Shower base construction costs a pile of money, but in most cases it's actually a rather simple process.
Key parts of the project must be done right or disaster often results.
Look out.
Even many so-called professionals often leave out important steps.
Here are a few steps to watch for as your project goes together.
The base construction is done a layer at a time.
The bottom, or first, major layer consists of a layer of mud, called deck mud, that's sloped to the drain.
Now about that drain...
Tiles shower drains are more than meets the eye.
At least if you're looking at the finished floor and the drain in the floor.
That's only one drain layer.
The equally important layer lies buried in the finished floor.
That lower level is the level toward which the first mortar layer slopes.
Another tricky layer comes next.
That layer, the liner membrane, actually stops whatever water that makes tit through the tile floor.
And water does make it through the tile floor.
That's because grout does not stop water and neither do certain kinds of tile.
That means to get a waterproof shower floor, you build a layer in the floor to catch that water.
That's the place of the liner membrane, which is just a sheet of special vinyl material.
Leave out the liner, which installers have been known to do, and you get a ruined bathroom floor as well as whatever room is adjacent to the shower.
After the liner layer it gets simpler.
Over the liner goes another layer of deck mud to build a layer to function as the base for the ceramic tile, with it's adhesive and grout.
Then the tile goes on and is positioned to match the level of the top drain layer.
That's the way you see the floor as you stand upon it.
You can see that shower base construction is mysterious because key parts are buried.
The buried parts are crucial to a waterproof shower that works for decades.