How to Build a Shower

Hello boys and girls. Today we are going to build a shower. Get your tools and materials together and follow along.


Here we have the starting off point. At the top of the picture you can see the initial part of the shower controls have been installed. Down below, the wooden forms delineating the shower’s size have been nailed in place. Lastly, a cap has been placed over the drain while the shower is constructed.
Wait a minute Mrs. Remodel you say, where’s the drywall? Good question but we aren’t using any in this situation. The shower walls are going to built up another way.


The next step was to put in the short blocks between the studs to which the chicken wire will be attached. The wire is a frame for the cement, which will form the walls of the shower. Two layers of wood were placed on top of the floor forms to create the curb. Finally a layer of cement was laid down on the floor.


Here is a better shot of the shower pipes and control unit.


The insulation has been put in place and another layer of cement put on the shower floor.


This shows the hot mop stage. A man arrived early one morning with a lorry carrying a tub of hot tar to coat the floor and a short way up the walls and over the curb to create a watertight seal. The tar smelt really strongly, particularly as the room has no window to open. When the tar dried water was poured into it to check for leaks. The water had to stay for a day to be sure and had to be there for the building inspector to see before he signed it off.


Mr. Tiler and helper aren’t hanging around. They have put up the brown paper (you can see some of it poking out by Mr. Helper’s head on the left hand side), the chicken wire, and a layer of cement on top. There’s also a layer of cement on the floor covering the hot mop and the curb.


Almost done with this stage.
There’s no electricity on in the bathroom yet so they are working by the light of work lamps which get a bit hot. Luckily there’s room for a fan to blow too. Even so it’s hot work.


So far, so good.


This picture shows the scratch coat stage. This involved Mr. Tiler coming in and scratching the cement which some say gives a solid backing for the brown coat.


The brown coat (or float) is a final and thicker coat of mortar.


After the brown coat was put on, Mr. Tiler rubbed it with a pumice stone to sand it.


Lastly the brown paper peeking out at the sides and top is removed and the shower pan is smoothed out with a trowel and mortar.

It’s all ready for tiling!