Shower Remodel, Weekend 10&11

Has it really been that long?  Well this tile thing is finally getting wrapped up.  I put in some serious hours to get things moving over the last two weekends.  First we finished all the walls and the little step.  This took lots of custom cuts for the corners and bottom which kept Steve busy cutting while I measured and put them up.  I also got the inside edge of the curb.  That took us up through last Saturday.   

I'm reasonably happy with it, but of course I notice every mistake!  Here is the inside wall.

Well I guess I should say we got most of the walls.  I still have this problem corner below.  I want the tile here to meet up with the tile we will put on the wall around the bathtub.  Unfortunately we need to get that planned out better.

So the next step was the floor, and that starts with laying out the tile and installing the drain - with help of course!

One thing you may notice in the picture above is how uneven the floor is where it meets the wall.  This is due to the Quick Pitch tool we used to help set the correct slope of the mortar bed.  What we didn't think about up front is that the longer plastic strips going to the corners make the corners higher than the middle of the wall.  You can either have a constant slope OR a level floor along the walls - not both.  So now the floor and bottom edge of the tiles don't line up.  But I think a nice thick line of caulk will take care of it.  And here we have the completed floor.

I still have to clean up all the excess thinset (the white stuff you see everywhere), finish the problem corner and curb, then grout it all.  So we still have a ways to go, but at least it looks like a shower now!

Shower Remodel, Weekend 6

I'm a little behind on the shower updates.  This picture is from the weekend after TALE - so that would be March 9th or so.  Basically this part consisted of painting on the waterproofing material.  It's really like thick paint so I was able to roll or brush it on.  I also used a reinforcing fabric in the corners along the shower pan to prevent any cracking at the joint.  The other joints all have fiberglass tape in the thinset so they should be fine. 

After everything dries, the goal is to do a flood test.  The flood test consists of plugging the drain and filling the shower pan with some water to make sure it doesn't leak...for 72 hours.  Sounds simple in principle, but I'm out of ideas on how to plug the drain.  One online article recommended using a balloon.  That worked for about 18 hours before it shifted and I lost some water.  A second attempt didn't even get that far.  The other plugs I've tried didn't seal for more than a few minutes so I'm still working on the flood test part.  At least I have a successful 18 hours test!

Shower Remodel, Weekend 5

Weekend 5 is officially over as of tonight!  I plan to spend tomorrow preparing for TALE 10 (Texas Annual Letterboxing Event).  Friday night I was touching up the thinset, and decided I wanted to add a ledge to put my foot when shaving.  Thankfully we had some bricks left over from the sidewalk project long long ago...

And now I have a ledge!

 Here we are preparing to put in the drain.  We filled in the hole around the waste pipe with sand and cut the pipe to the correct height.

Notice the black plastic in the hole - it looks like it was originally made with a flower pot! 

Next we added tar paper on the concrete and installed the drain.  The drain is another Hydro Ban product made by Laticrete.  It's specifically designed to work with their paint on waterproof membrane.  It's much easier to install than conventional drains for this type of shower construction.  The black plastic parts under the drain are Quick Pitch guides which make it easier to fill in the dry pack mud at the right slope.  Basically help angle the slope so water drains rather than puddle on the shower floor.  You are supposed to use them on a nice flat level base, but our slab was far from level around the hole for the pipe.  So instead of putting in another layer, we shimmed them (using some old carving material!) and made sure we had the right slope afterward.  A little hot glue helped hold everything in place - and you won't find that in any advice from the contractors!

And here is the final picture...the mortar bed installed!  You can't see it here but the outer edges of the mortar is slightly higher than the drain.  I owe a big thank you to Steve on this for mixing and hauling all that mortar. You wouldn't think there is over 150 lbs of it in there!

Here is a video that explains the shower construction method we are using and how it gets waterproofed.  I like this method because the seal goes above the mortar and there is less material in the shower that can absorb water.  Conventional shower construction puts the seal below the mortar.  So if the shower is used several times a day there is no way the mortar can dry out. 

