we decided to hot mop our floor and do a mud bed to keep the house period accurate but i ran across this great alternative. i'd consider this if we didn't go mud. We are using Hydroban on the wall, as Bill has suggested.

it's called Kerdi and many people seem to rave about it. I imagine the resident tile experts Bill and Mongo have words of wisdom about how well it works. I seriously considered it but hubby wanted tar... it has not been fun. Hot mop people are in short supply here in LA. I'm really hating this job right now. All the jackhammering and demo involved in changing a pan is horrible. If there is an alternative that works as well, i think it's worth considering and this stuff below looks like it may be.

They have a kits and sell a fabric you can cut custom. Browse the site and check out the fabric, i imagine it would be great to do a curbless shower or a bathroom european or japanese style with a drain in the center. Seems like this would make it possible, just create a full wet room. I'd love that with a soaking tub...

I need a soaking tub after this nightmare...

Here is a link that might be useful: kerdi

Also- I was planning to do the tile myself before this project went down the rabbit hole. But tile on mud seems a bit trickier than working on something like this kerdi membrane. It seems more forgiving for some reason. (maybe I'm just demonizing the mud at this point...) And after pulling out all the old lath, studs and hordes of concrete, I think that sealing the hell out of the walls is a fabulous idea. Nothing more than gross waterlogged rotten lath to tell me this.

I think you can't be watertight enough. I'd waterproof it like a steam shower to avoid what I'm dealing with now in a heartbeat. It sucks. It's been A WEEK of demo. I'm not kidding, those old mortar beds are CRAZY and it destroyed all the grout on the tub wall and elsewhere taking it out- tons of damage control if you ever have to remove the mortar bed. Just something I found out and never thought about before.

I'll tell you in about 30 minutes how horrible the tar is and how much it stinks too..

You can also do terrazzo shower pans, which are quite heavy but seem easier to do than tile, and more durable than acrylic.

Terrazzo lasts forever. One piece is a good idea and they look great. Nice idea for someone who doesn't want to go through the pain of pan removal, new concrete, hot mop, more topping then tile, then grout. It's long process. Terrazo sounds pretty inviting.

wish we could have done that instead. I'll be another 6 days (at least) without a shower after nearly a week and the hot mop was done this afternoon.

Hi Lecuzz,

Acrylic shower bases come in preset sizes which may not always meet your requirements. Mud, on the other hand can be formed to whatever size you want. That convenience was the prime factor which made us go with a mud floor shower. Price wise, they are not particularly more costly than an acrylic install of good quality. But they can be made to look like a million.

We used the Kerdi membrane rather than the Ditra because our floors are level and sound, with minimal flex. We did not need the de-coupling quality of the Ditra membrane but still wanted the waterproofing peace of mind of a Kerdi membrane. Schluter also makes pre-formed foam shower pans, but I nixed that idea after viewing some horror stories about them on Youtube.

Our reno project is still going, but already our mudded shower looks real good and we are happy with our choice.

Just to clarify, Kerdi is for showers - both walls and floors, Ditra is for floors outside of the shower. With Kerdi you can either use the sloped Kerdi tray, or create a mud bed and apply the Kerdi over it. That is how I built a shower several years ago, as the Kerdi tray was not the right size for my space. In my new house I have a fully tiled shower in the master bath and a one piece acrylic unit in the kids' bath. I find the tile is easier to keep looking good than the acrylic. Properly built tile pans should have no more issues than acrylic pans.

Hi Terriks,

When we contacted Schluter, we were informed that both Kerdi and Ditra membranes are designed to be used in the shower, walls, and floors. It all depends on what you need, waterproofing, decoupling, or both.

They suggested we use a Ditra membrane if we were planning on installing a radiant heat floor, or if we wanted to make a steam shower, or use larger tiles for a European shower floor flush with the bathroom floor. We went for a semi-European base to avoid structural complications.

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