Expert: eric maxon - 11/25/2004

Question
I am remodeling my shower. Plan to remove old shower pan and shower surround. Am going to use ceramic tile as my new shower surround. Couple questions.
Was breifly told at the home improvement store to use mortar under the new shower pan. Can you explain?
Also when installing the backer board for the new tile, will the backer board go over the lip for the shower pan or do you install the backer board then install the shower pan
Can you help me?


Answer
Thanks for the question.  Shower pan installation is different depending on what material(s) you use.  If you are doing tile walls, I'm guessing that you will have a tile pan.  If so then you have 2 layers of the pan.  First a concrete base, sloped toward the drain.  Second a membrain, which fits into the shower drain clamping ring.  And then another layer of conrete and the tile on top of that.  The backer board will go over and cover the top of the membrain.

Eric