Kholsme
New Member
Seeing as I used this forum extensively to prepare for my project, here is my attempt to give back a bit. This project had a lot of firsts for me. First walk-in shower build, first steam shower build, and first linear drain install. I figured since this was a bathroom in my own basement, I should try to learn as much as I could from it. Go easy on me if things are not totally flush. Also this is my first time posting, so bare with me.
So my first challenge was the shower pan. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the shower pan assembly. I will try to describe the process. When I poured the new basement floor I formed out the shower pan area (see first pic) so that I could create the pan below the floor level after the floor was poured. This would allow for a curb-less design. The design of the pan is one that slopes from both the wall and the entrance to a center linear drain. If I had the choice again, I would have roughed the drain line over more so that I could have had one slope to a linear drain on the wall side.
The linear drain was a great choice. It allows for large format tiles, which result in a seamless transition from outside to inside the shower using the same tile. Besides that, the look is unmatched. Hopefully the price of these drain systems will go down. The sand mix pan in the pictures has been covered with a thin coat of thinset to create a smooth surface for my waterproofing. At this point I would like to give a special thanks to John Whipple for answering some questions via email, as well as all the posts he has put out there to help people with the designing of linear drain shower systems. My linear drain attaches to a standard adjustable shower drain on the left side. The linear drain will sit in the trough created in the shower pan, this trough is sloped toward the drain, so that any water not making it down the linear drain will be able to make it to the weep holes below the linear drain.
So my first challenge was the shower pan. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the shower pan assembly. I will try to describe the process. When I poured the new basement floor I formed out the shower pan area (see first pic) so that I could create the pan below the floor level after the floor was poured. This would allow for a curb-less design. The design of the pan is one that slopes from both the wall and the entrance to a center linear drain. If I had the choice again, I would have roughed the drain line over more so that I could have had one slope to a linear drain on the wall side.
The linear drain was a great choice. It allows for large format tiles, which result in a seamless transition from outside to inside the shower using the same tile. Besides that, the look is unmatched. Hopefully the price of these drain systems will go down. The sand mix pan in the pictures has been covered with a thin coat of thinset to create a smooth surface for my waterproofing. At this point I would like to give a special thanks to John Whipple for answering some questions via email, as well as all the posts he has put out there to help people with the designing of linear drain shower systems. My linear drain attaches to a standard adjustable shower drain on the left side. The linear drain will sit in the trough created in the shower pan, this trough is sloped toward the drain, so that any water not making it down the linear drain will be able to make it to the weep holes below the linear drain.
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