[asapmarty]

My home was flooded in Ian. Lost most of the contents of my home and am now remediating. I guess its time to bite the bullet and modernize my bathrooms. Like the mechanic with a clunker of a car, I am a worn out Plumber with bathrooms that I have no choice but to remodel.1960s Slab on grade Concrete Block construction. Plaster on rock lathe wall coverings are coming out. Cutting the floors and replacing the cast iron with PVC. Also gonna abandon the looped copper water lines as in SW Florida, they are long overdue to fail. Im gonna loop Pex under the floor while its open and run insulated hot and hot recirc. I want to put a curbless stall shower in. I have been looking online and there are so many new systems out there that its difficult to form an opinion. I kinda like the Schluter Kerdi because of the relativly low overall thickness. I used to do my own wet bed tile showers when I was a younger Plumber and I guess I could rally one more time, but it might cripple me. So the question is, who has an opinion on the new systems that are out there as far as quality, cost, availability etc.? I would like some opinions from those who have tried the different stuff out there and have come to a conclusion as to what went best for them and perhaps have settled in on a certain type they are stickking with. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lickitlikeafritter]

No experience from the professional plumbing point of view, the most we do is just slam a drain and a pan liner and go on our way.

A good friend of mine is a tile guy and swears by the Schluter Kerdi setup. I’ve lowered several drains for him and plumbed up some diverters for him but not been present for the install. Only thing that he said negative about them is the price tag scares some customers away.

 

[TerryTotoSucks]

the concrete contractor dropped the slab 4" in the shower area.

the tile setter did a preslope on the slab.

the tile setter installed his membrane.

then he built a sand cement mud bed

then he set the tile.

the bench is solid concrete block covered in liner.

 

[ROCKSTARPLUMBER]

recess the shower and use the schluter. Im in the process of remodeling by master bath, im not going curbless though. it would be better, but i cant really recess the slab as two of the walls in the shower are exterior walls. It would be too much work. But how I would do a curb less for sure. Just dont put the tub and the shower drain in the same room beside each other. that is just weird. I dont get it.

 

[SchmitzPlumbing]

wedi pans are the norm here for regular houses and slab on grade.

 

[asapmarty]

No experience from the professional plumbing point of view, the most we do is just slam a drain and a pan liner and go on our way.

A good friend of mine is a tile guy and swears by the Schluter Kerdi setup. I’ve lowered several drains for him and plumbed up some diverters for him but not been present for the install. Only thing that he said negative about them is the price tag scares some customers away.

Thanks for your input

 

[asapmarty]

the concrete contractor dropped the slab 4" in the shower area.

the tile setter did a preslope on the slab.

the tile setter installed his membrane.

then he built a sand cement mud bed

then he set the tile.

the bench is solid concrete block covered in liner.
View attachment 135871

Thanks, looks good. Old school method comes out nice. Did the tile man use a liquid applied membrane, such as hydroban after the preslope, or did he put in a pan mambrane like vinyl or lead?

 

[asapmarty]

wedi pans are the norm here for regular houses and slab on grade.

Have you used other beside wedi and how would they compare?

 

[Tommy plumber]

Last job that I did was an added bathroom; it had {2} w/c's, a shower and a double lavatory sink. I did the underground, 2nd rough and final but I didn't do a shower pan. The tile man did all that {makes my life and job that much easier.}
I roughed-in for the shower on the 1st rough and when it came time for the 2nd rough, I merely left the 2" riser cut down to approx. slab height, set {but didn't solvent weld it in place} the shower drain on top and left it all to the tile man.

He sloped the base I guess with cement. I wasn't there for that. He was raving about how great the system was that he used. I don't remember the name, but he applied a liquid that cured on the walls and the shower base...{Kerdi maybe? I don't know because I am not familiar with that system.}

 

[ROCKSTARPLUMBER]

Kerdi.

 

[Lickitlikeafritter]

A liquid curing membrane would be something more along the lines of Redgard.

The Schluter Kerdi system is sheets of material in different textures and prefab pieces that all get put together to make a custom size and shape stall, often for making nice tile insets and benches and the like. It’s like waterproofing Lego sets sort of. AFAIK anyway.

 

[ROCKSTARPLUMBER]

I’m having kerdi installed for our shower. I’ve seen it numerous times; but never really paid much attention to it. But it’s getting pretty popular here. My old shower pan from 01 when the house was built had definetly failed. Just wouldn’t have ever known really backing up to exterior walls with brick on the outside. But we see a lot of shower pans that fail within 10yrs around here. Recessed showers are getting pretty much the norm too. That’s the best way to go IMO.

 

[hewhodigsholes]

A liquid curing membrane would be something more along the lines of Redgard

RedGard is good stuff, if a bit pricey. I've used it for custom stalls and floors many times and haven't had any issues yet.

 

[Lickitlikeafritter]

@hewhodigsholes we use it for above ground floor drains especially. Great to just roll it on some subfloor instead of trying to fasten membrane in a non hokey way.

 

[TerryTotoSucks]

RedGard is good stuff, if a bit pricey. I've used it for custom stalls and floors many times and haven't had any issues yet.

I painted 2,000 sq ft concrete slab with it. Helps prevent cracked tile.

 

[ROCKSTARPLUMBER]

They make an underlayment now that helps with that too. For heated floors. I didn’t want to spring the money on it. But damn it would have been nice. Spent too much as it is just on fixtures.

 

[Steveking]

My home was flooded in Ian. Lost most of the contents of my home and am now remediating. I guess its time to bite the bullet and modernize my bathrooms. Like the mechanic with a clunker of a car, I am a worn out Plumber with bathrooms that I have no choice but to remodel.1960s Slab on grade Concrete Block construction. Plaster on rock lathe wall coverings are coming out. Cutting the floors and replacing the cast iron with PVC. Also gonna abandon the looped copper water lines as in SW Florida, they are long overdue to fail. Im gonna loop Pex under the floor while its open and run insulated hot and hot recirc. I want to put a curbless stall shower in. I have been looking online and there are so many new systems out there that its difficult to form an opinion. I kinda like the Schluter Kerdi because of the relativly low overall thickness. I used to do my own wet bed tile showers when I was a younger Plumber and I guess I could rally one more time, but it might cripple me. So the question is, who has an opinion on the new systems that are out there as far as quality, cost, availability etc.? I would like some opinions from those who have tried the different stuff out there and have come to a conclusion as to what went best for them and perhaps have settled in on a certain type they are stickking with. Thanks in advance.

Careful with the pex circulation line I’m see failure of pex pipe hot side turning yellow and brittle with houses with a recirculating line I’m in Chula Vista Ca

 

[asapmarty]

Careful with the pex circulation line I’m see failure of pex pipe hot side turning yellow and brittle with houses with a recirculating line I’m in Chula Vista Ca

I would set it up to recirc on demand, not constant.