Building a Custom Ceramic Tile Shower

Shower pan is the most important component of a ceramic tile shower stall. The shower pan directs water to the drain, thus preventing leakage from the shower. That makes it imperative to have proper and perfect installation of shower pan for it to remain waterproof and durable.

The shower pan is nothing but a mortar bed that comprises of a flexible shower pan liner squeezed between two layers of mortar. The walls of shower stall are prepared using 2×4 studding and covered with some kind of backer board underlayment on to which are fixed ceramic tiles.

The installation of a shower pan isn’t difficult. First you spread a layer of mortar. The mortar should be sloped properly to facilitate water to flow towards the drain. On top of this sloped bed of mortar the flexible plastic shower pan membrane member is installed.

Make sure to cut the shower pan membrane liner to size and hand mold it into the shower base. While cutting the pan, make it in such a way that the extra material around the pan suffices it to be secured with nails and studs. Another important tip is to complete the installation of shower pan before installing the backer board to the walls of the shower.

After you have ensured the membrane of shower pan is locked, the second layer of mortar needs to be applied, once again be careful to maintain the slope of the mortar towards the drain. After the shower pan mortar bed has settled down, you can go ahead with the fixing of the backer board to the walls and proceed with the installation of ceramic tiles.

Start the installation of tiles from around the middle of the shower pan, gradually moving away from it. While going with the installation of ceramic tiles on the walls, a plumb line is used to run straight lines along the length of the walls. Keeping the plumb line at the ceiling and centered on a wall, draw the line. That enables you to have a vertical line going along the length of the wall.

Now you can fix your tiles away from the line towards the edges of the wall. Continue the same way for rest of the walls.

For cutting of tiles a wet saw is most suited, for it allows you to get very accurate cuts, thus minimizing wastage of ceramic tiles.

The ceramic tiles take about 24-48 hours to set up, and you can apply grout to tiles only after they have set in. And, at the end of it all, you naturally would prefer to apply a sealer to prevent moisture from seeping thru the grout lines.