Shower Remodel, Weekend 4

This weekend was the most work so far, as we spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday afternoon working.  

 Here we have all the cement hardi-backer up on the walls.  You can't tell from the picture, but the wall niches stick out from the backer board about 1/4 inch.  We smoothed this out by using lots of thinset to make a smooth transition in the depths.  I think the preformed niches weren't worth the cost.  Given the work to support them and then even out the front face, it would have been just as much work to make our own and save the money.

Here you can see all the thinset on the walls.  All the joints and corners have fiberglass mesh tape to prevent cracking and the screw heads are covered.  The dark sections are still wet in the picture and will turn light gray once they dry.  The bricks in the front are the "curb". This is the water barrier for the sides which will have glass on them.  The tile will cover the bricks when it's finished.  The next step is installing the drain and making the shower pan out of dry pack mortar.  All of the hours of watching YouTube videos and reading DIY forums is finally paying off!

Shower Remodel, Weekend 3

Let the construction begin!  Unfortunately it got off to a slow start because it took multiple trips to get all the supplies.  But we finally made some progress.

We installed backer board on the wall with the shower fixtures and installed the preformed niches (the recessed shelves for soap and bottles).  To do this we built frames out of 2x4s, nailed them into the studs, and adhered the niches with adhesive sealant (the white stuff on the right one).  The niches are made of foam and coated with the Hydro Ban waterproof sealer we will use on all the other surfaces once the shower is completed.   We did all this on Saturday (Feb 9).  No progress on Sunday because it was letterboxing day!

Shower Remodel, Weekend 2

Our long term plan is to rebuild the shower with tile, put in a new bathroom floor (possibly slate), and replace the bathtub with a freestanding tub.  So after removing the shower we had to take out the bath tub and all the framing around it.  This took considerably more work than the shower.

Here is the bathtub back when the house was new and everything was all nice and pretty.  Notice the nice metal frame where the shower meets the end of the bath?  This was all corroded because of the bad sealing job. 

At this point we have removed the tub and all the cultured marble around it which exposes the frame supporting everything.  This turned out to be the hard part.  We knew the builder did a great job framing the house, we didn't realize how good until we tried to take it out.

Steve tried to knock it down with a sledge hammer - no luck.  So we got out the Sawsall and started cutting.

Arwen supervised to make sure we were working hard.

 Here is the final picture after the frame is gone.  The bench under the window is actually the exterior wall and the area around the window sticks out if you look at it from outside.  The tile on the wall is from a previous project.  I'm not sure if we will end up keeping it or not.  We will hire a plumber to move the copper pipes once we are ready to put in the new tub. 

Shower Remodel, Weekend 1

For several years, the shower in our master bath has slowly leaked around or under the door.  I could never find the source but it became obvious it had to be torn out to fix it.  The shower is of course connected to the bathtub on one side, so fixing the shower means doing something with the bath as well.  After almost fainting with shock at a professional quote, and spending many hours on DIY forums and youtube, I finally decided to tackle it (and hopefully convinved Steve we can do a decent job of it).  So the first step was the demolition, and we started the first weekend by taking out the shower.

Here we have taken out the glass, cultured marble sides, and some of the backer board so the shower pan can come out.  For me, breaking everything and pulling it out was the most intimidating part...there is no going back!

Here is the mold damage on the studs near the leak.  Fortunately this was very isolated and cosmetic.  The studs are solid and a little bleach took care of the problem.  The bottom of the vanity next to it wasn't so lucky and I'll have to replace some of the wood in the corner.

 And finally we have the shower pan removed and the waste pipe for the drain exposed.  The pipe is stuffed with a rag to prevent junk from falling in.  And of course we have our ever curious helper in the middle of things.
It turns out that the leak came from the frame around the glass door (which I didn't take a picture of!).  The frame wasn't sealed so the vertical channels were filled with some NASTY water.  And on top of that, there was a hole in the caulking under the frame.  The problem wasn't visible until we ripped off the glass and the frame.