Constructing a curbless shower questions

[ArashM]

I have a old shower hob where the curbs are made of bricks.

the shower is too small, so i've decided to remove the curbs and make a curbless shower. 

the shower floor already sloped, so I'm not gonna dig into concrete floor and build a sloped pan.

I'm just gonna remove the curbs and the floor tile, prime it, put waterproofing membrane and install new tiles.

i've figured all the parts out except that i have no idea how to remove the curb.

i've remove the tiling on the curb, but the curb looks to be made of bricks attached to concrete floor and glued together with mortar.

I've been working with chisel and hammer but removing the mortar was best i could do.

could you please suggest a method or a tool (non expensive preferred) I could use to remove the bricks and reach the concrete floor?

Thank you

[ArashM]

Hi,

I have a shower floor of 125x80cm with a drain grate located off centre (see photo attached).

I'm planning to build a sloped screed to have a curbless shower. I have already lower the shower floor and leveled it.

I watched a Bunnings video shower base tile installation where they used large format tiles, layed it on the base and cut from corners of base to the drain to match the tiles with slope of the shower base.

I have encoustic 20x20 tiles and I have been told not to slope the pan by quarters and not to cut the tiles as the videos demonstration. Main reason being the cut tiles end up with sharp lips as opposed to the original manufactured sides where there is rounded lip. Having the sharp edges would not be pleasing under foot traffic.

Also, since my tiles are patterned, cutting as such would ruin the overall pattern.

I've had a look all over internet and i have only seen large format tile cut as such or small mosaic tiles used for shower floor.

Could you please advice of alternative sloping methods as apposed to the corner to centre quarter slopes i can use to build the shower base so that I would not have to cut tiles where foot traffic is.

Your help is greatly appreciated

 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @ArashM, 

With large format tiles, they are cut like this as there is no other way for them to follow the grade of the shower base into a central waste. This is why you see strip drains on the sides of recesses becoming common usage.

With smaller tiles and mosaics, this is not necessary as the thickness of tile glue allows them to be individually adjusted to suit the grade. The smaller the tile the easier it is to adjust them to the grade. This is why you have seen so many smaller tiles used on the base of showers.

In your case, you would lay a screed with as minimal a grade as possible. You would then adjust each individual tile to suit the grade. 

Tiling a wall is quite easy but getting 200 x 200mm tiles to follow a grade to a central waste without cutting them is a bit of an art form. 

Mitchell

[ArashM]

Thanks @MitchellMc for getting back to me.

In terms of functionality of slope, with the grout lines where slopes meet, is it required to have the grout line end at the centre of the drain? Or would it still work the same if the grout line does not end up on top of the drain?

[MitchellMc]

@ArashM,

I apologise as I'm not sure if I completely understand your question. You don't need to have the slope quartered or have any meeting slopes. That is just a convenient way to grade the shower evenly. It's not required to have grout lines end at the centre drain. As long as there is a consistent grade towards the drain all the tiling is positioned to look the best whilst being convenient to lay.

Mitchell

[Former Workshop member]

With 200 x200 tiles its not necessary to quarter. Ideally you want to position the tiles so the floorwaste is in the centre of 4 tiles.

This is more important than having full tiles along an edge.

You can adjust the floorwaste centre a bit to eliminate small cuts.

If your room isn't perfectly square, the closer the grout line is to the wall the more obvious it will become.

If you do have small cuts an alternative is lay on the diagonal. A bit more cutting but can be a good look.

Diagonal

Put 4 tiles down at the floorwaste, then rest 2 straight edges against the tile edges at right angles and check and adjust for squareness of your room.

Then lay out a few tiles to check how small cuts to the wall will be. You don't want cuts that are so small that they are hard to do without breaking the tile.

Start tiling at the floorwaste.

Layout and precut tiles where you need to do curve cuts before putting any adhesive down. eg around floowaste or toilet.

The best and easiest floor tiling jobs are where you don't try and use the glue as a leveler as you go.

So the key, especially if you are not experienced, is it to have a properly prepared gently sloping floor.

[katricken]

How did you use the rotory hammer drill?

I have the same issue, but I have no idea how to use the rotory drill

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @katricken. It's fantastic that you've joined us and many thanks for your question.

It would be helpful to hear which rotary hammer drill you are using. Generally, you would put the drill into chisel mode, which stops it spinning. This is done via a large switch which should depict a drill and chisel. This mode allows you to chisel the brickwork/cement away.

I look forward to seeing what product you have and providing some assistance.

Mitchell

[redracer01]

Hello @ArashM 

I believe the mortar holding the brick has petrified and it has hardened like rock. You might need to use a sledgehammer to break the brick and mortar as recommended by @MitchellMc @ Just be carful not to hit the surrounding areas and add more work to your reno.

Red