Fitting shower base

[Rogadoguk]

Hi,

Long time lurker here but thought I'd start posting. Bought a house last year in need of decorating and been busy decorating the rooms including learning how to plaster and fitting new rads etc, so not scared of plumbing. My next project is in the bathroom which involves moving everything into a better place (cast iron bath is currently in the middle of the room)

A mate of my dad's is coming next week to help and everything should be ok, i just have a small question about the shower base fitting.

This is the shower base and it will be placed into the corner once the toilet is moved. The problem is the skirting

Once I remove the skirting I plan to fit the base under the floor at the edges slightly and then tank the shower with a maepai tanking kit. The iussue I for see is the gap between the bottom of the wall and the top of the base. Any ideas on how to fill this? The wall is L+P

This is the underside of the base, it didnt come with feet and was planning to mortar it into position onto 18mm Marine ply (replacing the floorboards). One option could be to raise the base I guess?

Many thanks in advance
Simon

 

[Pigeon85]

Have you taken any skirting off yet to see what the size of the gap is? And what is the wall made of

 

[joinerjohn]

As pigeon says, You don't know there will be a gap until the skirting is off. Plaster doesn't usually stop at the top of the skirting(even with lath and plaster) I think you should take the skirting off first and if there's going to be a gap, get a plasterer in to fill it up, before fitting the base.

 

[Nige F]

use a strip of classi seal to go from the tray to under the wall tiles/covering fitted to aquapanel backing board : Also - if you don`t like the Old Style bath /WC - get them onto eBay - there is serious money in that stuff

 

[Rogadoguk]

Its a 1902 house and its lathe and plaster, I'm going to fill the gap with cement based tile adhesive, the same as ill use for bedding the tray.

Just so much choice on the adhesives. Tiles are 300x600 ( 21kg/m^2) and cant see these being an issues on the tanked area of the shower.

Do i need to prime the walls before using adhesive on the non tanked areas of the bathroom?

Thanks for the advice so far.

Oh the toilet i will prob eBay, was going to keep it but a silver flush pipe is £150 and thinking about it the rest of the bathroom will be modern (except the 40 year old cast iron bath which I'm keeping

 

[Rogadoguk]

Update

 

[joinerjohn]

A strip of 12.5mm aquapanel screwed to the studs, then skimmed flush with the wall, before setting the shower base is the way to go there.

 

[foxhole]

Usually mount the base high so you have access to waste in the event of problems unless you have easy access from below.

 

[Pigeon85]

Usually mount the base high so you have access to waste in the event of problems unless you have easy access from below.

do consider this, don't want to be lifting up tiles and floor boards, only other option would be to make a hatch on the ceiling below

 

[Rogadoguk]

Thanks for the tips. Raising it seems a sensible idea.

Struggling to find the right adhesive still

 

[longdogs]

Are you sure you have to fix this base using a mortar mix. Normally, shower bases which need to be mortared are flat bottomed. What are the holes in the underside, are they for adjustable feet?

It's just that if you mortar the shower in place, it looks like it's going to be about two - three inches thick. This might cause a problem fitting the waste. You need to leave a generouse space for the waste and angle of waste pipe to fit into.

 

[flameport]

The solutions above could be used.

The proper way is to remove all of that grotty lath and plaster, board the whole shower area with Aquapanel, joints between boards sealed with the Aquapanel sealant.
The joint in the corner between the walls sealed with silicone.
Replace floorboards with a single piece of ply.
Set the tray on a mortar base, seal the gap between the tray and walls with silicone.
Tile walls using cement adhesive, grout the tiles but not in the corner or between tiles & tray.
You don't need any primer or tanking - tiles go straight onto the aquapanel.
Seal corner and joint between tiles and tray with silicone.
Fit shower enclosure.

The waste issue is easily solved by using a top-fit waste/trap, which can be fixed in place from above, therefore avoiding any need to have access from below or having a huge step to get into the shower.