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Your tile shower pan can be one of three basic types. If you're installing a shower you should know your choices. Have a leaky shower? Knowing how the shower is put together helps you talk to whoever will work on it.
Traditional Tile Shower Construction
Most shower pans are made using traditional methods. The shower floor is built up with masonry or a cement mix. The concept is simple, but there are several tricks and quite an art involved in building a shower using this method. But a traditional shower, if properly done, will produce ceramic showers that work great for many decades.
Very briefly the traditional pan is built as follows. First, set the shower drain in place with the drain top at the height of the finished floor. Now a shower drain is a special drain. Make sure you get a shower drain. Then make sure you have a good solid sub floor topped with roofing felt. The roofing felt keeps the wet cement in place. Then pour in mortar mix and slope it to the drain. The next layer is a waterproof vinyl membrane. This sheet is the waterproof barrier which is glued to the drain. Above the membrane or liner goes the top layer of masonry sloped to the drain. Then finally install the tile and grout to finish the floor.
Now the masonry and grout in a shower floor are not waterproof. Only the vinyl liner is waterproof. The vinyl membrane is the key to waterproof shower pan. If installed properly, you have a long-lasting set-up. If mistakes are made, you have a problem. Also the shower floor is not maintenance free. The joints at the floor to walls must be checked regularly and may require caulking from time to time.
Fiberglass Shower Pans
A quick and easy way to build a shower pan is to install a fiberglass pan made for this purpose. These are the pans you see at building stores. Tile cannot be installed on these pans. It's fast and relatively easy, but fiberglass pans have negatives. These pans do not last as long as traditional pans. They are easily scratched and damaged. And a fiberglass shower pan does not have the luxury look and feel of a ceramic tile shower. Ceramic tile showers feel rock solid because they are. A fiberglass shower has a bouncy feel.
Tile Ready Shower Pans
There are several systems now that make installing a ceramic tile shower pan faster than the traditional way. All the systems use a vinyl pan with an integral drain designed for installation of ceramic tile over the top of the pan. Methods vary, but systems contain material to line the walls and make a completely waterproof shower. Some systems use a mortar base for the shower pan to sit on. Others use a special foam base.
The advantages of these systems over traditional systems is speed. No waiting for mortar layers to dry. Also the level of art and skill for the installer is less. The disadvantage is cost. Typically the tile ready showers are far more expensive than a traditional tile shower pan.
The material is sometimes as expensive as the completed job costs when done the traditional way.
Puzzled about how to build a ceramic tile shower? Need more information? Visit our site for tile shower pan tips.
We invite you to visit http://www.installingceramictile.net for answers to your ceramic shower questions.
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