Bathroom, DIY or go Pro?

[Schrup]

I have a small (33sqft) bathroom in my basement that I'm in the proccess of remodeling. The PO removed the shower stall & replaced it with a small crappy stem wall for a glass block shower that he never finished. I removed the stem wall & all the tile off the floor. I used a grinder to get up all the adhesive(opps). I now have a bare concrete floor to work with. I ground off the 3/4" ridges in the floor where the old shower stall used to be.

I built gas stations for 10 years, but that was mainly underground & pipefitting type work. I have a coworker who used to install flooring & he suggested I DIY. After getting totally jerked around at Home Depot, I'm strongly considering it.

I want the whole floor done with small mosaic octagon tile & the shower in subway tile. I'd like the entire floor (other than where the toilet sits) to slightly slope into the shower drain.

I need to finish prepping the floor, even if I contract it out. I'm pretty handy with a trowel, but I think I'll need to grind a lip by the wall down a bit more.

So I'm believe I need to float in a sloped subfloor, apply the membrane, & then tile. The shower will be used once a day for the first year, but after my tenant moves out, it will see very little use, maybe once a month.

I'm wondering if I'll be able to use the existing drain, or if I'll have to hammer it out & install a new one.

So what do you guys think? If I contract it, I would hope to pay less than $2k. Should I try to do it myself? It's a bit frustrating that I can only post avatar size pics & am not allowed to post links to pics in Photobucket of my bathroom.

[tilelayer]

HI,

PLease put your name in your thread we all like to use names around here, were nice ppl except for me, jk.

I would try to do it yourself, you would def pay more then 2 grand to do what you want. Is the entire bathroom on a slab? Or is there a subfloor. So you want to build a curbless shower it sounds like to me. We can help you through it i would try to get some pictures we like pictures and we can take it from there.


ps cx should be here shortly...

[Schrup]

Thanks Derrick, my name is Paul. Yes, it is on a slab in my basement, everything is concrete. I think I need a certain post count before I can post links to my photos stored in Photobucket. I don't think you'd be able to see much if I reduce the pics to 50kb. I've got the tools & determination, it's nice to find this site for some advice. Thanks again, I'll try to figure out how to get some photos up tomorrow.

[bbcamp]

The 3 post rule is a spam limiting feature. One more post should do it.

If you are going curbless, then your entire floor needs to be sloped and waterproofed. This is an excellent application for Kerdi. You'll need to bond the mud bed to the concrete and replace your existing shower drain fitting with a Kerdi drain fitting. You'll also want to think a bout a slight curb at the door way and some sort of flashing (Kerdiband comes to mind) so the whole bathroom becomes your shower pan.

[Schrup]

Thanks Bob, I'll do some more reading on the Kerdi system.

[Schrup]

Alrighty, now I can post some links to pics to better explain my situation. Here's a few of what the bathroom looks like now.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...up/corner1.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...up/corner2.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f5...up/corner3.jpg

I'm guessing the first thing I need to address is the drain. Which type/brand of Kerdi drain should I start to look at?

Here's the lip I'll need to gring down a bit more.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f58/Schrup/lip1.jpg

[cx]

There is only one brand of Kerdi drain, Paul. They're made by Schluter, as is the Kerdi membrane. And there are only two types; PVC and ABS. You'll choose the one that matches your existing drain plumbing.

If you elect to do a Kerdi shower, I'd strongly recommend you get John Bridge's Kerdi Shower eBook. Best ten bucks you'll ever spend for a Kerdi tool.

I recommend you center that drain in the shower floor while you're chippin' concrete.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Schrup]

I seems that the prudent thing to do is to go buy a zip drive & download the ebook to educate myself before I go any further, thanks CX.