cold joint at floor-to-curb connection

[Kaz]

hello - I have been reading through the library. A lot to learn. I recently bought an old house with a bathroom on a concrete slab. The shower has a brass drain that is embedded in the concrete.
The walls are some sort of flimsy formica that are caulked in at the floor connection. When I recently started to re-caulk that seam I was surprised to see that there was no curb behind the walls! With the mudded-in drain I cannot raise a new floor and curb over the existing floor. However, the shower enclosure is fairly large and I have been wondering about furring in (yes I'm a carpenter) the walls over a new curb that I would build along the three non-door walls. I was thinking about 4" thick, set up on a bed of thinset?
I am not sure about this solution. Any thoughts? thank you much. - Ken

[Davy]

Hi Ken, welcome. I'm not sure I follow you. There are no curbs in the walls of a normal shower, only at the door. You might check out the "shower construction info" thread in the liberry.

[cx]

Welcome, Ken.

I'm with Davy. I sometimes play a carpenter on TV, but I got no idea what you're describing there, either.

[Gordon Kaske]

What Ken is saying is right now the existing shower surround is framed walls that the formica board covers. The only thing that keeps water out from behind the formica at the floor wall plane is caulk with the floor being concrete.


I think Ken is thinking that there should be a curb of some sort that the formica goes over so there is no chance of water going in behind the formica into the wall cavity.




So He needs the pros to direct him in the proper way to do a shower on a concrete floor with a drain, and all walls framed in to the floor.




Am I close Ken?

[Kaz]

hello Gordy and everyone else - (sorry if my intention didn't come out clear enough)
Thank you all for your time. Yes, Gordy, that's what I was trying to say. The interior walls have no curb, just formica glued to 3/4" plywood and caulked at the bottom. So, it being a large shower enclosure, I have been wondering if I could just construct curbbing dams on the three interior walls (the egress wall/doorway does have an existing curb) and furr out the wall studs and plumbing manifold to rise over the new curbs? This would mean cold joints at the interior wall-to-floor seams.

I have also finally found the redguard and hyrdoban paint-on system links. Perhaps my best bet would be to chip out the existing 1" mosaic tiles around the base perimeter for 6 inches and apply one of these systems rather than attempting to construct heavy duty curbs around this puppy.

This shower is from the early 1980s and has a brass drain set in concrete.

All thought welcome.
thanks again - Ken

[Gordon Kaske]

What you need to do is try to see if you can use a pvc liner with a preslope under it, and a mud bed for tile. The pvc liner goes up the studs 12" all the way around this is your (curb) around the walls to prevent water at the floor wall plane from entering the cavity. Then you only either notch studs 3/16 to allow for liner thickness, or fir studs out 3/16" down to the liner. Question being adapting the drain for this type of shower floor.

Question is how far you want to take this shower enclosure for a trouble free future. I think you need to start from scratch.