Shower Flooring

[CitadelBlue]

I want to redo my master bathroom to include cermic tile on the walls, floor and the shower. I been glued to the DIY network as I am currently doing a tile backsplash in the kitchen for my daughter. The DIY forks as well as Mike Holms (Holms on Homes) all seem to have various methods of installing tile. I guess I have 2 questions .... What are the steps and what products do you use to install ceramic tile on the floor .......
DO you use Wonderboard, backer board, cement board, Duroc and how thick 1/4 or 1/2 inch?

For the shower floor
Do you use felt paper, portland cement mix, membrane, thinset, and then the tile ...

Anyone use the Schluter products

This morning DIY showed a product that looked like a fiberglass pan - it had the slope to the drain and once installed you could install tile right on the pan ....

So what do you recommend? .....

 

[t. jones]

My shower floor is broomed concrete. Thanx Trevor

 

[tweezer]

i have been looking into this too. those shower floors are pricey but it looks to be the easiest way to do the floor.

 

[TONE]

Have you seen the river rock flooring?

I stayed at a hotel recently that had it. Soooo comfy on your feet.

My next shower will have it for sure.

 

[bimmer1980]

there was an article in Fine homebuilding that showed how to do a tile floor in a bathroom and a shower. CHeck out your library for the older copies or check it out online. it's tough getting the articles online unless you are willing to pay their online subscription fee.....

 

[weicm3]

when we remodeled our house a couple years back, the original contractor did a hot-mopping floor under the tile floor in shower. it failed in about 3 years. not sure if it was cracked or the waterproof on the edge wasn't done well. the other contractor we hired to redo it used a product called wedi board. you can check their website at http://us.wedi.de/

it's made in germany and looks pretty good product. my contractor vouched for it. we used it in whole shower including the wall not only floor. contractor told us the wonder board and hardi-backer(cement board) for the shower wall will eventually leak.

there is also a similar product that made in US but I forgot the name. I found that when I searched and compared if wedi board is really what we need. I even talked to the director at wedi (guy called Bastian. he frequently visited some online diy forums as well per what he said) to get some more info.

there are some other old fashion ways to do it such as using the vinyl plus mortar but I prefer "new/modern" technology.

EDIT: just did a search. the similar product that I mentioned called kerdi.

 

[6t7gto]

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php?

 

[CitadelBlue]

Have you seen the river rock flooring?

I stayed at a hotel recently that had it. Soooo comfy on your feet.

My next shower will have it for sure.

I'm planning on something similar only the stone will be smooth ....

Any thoughts on what to install under the stone?

 

[CitadelBlue]

Humm .. nothing like a ka zillion ways to do something .......

 

[Ryan M]

For the shower pan floor, I would recommend the schluter systems.

http://www.schluter.com/8_4_kerdi_shower_kit.aspx

It takes a lot of the guess work out the install. I am in the retail side of the tile business and we see alot of failures with improper shower pan installs.

For the main floor, if you have 5/8 or 3/4" subfloor, use either 1/2 Durock, 1/4" Hardi-backer or Schluter Ditra.

Good luck.

 

[Rudyjr]

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php?

+1 Great site with a ton of good information from professional tile guys. I too have seen and torn out quite a few "bad" tile showers over the years that were not properly installed.

 

[Costner]

I'll tell you from experience that you will want to use the Schluter system. Not only is the base pre-sloped, but the kerdi membrane is 100% waterproof. Your shower will last the lifetime of the home and the cost is much less than a copper pan and takes way less time and effort than a mud bed.

The kit includes the kerdi membrane, the pre-sloped shower tray, the shower curb, and the drain itself (they offer it in a variety of finishes). It also comes with a roll of kerdi band and preformed kerdi corners.

I can't say enough good things about Schluter products. I also used ditra under all of my floor tile and never had a single problem. Well worth the cost.

I should note that I used concrete backer board (Durock) for the walls of my shower. They say you can install the kerdi directly over drywall, but for the price difference I didn't see any reason to cheap out so I did it the right way the first time.

 

[CitadelBlue]

I'll tell you from experience that you will want to use the Schluter system. Not only is the base pre-sloped, but the kerdi membrane is 100% waterproof. Your shower will last the lifetime of the home and the cost is much less than a copper pan and takes way less time and effort than a mud bed.

The kit includes the kerdi membrane, the pre-sloped shower tray, the shower curb, and the drain itself (they offer it in a variety of finishes). It also comes with a roll of kerdi band and preformed kerdi corners.

I can't say enough good things about Schluter products. I also used ditra under all of my floor tile and never had a single problem. Well worth the cost.

I should note that I used concrete backer board (Durock) for the walls of my shower. They say you can install the kerdi directly over drywall, but for the price difference I didn't see any reason to cheap out so I did it the right way the first time.

Thanks for the good stuff here ,,,

 

[thammel]

I can tell you what worked for me - all I have left to do on my new 200 ft^2 mud room is the grout.

I put down 13" square porcelain tile spaced 1/4" apart. This is a new room and has 3/4" OSB subfloor over joists spaced on 16" centers. The hardest part of the job was putting down 1/4" thick hardieboard. I thinset it and also screwed it down every 8". This was a LOT of screwing (and not the fun kind..). I have a screwgun which helped a lot. Cutting the board is a bit of a pain. Once this was down then I thinset and taped all the joints. That was easy. Putting the tile down was not hard, but cutting all the edge tiles took time. I borrowed a friend's wet tile saw. The scorers/breakers don't work well with floor tile. I also spent a lot of time dry-laying the floor tile down before actually thinsetting to be sure the layout would work well . It looks great and feels really solid, but be prepared to spend a lot of time.

Tom

 

[gesoffen]

I'm in the middle of the final of four bathroom remodels - this one is the master bath.

I'll give you two pointers:
1) Use schluter systems - I never knew of them before I started all the remodels, now I swear by them.
2) As mentioned, check out the john bridge tile your world web site/forums. Read until your overloaded, process, than read again - repeat.

Unless you want to repeat this remodel again in a few years, do NOT cut any corners. A lot depends on your subfloor structure so before you begin check the construction of your joists and subfloor material/thickness. If they aren't stiff enough, you're remodel won't last long.

Also, for the main flooring area on a wood subfloor, you WILL need a decoupling membrane - other wise, tile and grout will crack. Schluter's DITRA is recommended

For the shower area, I've used mud pans (portland cement/deck mud) with Kerdi membrane and drain due to the odd sizes. I would like to have tried the shower systems by schluter but none would fit my pans. The mud pans are not too difficult though - I just did another this past weekend!