# rebuilding shower floor



## gregrph (May 12, 2008)

Hi all,
I'm in the midst of redoing (floor, walls, tile, toilet, vanity, etc.). I am at the point where I have the inside of the shower "deconstructed".  I had to take the tile, drywall down, we want to re-tile the whole bathroom.  The floor tile is all off,  new steel beams are in place for 2 of the half surround walls.  I am now looking for help on building the shower floor and installing the shower pan.

When I took up the old shower floor, it had tile on top, then mortar underneath, then a heavy paper that I suppose was the shower pan as it went up the walls and over the curb.  I am left with sand on top of a concrete foundation. Everything that I have read about building a shower floor shows/talks about a plywood subfloor and hardibacker.  Do I need to do that since a) it wasn't there in the first place b)it is a ground floor shower one a cement foundation.

Can I re-use the sand to build the slope (there is debris in the sand from the rest of the demolition)?

I cannot seem to get the screws out of the shower drain that is in place.  I believe that once I have the preslope done and am ready to cut and fit the shower pan, part of the shower pan goes into the drain but cut out opening for the weep holes.  Do I use the old drain assembly or do I need to purchase a new one? Will I be able to put the new one in without breaking the concrete? 

That's all for now! Thanks.
Greg


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## TileGuy (May 12, 2008)

gregrph said:


> I cannot seem to get the screws out of the shower drain that is in place.  I believe that once I have the preslope done and am ready to cut and fit the shower pan, part of the shower pan goes into the drain but cut out opening for the weep holes.  Do I use the old drain assembly or do I need to purchase a new one? Will I be able to put the new one in without breaking the concrete?
> 
> That's all for now! Thanks.
> Greg



Im not clear on what kind of pan your looking to install but either way...its alot to type out so heres a great place to look for your answers !

http://www.johnbridge.com/serv02.htm#shower pans


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## Leal (May 12, 2008)

greg, hello
im redoing my bath at the moment. Ive never done this type of work in my life. This is what has helped me out so so much. I stumbled across this searching around on how to do this. Im sure this will help. I purchased a few of his videos.http://www.tileashower.com/?hop=hiddendoor


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## gregrph (May 14, 2008)

TileGuy said:


> Im not clear on what kind of pan your looking to install but either way...its alot to type out so heres a great place to look for your answers !
> 
> http://www.johnbridge.com/serv02.htm#shower pans



Thanks for the link. I'll take a look.
Greg


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## gregrph (May 14, 2008)

Leal said:


> greg, hello
> im redoing my bath at the moment. Ive never done this type of work in my life. This is what has helped me out so so much. I stumbled across this searching around on how to do this. Im sure this will help. I purchased a few of his videos.http://www.tileashower.com/?hop=hiddendoor



Thanks for the link! I'll take a look. I don't want to do this wrong! Greg


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## rachael24 (May 16, 2008)

Thats a great links Leal...This should help alot of people!


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## Harry (May 22, 2008)

I would break out the existing slab and build a new one. It's about 4 hours of work from start to finish if you have a good hands-on ability and a basic understanding of deck-mud. And it costs only about $40 - $50 for material (sand-mix, clamping drain and liner).
The bolts in the bottom section of the drain don't usually seize-up unless it's a metal drain assembly. Is it?
It may be possible to break off the bolts and grind flat ... then drill for new bolts, but it's a lot of work and can cause problems if done incorrectly.


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## gregrph (May 30, 2008)

Harry said:


> I would break out the existing slab and build a new one. It's about 4 hours of work from start to finish if you have a good hands-on ability and a basic understanding of deck-mud. And it costs only about $40 - $50 for material (sand-mix, clamping drain and liner).
> The bolts in the bottom section of the drain don't usually seize-up unless it's a metal drain assembly. Is it?
> It may be possible to break off the bolts and grind flat ... then drill for new bolts, but it's a lot of work and can cause problems if done incorrectly.



Hi Harry-Sorry for taking so long to respond.  I have a new 3 piece drain. For lack of proper terms for the pieces, I'll refer to the "bottom" as the one that gets glued to the pipe that comes up from the ground, the "top" as the piece that has the drain cover screwed on to it and then gets screwed into the "middle piece" the piece with the weep holes.

I was able to remove the old top piece and middle piece. I am left with the bottom piece glued to the drain pipe proper.  Two of the bolts on the middle piece broke off, the other two bolts turn but will not come out.  When I look down into the drainage pipe, I can see where the bottom of the drain assembly is glued to the drainage pipe.

 I think I can cut that junction with a Dremel tool and cutoff wheel by inserting the Dremel down into drain pipe. Will I have enough room surrounding the drain pipe to add a coupler and a small length of pipe and then the new drain fixture? IF I were to do this, the diameter of a cutoff wheel is not large enough to go completely thry the pipe without cutting at an angle. i.e. the inside part of the cut pipe would be a bit lower than the outside of the cut pipe.  Once they are separated I could grind the top of the pipe so that it would be level all the way around.


Can I cut off the 2 remaining bolts of the old bottom piece (still glued to the pipe), use fine sandpaper to clean to top of that piece very good and just used PVC cement to cement the new piece onto the old piece and not actually cut the old piece from the drain pipe?

IF I were to call a professional to install the drain and install the shower pan and get the floor ready to the point of tilling, who do I call? A plumber? tile person? Cement of concrete person? Would once person handle the whole thing even though it may be outside their area of expertise? A general contractor?

Thanks for any insight!
Greg


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