Putting in A COMPOSITE SHOWER PAN IS Fast AND Effortless. Just before talking about the easy steps to put in a composite shower pan, I felt that some clarification and definitions are essential due to the fact not all shower pans are alike.
WHAT IS IN A Title? A roof is a roof, despite the fact that there are numerous diverse roofing methods and roofing supplies. Not accurate with “shower pans.” They are usually interchangeably called a shower pan, shower pan liner, shower pan membrane liner, water-resistant barrier, shower base, shower tray, or shower receptor. But, every has a various indicating depending on context and each are obtainable in a assortment of materials.
Bob Vila’s internet website defines a SHOWER PAN as “The foundation, containing a drinking water drain, of the shower enclosure.” And a SHOWER RECEPTOR as “A 1-piece foundation (ground) device used as a shower, for illustration, to catch water and direct it to a center drain.”
For the sake of clarity, I provide the following definitions.
SHOWER PAN & SHOWER Foundation – A finished spot that is able of retaining and directing water to the drain in addition it does not require tiling once put in. The shower pan or foundation has a drain hole, sloped flooring to correctly immediate water to the drain hole, sidewalls, and a threshold (entrance to the shower that kinds a control to keep water from managing out on to the rest room flooring). A shower pan is synonymous with a shower foundation.
SHOWER PAN LINER, MEMBRANE LINER, & Watertight BARRIER – A barrier, generally a plastic sheet or membrane, that is intended to trap water that penetrates the shower floor tile, grout, and mortar under the tile and pressure the drinking water to movement to the drain. As long as it will not leak, it helps prevent h2o from reaching the sub-flooring and bordering wall enclosure. The liner is a component in a created shower pan. A shower pan liner is synonymous with a shower pan membrane liner and a water-resistant barrier.
SHOWER TRAY & SHOWER RECEPTOR – A shower tray is synonymous with a shower receptor. Each are utilized in location of a liner. They provide the exact same function as the liner, but are pre-fashioned to get rid of some of the set up methods required when making use of a liner.
Shower pan liners, shower trays, and shower receptors are all utilized in conjunction with the construction of a shower pan that has a tiled floor as effectively as a tiled wall enclosure.
Commercially obtainable shower pans are comprehensive, completely ready-to-install units. They eradicate the need to generate a mud sloped flooring, a shower liner or tray, and tiling of the shower floor.
COMPOSITE SHOWER PANS. As shower story australia are made from a number of distinct resources and made otherwise. I wished to contact on every of the most typical types. Composite shower pans tumble into a number of content teams cultured marble, fiberglass, acrylic, and strong surface. Usually all are produced by fabrication of flat sheets, thermal-formed from a solitary piece of materials, or molded or solid to kind a one particular piece device. The a single-piece construction eradicates seams, which in turn gets rid of prospective leaks. Every has their pluses and minuses. Since splendor is in the eye of the beholder, I will not remark on appearance. All composite shower pans put in on a flat, stage flooring and do not require the generation of a sloped mud base. Also, the cast or molded pans generally do not require the use of a plastic membrane.
Cultured marble and dressier versions, like cultured onyx and granite, tend to be the the very least expensive. Cultured marble is manufactured by spraying a ‘gel-coat’ onto a mold. This coating is about 1/sixty four” or much less in thickness. The gel-coat is covered with pigmentation and then backed with calcium carbonate. The calcium carbonate offers the completed component its energy. Also, in the casting approach it is infused with air pockets to reduce its density and fat.
The cultured marble ground is solid independently from the sidewalls. Thus, the incorporation of a shower pan liner is crucial to insure a watertight, leak free set up. Though broadly utilized, the down aspect of cultured marble is that other than the gel-coat layer, the calcium carbonate is highly porous. Any crack or scratch by means of the gel-coat will allow drinking water penetration. Other gel-coat attributes contain yellowing, even with no UV exposure clouding from sizzling faucet water staining crazing (fine hairline cracks) and it is not reparable when cracked or chipped.
