot like a pool within the shower base. That is the spot where the water stops and from there if everything is right the water makes it to the drain.

Tile shower installation is much more than just laying tile. Getting the waterproof layer in place is really key to a shower that works properly and lasts for a long time.