Shower tray liner installation options

Installing shower pan liner, if done correctly, will produce a trouble-free shower for decades. Get it wrong and your bathroom will be a nightmare. So what makes an installation successful?

The real key to shower pan installation is building a waterproof floor that moves water quickly to the drain without leaking. Also the floor must be properly sealed to the walls. Oddly enough, ceramic tile floors are not waterproof. Grout and some tiles are not waterproof at all. The water passes directly through the grout. So the key to a waterproof shower floor is a waterproof coating under the ceramic tile.

Another option for a tile floor is a fiberglass shower tray or the more expensive acrylic shower tray. These pans are waterproof as long as the coating does not break. If the gel coat is cracked, some of these trays may also leak.

The traditional method of building ceramic shower floors is masonry work. A layer of masonry, such as concrete, is poured over a sturdy floor and sloped down to a special shower drain. The shower drain has two layers of drainage holes. A waterproof vinyl sheet is placed over the concrete base layer and glued to the base of the drain to form a waterproof layer. This layer is key for the shower tray. The lower drainage holes are now in position to catch any water that reaches the waterproof coating.

Gravel is now placed in the drainage holes to keep them open. Then the top layer of masonry is poured and sloped towards the drain. Finally, the tile is laid and grouted to finish the floor.

An often overlooked part of shower maintenance is sealing the grout. No grout sealing required, but keeps water out of grout. Constant soaking and drying of grout can cause it to fail over time. Also another maintenance tip is to periodically check the tightness between the walls and the floor. Most tile installers will caulk this joint to make sure leaks don’t start there. Make sure this seam between the shower floor and the shower walls remains in good shape.

Another kind of shower pan liner is tile-ready liner. There are several companies that manufacture complete shower waterproofing systems ready for ceramic tile installation. Some systems include walls, ceilings, and floors. Some only tackle the floors. Look at one of these systems as an alternative to traditional showers. Tile-ready systems are faster than a traditional build shower, but are typically more expensive. The suppliers of these systems are Tile Redi, Schluter and Wedi.