Fiberglass is commonly employed as nicely. Fiberglass is powerful, mild excess weight and inexpensive. Many fiberglass makers make 1-piece shower pans and enclosures and one particular-piece mixture tubs and showers with the wall enclosures. Comparable to cultured marble, fiberglass is created with a gel-coat, then backed with pigment and chopped strands of fiberglass in a resin combination. Normally the finished merchandise is about 1/eight” to 1/4″ in thickness. The underside of the shower pan floor has webbing additional to provide assist to the flooring. As the ground is not strong, the unsupported space amongst the webbing can flex. This flexing is particularly apparent with weighty loading or the place one is standing among to the webbing. Over time, the flexing can result in content tiredness and cracking. When a crack develops, the pan has unsuccessful.
Acrylic sheets are utilised to vacuum sort shower pans, bathtubs, spas and numerous other things. The vacuum forming process commences with a one/4″ sheet of pigmented acrylic that is heated to a temperature that tends to make the acrylic ductile. The sheet is positioned on a mold and stretched over the kind to develop the completed form. The heating and stretching of the sheet causes a reduction in wall thickness. The reduction is directly proportional to the volume of stretching that occurs. With shower pans there is far much less materials reduction than with creating a tub or spa. The heating, stretching, and cooling of the materials could also introduce stresses to the finished pan.
Like fiberglass pans, acrylic pans need support factors under the pan floor. A commonly utilized assist aspect is polyurethane foam. The foam fills the void and eradicated the flexing of the pan flooring. Acrylic sheet material is vulnerable to crazing, moment surface cracking, and cracking when cleaned with many common cleansing chemicals. Must crazing happen, over time these cracks can guide to a pan failure.
Acrylic sheets have really distinct bodily and chemical qualities than acrylic reliable surface supplies. In addition to the acrylic resin utilised in sound surface, the solid surface material gets additional actual physical and chemical traits from the addition of alumina-tri-hydrate, or ATH. The ATH leads to cleaners that adversely affect acrylic to have no have an effect on on strong surface area.
Sound area shower pans are the prime-of-the-line in bodily and chemical attributes as nicely as performance, reparability and a myriad of other characteristics and rewards. The major features of solid area are it is non-porous, will not help the progress of mould, mildew, or germs, is obtainable in a massive range of seems to be (some like organic granite) and hues, and is one hundred% repairable must chipping, scratching, or even cracking arise. Well being departments throughout the nation have accepted sound surface area supplies for use in hospitals and foods preparation regions for its resistance to bacterial growth, simplicity of cleansing and servicing, and resistance to staining and contamination.
Some reliable floor shower pan producers fabricate their pans from sheet merchandise in a comparable vogue as the acrylic shower pans. That is, they thermal sort the pan flooring by heating and stretching the materials and then bond sidewalls and a threshold to the ground.
The Royal Stone model of reliable surface area shower pans are the pans that I manufacture and will use to illustrate the simplicity and simplicity of set up that can be experienced when putting in a composite shower pan. As opposed to fabricated reliable surface area shower pans, the Royal Stone shower pans are a cast 1-piece sound area merchandise. By casting the pan as a one particular-piece device, there are no stresses released in the pan, and there are numerous other features engineered and made into this pan.
The most evident features are the huge radius changeover among the pan ground and its sidewalls. Secondly, the flange (also named a weep edge) is one-1/2″ tall. I have noticed pans that do not integrate an integral flange or have flanges one/2″ to one” tall. The additional top is created to reduce, if not remove, any h2o getting drawn up guiding the wall encompass panels that could lead to drinking water damage to the shower sub-construction.
Royal Stone’s pans have a minimal wall thickness of 1/2″ and the webbing components have a extensive foot with massive tension relieving radius corners between the pan flooring and the webbing. All shower pans are engineered to assist the weight of 3/four” thick (2 cm) granite slabs as nicely as all other frequently utilised wall resources like tile, fiberglass, acrylic, and sound surface panels. Finally, no matter of flooring loading, the Royal Stone pan floor is so strong that it feels like one is standing on a rigid concrete ground. There is no perceptible flexing or oil-canning of the pan ground. Hence, there is no probability of floor fatigue and cracking over time and the potential for pan failure is removed.
