Ron's Master Bath remodel

[TRK333]

Hello everyone, my name is Ron and I'm in the process of gutting my 33 year old master bath, and replacing the bathtub with a Kerdi shower with a tiled rectangle bench in the back and a mud floor. I've been reading this forum for over a year now trying to learn everything I can, and I truly appreciate the service you all are providing! I have already purchased and read John's tile setting and Kerdi books. Great stuff!

Right now I'm at the stage of rough plumbing. I have just completed reworking the drain from a bathtub to a shower. And this is where I have my first question:

My plumbing from the old tub is 1.5" to the stack. I know that this is against code for a shower, but re-plumbing to 2" would require tearing out parts of the kitchen below, which is just not something I feel is worth doing. I will compensate by making a higher curb and being sure to keep the drain clean.

So to accomodate for the Kerdi drain I put a 2"-1.5" transition piece on the trap, and installed a 1" tall riser for the Kerdi drain to attach to, which caused the top of the riser to be only 1" below the subfloor. My joists are 2x6, so this was pretty much unavoidable (just squeeked by on the deflecto, BTW)

I read the article in the Liberry about how high the riser SHOULD be, and by my calculations I will need to have a mud bed of 1-3/4 to 2" at the drain. Is this acceptable, or is having a mud floor this thick a bad thing (other than having to mix more mud, of course)? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Mike2]

Ron, I don't see 1-3/4" thickness at the drain being a problem. You could always add another layer of 1/2" ply in there and possibly eliminate 100 lbs. of mud or so, depending upon shower floor size of course.

[TRK333]

It's been a while since I posted, but your idea was great and I have used it! I'm at the point right now where I'm trying to calculate how much cement and sand I need for the mud floor. The problem that I am having is that the subfloor is slanted, dropping almost 3/4" along the length of the shower floor. The floor will be 28x48 approximately, with the depth at the centered drain about 1 1/4 inches. I made a level line on the walls so that the depth at the high end is about 1 3/4" and almost 2 1/2" at the low end. To be safe, I put 2 1/2" as the height of the floor at the wall into the mud calculator, yielding a volume of 1.5 cuft, or 117 lbs of topping sand plus 58 lbs sand. This seems low to me, but I've never done this before. Does it sound about right?

[Mike2]

Those are the same numbers I get.

Almost hate to say this Ron but.....24 inches isn't very wide. Minimum allowable by code is 30 inches. How come so narrow?

[TRK333]

Thanks for the reassurance on the mud calcs!

Ya, I'm not super happy about the width either. The room itself is extremely narrow (only as wide as the entry door) and the shower had to fit into the bathtub's footprint, which was recessed only about 2". Add to this, the left side of the window lines up with the outside edge of the bathtub opening! We have a somewhat limited budget (that's already $1000 over! ) so instead of enclosing the entire shower with glass, only the door will be glass with either end enclosed by a standard 2x4 wall. The actual width from tile to tile will be 26", but the glass door will be centered in the opening, and the width from tile to glass will be about 29". So the shower footprint will still be larger than the tub, with about the same "wiggle room". We plan on living here the rest of our lives so the code issue shouldn't present a problem... at least I hope!!

Thanks again for your help!

[TRK333]

This morning I grouted the top half of my shower with Mapei sanded grout, and the directions recommend that you don't "flood" the grout with water for 21 days after application. I'm going to be using this same grout for the shower floor, is it really necessary to wait three weeks to use my new shower?

[TRK333]

Here are some pitchers of my progress:

Before shot of tile:



Today after grouting upper half, but before final cleanup:



Mud floor put in this afternoon:

[TRK333]

I still can't find any consistant info about the required grout cure time for a shower. Some say 24-48 hours, other say a few weeks. Any pointers are appreciated!

[bbcamp]

Did you look on the bag?

[TRK333]

Thanks for the reply. The bag of the Mapei Keracolor indicated that the grout shouldn't be flooded for 21 days. I'm wondering if such a long wait is really necessary, or if there are any other good brands that don't require such a long wait?

[TRK333]

One last bump, I hope to grout in the morning. TIA!

[jay f]

For shower floors, I like to use Spectralock, an easy to use epoxy grout from Laticrete. I believe the set time is two days.

[TRK333]

You have saved me a lot of grief...thanks!!!