How to fit a shower cubicle base

[kevinspiller]

Hi all.



My first time here, so apologies in advance if this question sounds dumb.

I have taken out the old shower cubicle which is fitted into the corner of the bathroom. I am going to fit a new quadrant shower cubicle, but need some advice on bedding in the base. It is a ceramic base going onto floorboards. Am I right in thinking that I need to place (marine?) ply board onto the floorboards and then 5:1 cement mix on top of that? Do I need to create a space under the cubicle for access to the plumbing after the fit? The one I took out was cemented directly onto the floor boards without any access and there wasn't any ply board underneath.

Kevin

 

[easyflow]

Your whole question depends on which way you floor joists are running and the waste position(s), got any more info Kev.

 

[kevinspiller]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure how to answer the question. i have a picture i could send, but the site won't accept pictures

 

[Stevey]

Kev, i'm assuming your joists are running the 'right' way, meaning your shower trap and waste pipe can be concealed easily under the bathroom floor boards. Therefore, you a low level tray.

I say that because you said the old tray you took out was cemented directly on to ply, on top of floorboards. Therefore trap and waste concealed.

My joists are running the wrong way. So I have to fit an easy plumb tray. meaning, I have a normal 80mm low level tray just like yours, but I have to jack it up 100mm with a wooden frame, so I can get my shower trap underneath the tray and run my waste pipe above the floor boards and along the bathroom wall to the outside of the house.

Experience has told me, as well as some of the helpful people that have, and still are coming through this website, that your shower tray needs to be level and immovable. Level, because you dont want water pooling on top of the shower tray, where the tray meets the tiles and the frame.

plus, being a ceramic/stone resin.... (are you meanin stone resin? very heavy and when you tap it, it has a ceramic ring to it?)... tray it needs a good support under it.

2 reasons.

1st, is to spread the weight of you standing on top of it and moving around. Thats what the cement bed does ie: supports as much of the trays underside surface area as possible, therefore distibuting your weight/mass across the whole tray ie: no cracked tray.

2nd reason, cement bed lets you get it nice and level, ie: all the water goes down the trap as intended, and doesn't pool any where else.

I have an easy plumb stone resin tray to put in over weekend at home, will be sittin it on top a silicon bed (silicon sticks better to wood, than cement does to wood) on top of 18mm WBP exterior ply on top of 4x2" frame.
Frame screwed to floor and walls! You dont want any lateral movement on the silicon seal between the tiles and the tray, in either direction. ie: x or y if you wanna get 3 dimensional .

May sound like overkill to some, but after three leaky shower trays in the last 15 years, I aint gonna take it no more!!!

Sup to you m8 what you do, if you can't be bothered, throw it in and suffer the consequences. If you care about and you wanna make your life easier, do it right 1st time...

 

[Stevey]

I'm not sure how to answer the question. i have a picture i could send, but the site won't accept pictures

This link takes you to image shack europe.

http://www.imageshock.eu/

You dont need to register. Click on 'Browse' navigate your way to the folder on your pc that has the image you want to upload. Click the image, then click open. On the main image shack screen, click on 'Upload'.

After a few seconds, having clicked upload, you will be taken to the next page. Somewhere near the top of the screen you will see an option that says "Thumbnail link for boards 1 ?". In the box to the right of this you will see a URL address for the image you just uploaded. Copy and paste that in to your message body here.

Sample tile.



If the size of your photo is, for example 1mb. Open the image in photoshop, or some other image editing software, and save the the image as a GIF file.

This will decrease the image file size down to say, 250 Kb.

That way, nobodys waiting all day to view your pic on their pc.


Hope this helps [/quote]