Set up IS Quickly AND Simple. As I have presently said, composite pans set up on a flat sub-flooring. The pursuing installation information might not apply to all kinds of composite shower pans. Specifically, I have immediate information of installing the forged one particular-piece solid surface shower pans that Royal Stone manufactures. Thus, the adhering to immediately applies to Royal Stone’s normal and custom made shower pans. The exact same measures should also implement to other kinds of composite pans and other supplies, even so, adhere to the makers advisable installation instructions.
As a producer, I do not install pans. The images included in this write-up were provided by a neighborhood installer. They were supplemented by photographs of a various pan, for clarity of the set up process. As a result the distinct pan coloration and form. Even more, most of the photos ended up from a exclusive plumbing circumstance. The home had all of the plumbing over ground. Hence, a particleboard platform was built previously mentioned the plumbing for the shower. The following set up info applies to concrete, plywood, particleboard, wood, and so forth. sub-floors at, earlier mentioned, or beneath quality.
Step #one – SUB-Flooring Preparation: Employing the template supplied with the shower pan, area template on the flooring and validate that the drain is in the proper location. If the drain is NOT correctly found, relocate the drain. Notice: Relocating the drain is usually far significantly less expensive than obtaining a customized pan forged to accommodate your present drain location.
The hole in the sub-flooring needs to be greater than the drain pipe. About a six” round or square gap (about the measurement of a espresso can) is advised. This greater opening makes it possible for room for the drain assembly that extends under the base of the pan. Most drain pipes are 2″ PVC. The PVC pipe allows for some flexing within the six” opening in the sub-ground. This flexing is preferred and can make the pan set up less complicated. The PVC pipe ought to prolong previously mentioned the concluded sub-floor by a minimal of 1/two” to about 3″ to four”.
The sub-ground can be wooden, plywood, concrete or any other rigid or effectively supported area. The sub-ground should be amount and cost-free from debris. To guarantee a level flooring, check out the ground with a long level as demonstrated in Fig. 1. The more time the amount, the more probably that the sub-ground will be level at its greatest proportions. Examine entrance to back again at the remaining and appropriate sides and at the middle. Do the exact same from facet to facet. Lastly, check the diagonals. Fig. 2 indicates the place of the 8 readings that should be taken.
Depending on the benefits of the level measurements, some additional prep may be needed. If the sub-floor is reasonably flat, shims could be utilised to make the shower pan level. If the flooring is uneven and out of stage, pouring self leveling slim-established substance may be needed.
As soon as the sub-flooring is amount and the opening for the drain is right, the location of the shower pan is up coming.
Phase #two – Connect DRAIN ASSEMBLY TO PAN: A normal 2 portion Brass Drain Assembly is advised, as demonstrated in Fig. three. This sort of assembly must be commonly obtainable at any plumbing offer shop or house enhancement retailer. Royal Stone also sells this drain assembly. Disassemble the drain assembly. Keeping the factors in purchase makes reassembly more rapidly and less complicated.
Location the pan on noticed horses or any elevated system that permits access to the top and base of the pan. Spray the drain opening with rubbing liquor, Fig. four. With a thoroughly clean rag, wipe the surface and inside edge of the pre-minimize drain opening, to eliminate any dust or other contaminants from the pan’s drain area. All around the drain opening utilize a generous bead of 100% silicone, Fig. 5.
Insert Brass Drain Entire body, Element #five of the Brass Drain Assembly into the drain hole, Fig. six, and press firmly into area, Fig. 7.
Stage #3 – Eliminate Excess SILICONE: Get rid of the excessive silicone from the Drain Human body, Element #5. Spray an alcoholic beverages mist above the drain location and the silicone, Fig. eight. With a Dap-Cap, scoop absent the extra silicone, Fig. nine. This action could have to be recurring numerous instances to totally eliminate the silicone. Very last, spray a mist of alcohol and wipe remaining film absent from the Drain Body, Portion #5, with a comfortable fabric.
