I recently read the instructional write up on building a shower pan at http://www.ontariotile.com/preslope.html and have a question regarding the drain. Well, a couple questions. I understand the building of the drain up to the point of attaching the locking ring after the liner has been installed and the protection of the weep holes. I'm planning on using the Sioux Chief Manufacturing Shower Pan Drain for reference.


1.Should you screw the drain down all the way to the locking ring for the finished layer of mud?

2.If the drain is screwed all the way down should you pack the finishing mud all around the drain with attention keep to protect the weep holes? (In the picture it looks like the mud is full packed around the drain thus negating the weep holes.)

3.Once the finishing mud has cured I assume your going to unscrew the drain in order to lay the tile. Once the tile is layed how does the drain mate to the tiles mortar/grout?

You want your pre-slope mortar bed to be about 3/4 to one inch thick at the drain. Then the liner gets clamped in place with the weep holes cut out. Then the top of the drain is screwed in so that it sticks up about an inch and a galf. Build your second mortar bed about 1 inch thick and once smooth and packed screw the drain down to the correct depth for tile.

What you don't want is a few grains of sand blocking the weep holes. So a bit of pea gravel is placed on top of the weeps and then mud packed around that. Mortar beds are very permeable and water flows right through them.

the drain should sit about 1/16th below the finished tiles with a 1/8th inch grout line all the way around. Then mask off the drain and grout right to it.

A Schluter drain is much simpler to do, I urge you to reconsider.

Thanks for the advice Pete. I'll look for the Schluter drain. Sioux is at Menard's where I usually go for all my suppliers.