This week I am doing a kerdi shower. I set the drain and the usual..over plywood upstairs bathroom floor. I was ready to do my mud bed, when I thought about an old shower I tore apart a few years ago. I noticed as I broke out the existing mud bed, that it had a separate screed line around the perimeter. It was separate from the mud bed...but there was a perfectly level thickness of mud all around, about an inch thick. Above it, I noticed that there were some nail holes...so...I assumed that 50 years ago when it was originally constructed, they put a strip of wood level all around the shower floor...about 2 inches off the floor,,,and then filled the space under the strip of wood. The next day they removed the woood and were left with a perfectly level ring of cement around the perimeter of the shower. They used this as a screed line to finish the mud bed...when they were done, the floor sloped perfectly to the drain, but was also perfectly level around the perimeter...which was handy since they had a cove base on the floor and the wall tile started full from it. SO.....I thought...why can't I do that? I cut strips of cement board and ran them around the perimeter of my shower. Then I used them as my screed line for doing my mud bed. It was the easiest mud bed I ever did...I didn't need to check levels at all...Just packed the mud tight to the strips around the perimeter and then screeded down to the drain. The floor is perfect and is LEVEL all the way around. I will be doing this on every Kerdi shower from now on....so easy.

Dang, I hoped I explained that well enough for you guys to understand. I should have taken a picture. In fact...I will tomorrow.

If you want to get even smarter about it check the layout of the wall tile before you start your mud bed and set the screeds at the right height to acommodate full tiles floor to ceiling. It does not always work, but it's sweet when it does.

Bri, been doing that for about two and half years now. I just rip the edge of a 2x4 in 1/4" strips and tack them to the wall with a trim nailer. Only difference is, I use the top of the strip as to ride the screed boards. The other end rides on the drain flange, of course. I leave the strips in and just Kerdi right over them. I figure since they're only 1/4" wide it won't hurt to leave them in.

Yeah, Kman...that is what I do with the strips too..See, I told you I didn't explain it very well.

And yeah Pete...it would be awesome if that worked out every time. Actually...even better if someone else was doing it for me.

Bri great observation and a good idea...did you get the picture the next day?

That was actually an idea I found in John Bridge's Kerdi Shower e-book. I don't think he actually does it, but knew someone that did.

I also do the same. Just use what ever scraps of wood that are around. Have been doing it ever since I've done my first base only using mud. Never mentioned it because I figured someone on these chat boards would try to give me flack for leaving wood strips in the base. Ever since I tried to level off my first mudbase using only mud I told myself screw this and came up with that idea. It does work excellent, super fast. Great idea though Brian Anyone who doesn't do it that way should definetly try.

Bri, the best trick for mud work that I have learned is that I taught Eddy to float mud and now he can do a lot of it, giving me a break! Now, that's ingenious!