Phase #four – MOUNT DRAIN LOCKING RING: Attach the Drain Strainer, Part #1, to guarantee that the Drain Entire body, Component #5, is centered inside the drain hole, Fig. ten. From the base side of the shower pan, connect Components #6, 7, & 8 to Part #five. Tighten the Locking Ring, Part #eight till cosy. DO NOT Above TIGHTEN. More than tightening may possibly crack the shower pan. Get rid of the Drain Strainer, Element #1, and established aside.
If any further silicone has been squeezed out from among the shower pan drain and the Drain Entire body, Portion #five, repeat Step #3 until all excess silicone has been taken off.
Dealing with Idea: Using a set of glazer’s grips enables for less difficult dealing with and shifting the pan into the proper place. If these are not available, brute drive also performs.
Phase #five – DRY Fit THE SHOWER PAN: Reduce the shower pan into place. Make certain that about one/8″ space exists among the shower pan flange and the studs. With the level, affirm that the pan is sitting flat on the floor as demonstrated in Fig. eleven & twelve. If additional shimming is necessary, carry pan and location shimming materials exactly where necessary. Decrease the pan into spot and check for amount. Repeat until finally the pan is degree.
Warning: When leaning and dealing with the shower pan, manage meticulously to avert damage to the shower pan’s flange.
A Level PAN IS Crucial FOR Suitable DRAINAGE.
Action #6 – SILICONE THE Base OF THE PAN: Carry pan and lean in opposition to 1 of the studded walls. Utilize one hundred% silicone caulking to the webbing, Fig. thirteen, on the underside of the shower pan . Also, implement a thick silicone ring about the drain opening in the sub-floor, Fig. fourteen. If shims had been utilized, silicone all shims into placement on sub ground as required.
Phase #seven – Set SHOWER PAN: Reduce shower pan into area. Verify the pan for level. Press down as needed to re-degree the shower pan. Use a silicone bead together the front edge of the threshold to seal the threshold of the pan to the sub-ground.
Action #8 – Link DRAIN PIPE TO DRAIN ASSEMBLY: Inject silicone fully all around and amongst the drain pipe and the Brass Drain Entire body, Part #5, as proven in Fig. fifteen. Location the Rubber Gasket, Element #four of the Drain Assembly, over the PVC pipe and slide down until the top of the Rubber Gasket, Part #4, is fully seated and is below the best of the Drain Assemble, Fig. sixteen. Screw the Locking Ring, Part #three of the Drain Assembly onto the Drain Entire body, Element #5. Tighten the Locking Ring, Part #3, with the Tightening Resource, Part #2 until the Rubber Gasket, Element #4, is seated and tightly in spot.
Action #9 – TRIMMING THE PVC: The prime of the PVC drain pipe Need to NOT prolong over the Brass Drain Human body, Component #five. If it is at the top of the Brass Drain Physique, Element #five, or extends over the top, trim the PVC so that it is about 1/four” decrease than the leading of the Brass Drain Body, Part #5 but is taller than the leading of the Rubber Gasket, Portion #4. Cut the PVC pipe with a Dremel and a reduce-off wheel.
If the Tightening Device, Component #2 has not previously been eliminated, get rid of it and press the Drain Strainer, Portion #1, into spot. The set up is total. Excluding any sub-flooring planning, the installation need to take about one particular hour or considerably less.
Action #10 – CURING: Enable the shower pan established for 24 to forty eight hours to enable the silicone to properly cure. When healed, the wallboard and wall panels can be installed.
Caution: When attaching solid floor shower pans and wall panels, ONLY use a hundred% SILICONE. Other adhesives or caulks may harden. The decline of the elastic bond between the strong floor and other resources can lead to stresses in the reliable area. In change, these stresses may possibly result in fractures of the component and void the manufacturer’s guarantee.