Proper Way To Slope A Shower Floor

Clean and properly supported shower floor.

Proper way to slope a shower floor.

Are you looking for an easy way on how to slope a shower pan. The following five part series gives a basic overview of building a shower floor for tile. I will show you in this video a step by step process how to do it. Which will be the thickest because of the slope by placing the 2 x 4 right up against the curb and hitting it a few times with a hammer.

Before we begin please understand that in a conventional mortar bed shower floor the slope of the floor comes from the sloped fill or pre slope which is under the shower pan membrane. The mortar bed on top of the membrane is exactly the same thickness along the walls as it is at the drain. If the wall is 3 feet from the drain the cement should rise by 3 4 inches as it goes from the drain to the wall starting at the half inch depth around the drain for a total height of 1 1 4 inches at the wall. For example a floor that extends 4 feet away from the drain should have 1 inch of overall slope.

The purpose of the slope in a shower pan is to encourage all water toward the drain. Mark this outer height mark along the wall with a pencil. Despite what you may think water can and will penetrate all the way through the tile mortar and concrete above the shower pan making its way down to the shower pan. And be sure to tackle all of the prep steps first.

The pre slope is a slight slope of the floor draining toward the shower drain created with dry pack cement before the shower pan is installed. When tiling a shower one of the most important things to remember is that you need extra cuts in the tiles to make sure they follow the fall of the floor a. Mix up some concrete mix in the mixer. To determine the proper slope measure from the drain to each wall and figure a quarter inch of slope per foot of length.

If you would like a complete step by step of the entire process with all the little idiosyncrasies and details i now have manuals describing the complete process for you from bare wall studs all the way up to a completely waterproof shower substrate for your tile. Using a wood float trowel.