I understand Harry. Thanks. I was pondering the whole ease of 'breaking it out' when and if the time ever came to demo it (years in the future).

Another question: With this type of shower pan, I read in another post somewhere on here that the mortar above the PVC liner is 'wet' when it use (saturated with water). So, I'm assuming I don't need (or want?) to try to seal up the grout with a grout sealer? So:

-don't seal the grout in the pan
-do seal the grout on the walls

Is this correct?

Thanks again everyone!
Gale

Seal all your grout. Sealer still allows the grout to breathe.
As long as your weep holes are open and the slope is correct there should be no problems.

So,

I finally have my first layer of pre-slope down. But, I've run into a bit of an issue. When I was at Home Depot deciding on which mortar to use, I decided the 'general purpose' mortar was the winner. There was a 'sand mortar,' and in retrospect, I think this may have been a better choice.

Well, the mortar dried a bit "grittier" than I would have liked. I am concerned about 2 potential areas:

1-- I feel like I did not get a level enough grade from the outside edges (at 1 1/2" high) down to the drain (at about 3/8"). I would like to fill in some low spots to help make it a directly smooth transition from outside edge to drain.

2-- The grittiness of the mortar gives me some concern that it may be able to penetrate the vapor barrier further than I would be comfortable with.

Can I use something like a thin set mortar to put a very thin top coating on my base to make it a little smoother and hopefully consistent transition from top to bottom?

Is there a better option than using thin set for this purpose?

I really don't want to tear it all out, and I think it is fixable.

Thanks!
Gale

Alright, the underwhelming number of responses to my last post did nothing to solve my dilema, so I forged ahead...

Sorry Gale K, I never noticed the original post. Yes, if you used thin set to smooth it out, you did the right thing. It works great for that in thin layers, and you can fix it up pretty well.

Thanks for the reply Brian! Glad to hear I jumped the right direction.

I'm happy with how it's looking--filling in a few low spots here and there. The slope is looking great. I am probably doing one of the slowest jobs ever (just ask my wife for her perspective... ). But, I'll get there.

On to the vapor barrier!

O.K., next question: the vapor barrier at the shower pan curb. Harry's post: http://www.ontariotile.com/preslope.html doesn't show specifics on how to fold the liner at the curbing.

I saw a video a while back on 'how to cut the liner here for best fit,' but I can't remember where exactly they cut it.

The video also showed the use of curb corners, which Harry's photo shows as well. The tile supply store employee where I purchased my liner said that I didn't really need to use the corners.

I did some 'test folding' last night with a thin plastic material (not the shower pan liner), but I couldn't get what I would consider a satisfactory fold done.

So, my two questions are:

-How do I fold and/or cut the shower pan liner to get it around the curb successfully? (pictures would be great if anyone has them)

-Should I indeed use curb corners on top of the curb?

Hello? Does anyone have any advice on folding and the curb corners?

Thanks in advance.

Gale

Hope this helps you out a bit:
http://toolbelt.buildiq.com/tool-docs/SB/SHPCustomShowerPanSBS.pdf

The mortar and mesh on the curb will hold the liner in place and also hide the folds, so don't worry too much about bunching it up a bit on the curb, just don't end up too thick on the walls.

Thanks Pistol! I could not make that link work, but I wandered around on that site for a bit and found:

http://toolbelt.buildiq.com/media/16759/shpcustomshowerpansbs.pdf

So, I'm assuming that's the same doc or one similar.

That's the way I was 'going' to jump (found a similar link before, or maybe it was the same one), but didn't know if that was a preferred or 'easy' method. It doesn't look too complicated.

Pressing on!