Fitting shower tray

[bodgeitandsee]

Hi all.
I am about to fit a 900mm stonecast quad shower tray. It''s the type that comes with legs (merlin) for raising it on concrete floors for the waste. Do I install it on the legs alone or should it also have a concrete bed under the main part of the tray to spread the weight too?

 

[Softus]

Just curious - what do the manufacturer's instructions tell you to do (in order to uphold the warranty) ?

 

[Mikeyboy]

In a way you have already answered the question yourself.Are you installing this shower tray on a concrete sold floor, or a suspended wooden floor?

 

[bodgeitandsee]

It's being installed on a concrete floor. I'm just wondering if the tray itself would benefit from support from a central mortar bed as I've never had a stonecast shower tray sitting on just 4 legs before. Obviously instructions say to sit it on legs but I don't know how stable it will be when it all done. Thanks for replies so far.

 

[Paul Barker]

Well if you bed it on new concrete you are filling the gap between a concrete floor and a shower tray, so it's a certainty that at some point in the future the whole effing lot will have to be attacked with a lump hammer when it leaks.

Last inadequately fitted shower that leaked in my town (landlord job up 4 flights of stairs) I said who fitted it? reply came someone from (can't remember but a West Yorkshire town 50 miles or more away). I said well you'd better get him back then.

I don't think I generated any good will for the business that day, but I saved myself endless trips up and down 4 flights of stairs with heavy tools surrounded by very angry lodgers from all flats which were getting wet, and the stupid lodgers in the flat with the leaky shower who couldn't see any reason not to c arry on taking showers, and a landlady who obviously pays the bear minimum to have things fitted.

Fit things taking into acount the need for maintenance.

 

[Softus]

Paul Barker, you are one sensible gentleman, and one of a few islands of objectivity in a veritable ocean of opinionated nonsense.

 

[Paul Barker]

Well you get sensible don't you when yoo keep having to take sides off baths and look uder showers to find the source of the leak in the kitchen/flat below.

Quite a few of the fancy bathrooms these days have tiled in baths and showers. Had one only yesterday I said have you got any tiles? "Oh yes we do have 6 of those left". That's good, you won't have to get the whole bathroom retiled. "What happens when people don't have any tiles left?". I tell them to either get the guy who fitted the bathroom to find the leak or let me at it with my lump hammer.

 

[Softus]

Well you get sensible don't you when yoo keep having to take sides off baths and look uder showers to find the source of the leak in the kitchen/flat below.

Well you do, but an incredible number of plumbers don't, judging by the kind of nightmare jobs I come across every week.

Today I lifted a vanity worktop that was concealing a pipe casing behind a WC, to find that an elbow on the cistern overflow pipe had sprung off. Why? Because the outlet pipe was 4" higher than the connection at the cistern, and some oik had forced the pipe upwards to make the connection. I imagine that it sprung off just as he was tiptoing out of the front door, leaving a latent problem just waiting for the day (yesterday) that the ball valve washer lost its sealing ability.

 

[Paul Barker]

Yes people are eternal optomists, right up until their confidence is proved misguided by the stressed phone call to us.

 

[bodgeitandsee]

Thanks again. I'll go with the view it was designed with legs for a purpose then it's only a clip on acrylic panel to access the underside in the event of a problem.

Had a friend on the phone last night, under 2 year old Barratt house with a history of a minor leak through the kitchen ceiling from the bathroom, Barratts had never found it and washed their hands of it. Minor turned ugly last night with water running through kitchen light fitting so Barratts had to send emergency plumber at 9pm for her. Diagnosis - suspected leaking pushfit connector but plumber wanted to hoik kitchen ceiling down to look, she's decided to wait for today and gives barrats a chance to have the bathroom floor up instead.

Is this pushfit stuff all it's cracked up to be?

 

[Paul Barker]

Yes if the pipe isn't blemished, the fitting is brand new clean and blemish free, it's pushed on fully, insterts are used on plastic pipe.

 

[Softus]

Yes if the pipe isn't blemished, the fitting is brand new clean and blemish free, it's pushed on fully, insterts are used on plastic pipe.

I fully concur.

I think the pushfit in question here might be on waste fittings, but the same rules apply in principle.

Pushfit isn't a byword for "easy" - to mitigate risks of leaks you have to take good care of pipe and prevent ALL scratches.

 

[Nige F]

Paul Barker, you are one sensible gentleman, and one of a few islands of objectivity in a veritable ocean of opinionated nonsense.

Just call me squid I have more cells than plankton

 

[bodgeitandsee]

Nope, the pushfit is supply stuff I merely said pushfit rather than slander speedfit or hepworth etc.
Had floorboards up today and no sign of damn leak source as yet. Think I'll solder my bathroom as too many joints behind semi permanent tounge and groove.
Must admit, I thought pushfit is easy but a friend has told me he knows a few plumbers who are going back to copper because of problems.

 

[joe-90]

While we are on the subject of shower trays, may I just ask a couple of things?

A) Is it the best way to fit a tray by hacking off a bit if the render to ensure that the edge of the tray is level with the wall to prevent water going down the back?

B) Is it possible to forgo the tray altogether and go for the flush wet-room type of drain straight into the floor? Basically, it would be a wet-room confined by the shower screen walls?


Cheers


joe