Shower tray with own hands

As an alternative to the purchased shower trays are the self-made pallets, because even the layman is completely underforce your efforts and make a pallet yourself. This will save money, but at the same time show your imagination and creativity.

At the planning stage of the renovation in the bathroom, you decided to install a shower tray or shower? You have several ways to implement this idea. Buy a ready-made shower, buy a ready-made shower tray or make a shower with your own hands.

The following arguments can be attributed to the advantages of self-manufacturing:

• significant cost savings;
• possibility to make a pallet of any shape and size;
• choose a decorative coating, in accordance with the design of the entire room;
• install exactly the shower equipment, which is necessary for you;
• choose or order individual fencing.

In the end, you will have an exclusive shower cabin, in quality, which you will be absolutely sure. In this article we will tell you how to properly build a shower tray, what materials and tools you will need, and help to avoid mistakes in construction and finishing.

We choose a place for the construction of a shower tray. It is advisable to place it near the communications, but this issue is not fundamental, with a competent distribution of communications, you can make a pallet anywhere in the bathroom. Particular attention is paid to the screed and waterproofing of the floor in the room:

• For a city apartment, a lightweight screed and a light pallet design are best.
• In a private house or in a country house the weight of the structure is important only when organizing a bathroom on the upper floors of the house. In this case, it is necessary to calculate the allowable load on the overlap.

Choose the shape of the pallet. It all depends on your imagination, experience in construction and the size of the room. Of no small importance is the convenience of a future pallet for all family members. For example, if you have full or elderly people the size of the pallet should be large and it is advisable to have a streamlined shape. The absence of sharp corners will be a guarantee of safety.

Choose the height of the sides of the pallet. The choice of the pallet height options is huge, you can do without a side at all, by purchasing a special ladder or building a mini-pool. However, these options are mainly available only to the owners of private houses, as installing a shower ladder "on the floor" requires raising the overall level of the floor and a larger layer of screed. The mini-pool is a very heavy structure, and completely filled with water it can lead to collapse of load-bearing structures or floors.

The standard height of the shower tray can be considered the height of one brick from the inside surface of the pallet.

When the future design plan is ready and all calculations are made, it is worthwhile to purchase all necessary materials, these can be:

• gangway;
• bricks;
• mortar and sand;
• waterproofing mastic or other materials of similar designation;
• waterproof film or roofing material;
• finishing materials and glue or mortar for laying decorative coating.

You will also need the following tools and fasteners:

• roller or brush;
• marker;
• perforator;
• screwdriver;
• trowel;
• building level, beacons;
• self-tapping screws, dowels, plugs and gaskets.

The first stage of the is the preparation of the base on which the pallet will be constructed. We clean the surface of the floor and the adjacent walls. If the floor does not have an initial concrete screed, then we do it. We shall ground the basis. This is done necessarily and in order to waterproof your future construction and in order to prevent the formation of fungus and bacteria in the operation. If there is a desire to make the pallet even more comfortable, then under the rough floor you can lay the system "warm floor".

The second stage of : we connect the pipes under the slope of the gangway with sewerage, rigidly fix it. The angle of drainage should be at least three degrees.

The third stage of is filled with a cement-sand mixture or we spread out the bricks from the bricks, taking into account the height of the ladder and the inclination to it. Then very carefully seal the entire structure. The pallet is ready for finishing.

The pallet can be made of cement or used ready-made concrete blocks or bricks. Bricks should not be bought silicate, but ceramic, as this type of brick is resistant to water.

For a wooden floor it will be correct to make a concrete screed and lay the ladder on it, and then raise the pallet to the level of the ladder. In this case, it will be necessary to make the formwork and wait for several weeks until the concrete has solidified completely. Under no circumstances should cement-lime compounds be used for leveling surfaces. It is necessary to take only pure cement and sand.

Sewage ladder is a drainage system from a pallet. Usually for the bathrooms choose plastic models. They are lightweight, easy to install, easy to clean and also resistant to aggressive household chemicals.

Modern models are equipped with a siphon, which prevents the penetration of unpleasant odors from the sewage system into the room.

If you still decide to install a sink in the center of the sump, properly arrange the level of draining the water to it. There are solutions that allow you to build a ladder not in the floor, but in the wall, which is the latest fashion trend, but requires a lot of effort and knowledge of the installation technology.

By the shape of the ladder can be different: square or shaped, round or oval, and also triangular. They can be equipped with various gratings, seal gaskets, with different siphon diameter and outflow pipes. There are whole shower trays that perfectly masks for the tile and the sink will not be visible at all.

The installation of the gangway usually begins with the installation of pipes, which must be rigidly fastened in the pallet, so that no impacts can move it and thereby disrupt the integrity and reliability of the system. Remember the slope of the drainage. If your pallet is lower than the sewage drain, then at least 3 degrees can not be tilted, in this case lift the level of the pallet and ensure the necessary slope of the drainage. When the entire drainage system is mounted, set the beacons of the height level of the interior space of the pallet. Beacons help to make the right slope of the future pallet. Next, proceed to the formation of the base of the base.

Given that each case has to be considered separately, and that all the options for your particular way of arranging the shower tray, let's take a typical example: the pallet is made of concrete.

• The floor and part of the wall that will be adjacent to your soul, must be thoroughly cleaned, smeared with a waterproofing compound, for example, bitumen mastic with a high adhesion index.
• Then the ladder is installed and poured with a concrete screed. The level of the floor should be such that afterwards the laid tiles would be level with the gangway. That is, the thickness of the tile plus the thickness of the glue for the tiles is provided. Make sure that the slope of the floor is directed directly to the opening of the drainage system.
• After complete drying, install the wooden formwork, the width of the board should be at least 4 cm, and fill the sides. Masters are advised to wait for a full drying of at least two weeks with a thick layer of concrete poured.

As already mentioned, waterproofing is the most important stage in the construction of a shower tray. The first sealing of the joints between the floor and the walls should occur during the preparatory stage, when either the film, or rather several layers of ruberoid will be laid on the floor so as to completely cover any cracks in the places of joining the walls and floor. After that, the floor and adjacent walls are carefully treated with a waterproofing compound - it is applied as a primer mixture evenly. The required thickness of the layer is determined by the instructions on the package. On the joints of walls and floor it would be ideal to lay a special waterproofing tape.

The next waterproofing layer is made after the bottom of the pallet has dried, before the beginning of the cladding work. Once again paint with the same mixture, lay a special tape at the joints. After the finishing works, all joints of the shower tray with walls or fencing should be treated with sealant.

The self-erected construction can be finished to your taste, the only requirement for a decorative coating is the moisture resistance and anti-skid properties. Information on these indicators can be read on packages of tiles or other finishing materials. Laying tiles on the floor and the sides of the shower tray edge is no different from installing ordinary tiles on the floor. A notched trowel is used, the glue is applied to the tile, then the tile is well and evenly pressed. It is desirable that the joints between the tiles were minimal.

It is best for pallets to use mosaic tiles. It is easier to install, almost non-slip and gives you the opportunity to realize creative abilities. If the shower tray is adjacent to walls or partitions, you can completely trim the surrounding space with a mosaic or lay out on the walls a mosaic panel harmonizing with the base.

After complete drying, it is required to wipe the seams between tiles or mosaic with a moisture-resistant grout.

The corners of the rim can be trimmed with special corners to avoid injuries. Do not forget to pick up the shower.

If you have all the right angles and the surface is well leveled, then the mosaic will lie flat, beautiful and will delight the eye, and the shower tray will serve for a long time and trouble-free.