Making A Sloped Shower Floor

The height of the concrete should gently slope from 2 1 2 around the outside of the form to 1 1 4 near the drain.

Making a sloped shower floor.

You need to first make sure your shower floor will stay where you put it. Taper x 36 in. Usually this requires that the floor is recessed between 1 to 2 for the minimum size. Water that gets into the mortar bed won t be able to drain out.

Sticks measure 1 8 in. For standard shower sub floor areas with a centered drain or custom shower areas where the drain is within 36 in. No matter what the building inspector says it s not a good idea to install a pan liner and then a single sloped mortar bed over it. The membrane does not make anything waterproof.

Shovel it into the shower stall working it with your trowel as you do. Reinforce the shower pan. You need to place what is called a cleavage membrane beneath your lathe. This is just a sheet of plastic or tar paper stapled to your wood floor first with the lathe placed over it.

To determine the proper slope measure from the drain to each wall and figure a quarter inch of slope per foot of length. Install the liner over a pre sloped bed as i explain here. Calculate the slope by multiplying the measurement by 1 4 inch. A setting or mortar bed is recommended under the entire shower area and must be sufficiently deep so it may be sloped to the drain.

All kits have the built in code required slope and can be used with any shower base pan liner system currently on the market today. Shower floor slope to efficiently drain the recommended minimum slope for a shower floor is about 4 percent or a 1 2 inch drop per every 12 inches from the shower walls to the drain. Make the cement about a half inch deep around the drain assembly. For instance if the drain opening measures 2 foot 8 inches from the furthest wall then the shower floor should slope 3 4 inch from that wall to the drain.

Mix the cement in the wheelbarrow. When working with the wet concrete strike it gently with the flat side of the trowel to help bring the moisture to the surface and smooth out the concrete. I used an unbonded mortar bed so i have a tar. Before tiling a shower be sure the drain and sub floor are properly seal.

The top of the drain must be set below the subfloor of the room. On wood you can use regular metal lathe.