8 years later - Now we have a big mess

[steventhomas42]

Originally Posted by jadnashua

Especially over a wooden subfloor, the preslope needs some thickness as it tapers to the drain...1" at the outside edge may not be enough to provide enough strength by the drain. At 1/4" per foot, what will you have at the drain? Might be okay, but best to check.

Nice catch. Reading is fundamental. I would have been within tolerance on the distances to the walls, but not to the corners (as cx clearly told me earlier).

We remeasured and went to 1-1/2" for our outer edges. We mixed the Portland cement and the sand mix to the 5:1 ratio that johnbridge suggests and added water until we could do the "snowball" test. Everyone who says that it seems "too dry" is not kidding. It passed the snowball and crumble test, and I really wanted to add more water, but I resisted the urge.

So here are the pictures of the preslope. I have closed off the bathroom and we are going to leave it alone until tomorrow evening when I plan to do the liner.

We're one day behind the re-established timetable because we didn't get the pre-slope done last night (it was getting too cold outside by the time the RedGuard dried to mix concrete). It's just as well because I forgot to pick up the PVC cement to attach the shower dam corner to the liner yesterday.

So, I'm not putting a fan on the cement... I'm letting it dry au naturale, correct?

[jadnashua]

Cement technically cures, not dries...using a fan could affect the overall strength. When cement cures, it chemically incorporates the water into its crystaline structure so removing some by evaporation deprives it and you may get a weaker structure.

In short - NO fans! In a super dry environment, some plastic over the top helps it retain the moisture it needs and maximizes the strength, but often isn't needed.

[steventhomas42]

Gotcha

It's cool and dry here today (37% humidity), but I think we'll be fine.

I must say I like the way it looks so far.

[steventhomas42]

I'll be stopping by Lowe's on the way home this evening to purchase the Oatey X-15 Cement to bond the shower dam corners to the liner.

Also, I noticed in this article linked from the liberry that Harry Dunbar applies a sealant between the liner and the bottom flange. What sealant is recommended for this task?

[dhagin]

100% silicone.

[Ceci]

Make sure not to clog your weep holes with silicone since after one applies the silicone, one puts the reversable clamping ring part of the drain on(weep holes there) and sometimes the silicone likes to spread out bit too much once the clamping ring is tightened up if one puts on a bit too much silicone. Just saying. Oh yeah, before you do the top mud bed, don't forget to put some pea gravel on top of those weep holes and the surrounding area so then they won't get clogged up with your deck mud. Just saying, again. I almost forgot the pea gravel on mine.

http://www.oatey.com/shower_drains/l...an%20Liner.pdf

Ceci

[steventhomas42]

OK, the kids' ball schedules and our family's music practices finally let up a bit, so I have gotten the PVC liner and the clamping drain assembly installed.

Apologies for the iPod quality pictures, but you can see the progress.

The 40 ml liner is a bear to work with in cool weather. I can definitely see where it would be an advantage to be able to lay it out in the sun to make it a bit more pliable. I tried laying it on our bed on top of the electric blanket, but that had little impact. The pictures don't show it, but if I apply a little pressure on the edges, the liner smoothes out nicely.

I had to go buy some silicone tonight because the two tubes of silicone caulk I had here at the house had hardened in the tubes. Once I picked it up, I applied a good thick bead of silicone onto the lower drain assembly, added the top clamping assembly and then tightened down (I wasn't sure it would matter, but I figured to spread the silicone out evenly, I used a 1, 3, 2, 4 rotation like on a four lug wheel).

One question I have is about my lath for the curb. Our curb is about 48" wide, and the piece of lath I have left over from under the preslope is only 40" X 27". Is it OK to use two pieces of lath lengthwise to make the curb, or should I wait and go buy another piece?

I have pea gravel (or something similar) ready for the job. Hopefully we'll get on the mud again in a day or two. If I understand correctly, the mud will be the same "deck mud" 5:1 mixture of portland and sand as we used for the preslope, but the curb will be built with masonry mix instead, correct?

Thanks!

[Houston Remodeler]

Were you fixin to add curb corners?

[steventhomas42]

Originally Posted by CabotandRowe.com

Were you fixin to add curb corners?

Yes. In fact I already have the Oatey ones, but I have managed to drive past the home improvement stores a half dozen times and forgotten to pick up the Oatey X-15 adhesive.

That's on my list to pick up tomorrow afternoon.

[Houston Remodeler]

Good going. Had me worried there for a moment.

[Ceci]

Steve, the important thing is getting it right, not how fast it's done so it's ok if one forgets to pick up something and has to return over and over. I was such a regular at Lowes during the first few weeks of my project, I became buddybuddy with some of the workers there. Finally figured out that the best parking is by the entrance that the contractors mostly go through and the shortest cash register lines there too.

Ceci

[steventhomas42]

Bumping for this question. I just want to make sure I'm on the right path before we do this.

Originally Posted by steventhomas42

If I understand correctly, the mud will be the same "deck mud" 5:1 mixture of portland and sand as we used for the preslope, but the curb will be built with masonry mix instead, correct?

[bbcamp]

Right! Deck mud (4:1 sand to Portland cement) for the preslope and setting bed; Fat mud (brick mortar or mason's mortar (sand, cement, lime)) for the curb.

[steventhomas42]

Got the curb corner pieces installed (MAN, that stuff stinks!). Shaped and installed the lath to wrap the curb. Installed the CBU for the bottom foot of the walls that we removed prior to post #40.

Next, we have to apply Redguard to the backerboard. In addition to the 4 tiles that separated from the wall as we were cutting and removing the old CBU, I discovered a couple of the remaining tiles on that row are loose but hanging on, so I will be removing those prior to grinding off the thinset. I am thinking about picking up a Harbor Freight Multimax-knockoff and a Carbide Rasp to do the grinding.

We plan to do the deck mud tomorrow evening. I'm going on JB's statements in other areas that the lath is not commonly used in the mud layer anymore.

Looks like progress again.

[Handy?]

Nice job man looks good!

BBcamp, I did my bed today 5:1 as per John's articlehttp://www.johnbridge.com/how-to/deck-mud/. I understand there is some user preference. Is 4:1 your preference? Is that better?