Proper Way To Slope A Shower Floor

Mix up some concrete mix in the mixer.

Proper way to slope a shower floor.

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. Clean and properly supported shower floor. 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.

I will show you in this video a step by step process how to do it. 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 purpose of the slope in a shower pan is to encourage all water toward the drain. 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.

To determine the proper slope measure from the drain to each wall and figure a quarter inch of slope per foot of length. The shower walls have been framed like any other wall with 2 x 4 studs generally 16 on center and pressure treated sill plates the lumber that sits on the floor. To efficiently drain the recommended minimum slope for a shower floor is about 4 percent or a 1 2 inch drop per every 12 inches from the shower walls to the drain. 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.

For example a floor that extends 4 feet away from the drain should have 1 inch of overall slope. Are you looking for an easy way on how to slope a shower pan. 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. During the rough plumbing of the shower and tub the drain pipe ends were each encased in plastic boxes so when the slab was poured a void was created surrounding the end of each drain pipe.

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. The following five part series gives a basic overview of building a shower floor for tile.