Full basement w/ custom shower install

This job was one of my favorite jobs, I wish I had pictures of the house before i arrived. Here's a house where the homeowner wanted the entire basement tiled and a custom shower installed where a tub surround previously stood. The problem was that the slab was badly out of level and dropped about 2" on one side of the house, I informed the H/O that prep work was a must in order to achieve the result he wanted. My method of attack was a mud bed, I knew I needed to add a couple inches to the floor and Self leveler wasn't fit for this application. I bonded the mud with thinset and leveled out about 200 sq ft of the 700 sq ft floor.

The next thing I did was change a tub surround to a shower stall, I removed sections of the slab cut into a cast iron pipe and installed pvc and centered the drain, then i filled the hole and patched with the proper concrete mix. I then constructed a curb out of 2x4s. Next I prepitched the shower to prepare for my CPE Noble pan. The following day I installed the pan performed a water test and installed the proper cbu on the walls. Next Laticrete Hydrobarrier was applied to the walls to act as a liquid membrane to waterproof the shower walls. I then mudded the floor of the shower, installed an Ebbe square drain and mudded the shower curb. Heres is the shower complete w/ the ceiling also tiled and the rest of the basement. I'll tell you what, this is one sweet pad!

New shower with old tile

I recently tore out a tub surround for a customer over the past couple days in Delaware County, Pa. The tile was 3x3 over green board installed with mastic and I knew it was in bad shape. The customer had not used the shower for 5 years due to substantial leaking when it was being used. I tore out and while gutting the shower noticed that the tiles had no tiling substrate behind them just air and mold. The worst part was the installer told the homeowner back in the mid 90's they used wonderboard, I had to explain that the job was done with pretty much drywall and glue.

I demo'd the shower and installed a vapor barrier (aquabar "b"),installed permabase, taped and flashed the corners, and most importantly set the tile with thinset.







The customer choose their own tile, it was a bisque 6x6 from American Olean. I got an idea to save some of the old 3x3 and install diamonds in the shower to enhance the installation, the homeowner thought this was a great idea. I tiled the entire shower with laticretes 253 thinset to set the tile. I grouted the shower with laticretes bright white unsanded grout and caulked all the changes of plain.

This job felt great, I ripped out a awful shower and installed a rocksolid one with a little touch of the old shower by inserting the gray accents.

The people were thrilled with the finished project and it made me feel good that they were happy, they also enjoyed watching the whole process take shape.