While the plumber was
installing the radiators, I was able to start focusing my attention (finally) on the shower. It (along with the rest of the bathroom) is going to be completely new - when we did demolition we pulled out all the old fixtures, so for the moment, the bathroom is just an empty space except for the toilet and the boiler. So the entire shower enclosure has to built from scratch: framing, walls, floors, waterproofing, tiles and new plumbing...in other words, "the works".
I had previously installed the
bathroom sub-floor, working out the initial layout when we had the
boiler installed. During that period, the wall separating the shower from the boiler was put up - so when everything is finally done, that wall will become the front of the shower (where the shower head and valve go).
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Morning of October 17th - the previously framed-out is visible on the left.
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After clearing everything out - the starting point for the shower!
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The first task will be to start installing the tile backer boards - I had done quite a bit of research on the various options and decided to go with a product made by
Marmox - a waterproof, insulated cement board. Not only will this be the proper surface to which the tiles can be attached, but it can be used as part of a waterproof system for building showers - I liked that this product accomplished several things at the same time. The Marmox boards can either be screwed into framing, adhered to masonry with adhesive, or nailed in place with plastic "spankers". I opted for using the "spankers"
and the adhesive due to the very uneven surfaces of both brick and plaster - this was similar to
dry-lining plasterboard in the living room. The adhesive itself is waterproof, but it also adds strength to the installation which will be necessary if we use heavier stone tiles.
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| Applying adhesive to the wall and the back of the Marmox board |
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| The first Marmox board installed |
The design for the bathroom (and specifically the shower) ended up becoming quite complicated as there are many "spanners" in the works here. You may have noticed there's a large arch in the brick wall - this was only discovered during
demolition as it was hidden behind the old walls. This arch resulted in a steel post going in to reinforce
the steel beam - which (of course) pockets into the brick wall directly above the arch. This post ended up in the shower, and the post is sitting on a heavy steel beam to help distribute the forces and weight (or to be more precise, the point load) of the post across a few floor joists below. As a result, the floor of our shower will sit on-top of the steel beam. I also added a ledge that wraps around two sides of the bathroom - this was initially done to help hide the concealed cistern from our loo, but i carried the ledge around to give a ledge over the sink and in the shower where we can put things. The final design of the bathroom incorporates all these elements and (hopefully) will seamlessly tie everything together for a clean and simple appearance.
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| Second Marmox board installed and starting to frame out the base of
the shower. The ledge is also starting to be framed on the right side of
the picture |
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| The shower base fully framed out - sitting on top of the steel beam. |
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| The shower floor's plywood substrate |
The Marmox system includes an insulated and waterproofed floor board that is pre-sloped for water drainage. I ordered one that was closest to the size of our shower and then cut it down to fit. One of the other things I liked about the Marmox system is that is has been designed around a specific drain - the floor board is pre-cut to receive the drain, so the entire system is integrated and should come together easily.
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| The Marmox floor board |
We had worked out that as the plumber finished working on the heating, he would do the "roughing", or first fixing, of the shower pipes and fixtures. We had previously selected and ordered the shower head and valve, but that evening "Aglaya" and I had to choose exactly where they should be installed the following day - she really enjoyed this part!
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| Locating the shower valve - which height feels right? |
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| Locating the shower head. |
So the next day our plumber installed the pipes and fixtures based on the locations we selected the previous evening.
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| October 20th - Overall view of the shower plumbing |
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| Detail view of the shower valve in the wall |
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| The floor drain anticipating the future floor height due the steel
beam (visible in the backgound). The white pipe is a condensate drain
coming from the boiler |
With the initial plumbing completed, it was finally time to sheath the shower with plywood, covering the pipes (on one side). As part of the waterproofing I decided to use WPBP (waterproof boil proof) plywood that would later be covered with a waterproof tanking kit (to be explained in the next post), followed by the Marmox board.
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| Installing the plywood substrate |
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| Most of the plywood installed |
With the floor, plywood, plumbing and Marmox in place...the outlines of a shower are finally starting to be visible!
