concrete shower floor? (or tile it)?

12 years ago

We are planning to have hydronically heated concrete floors throughout the first floor. The shower is a walk-in, curbless. I'm trying to decide whether to tile the bathroom floor or keep it concrete for uniformity and cost savings.

If concrete, would we have it scored more for traction? (There will probably be some polishing done on the rest of the flooring, but could do less in this room. Scoring will be done to control cracking, but the pattern could vary.)

I also like the look of large format slate-looking porcelain tiles that go across the floor and then up the side of the tub (you walk through the shower to get to the tub.) It is not a large room, so I'm trying to keep from chopping it up visually. But I know people usually want more grout lines in the floor for traction. Would that still be true if the tile itself had some texture?

I hope some of this makes sense-- I may have been thinking about it too much lately!

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MongoCT

12 years ago

If you're writing about extending the concrete "floor" into the shower as your "bare" shower floor, I'd advise you to rethink that. It could turn into mess over time, not just affecting the shower floor, but with moisture eventually wicking out and saturating portions of the bathroom floor too.

Now you can certainly do anything. If building code applies in your area and you want to be code compliant, it does make it a bit more difficult to have a code compliant "naked" concrete slab in a wet room bath and shower.

To be code compliant, believe it or not it's probably less expensive to tile the bathroom.

Pour your slab. If you want to use large format tile you need a flat slab, one flat to a certain specification. You'll have to spec it out to the concrete crew IN YOUR CONTRACT and verbally, it needs emphasis. Realize that the larger tile you use, the flatter the floor has to be.

Once the slab is in and is sufficiently cured, you can apply a topical waterproofing membrane right on the slab, then tile right on the membrane.

There are modern/industrial looking large format tiles that sort of look like concrete. Or if you go with another shade or hue, they'll blend well into that style of bathroom.

Here's a 12" by 24" charcoal for example, they also come in 24" squares.

If you want to extend the large format into the shower space too, I'd recommend looking at using a trench drain. That way your shower floor can be a single-plane, flat surface, that slopes to the trench drain. You'll not have to cut your large format to fit the inverted pyramid shape of a typical shower with a center-floor drain.

Trench drain example:

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Comments (8)

LE
Original Author
12 years ago
Mongo, you're a mindreader! Large-format charcoal with a trench drain is exactly what I was thinking of for the tile option. But I like that vanilla ice cream-colored option in your photos a lot as well.

I had no idea that it would be tricky to make the concrete floor either level or waterproof. In the rest of the house, the concrete will be the finish floor, so I know we will have to make sure that everyone understands that up front. We have arranged to have a very meticulous contractor build our house, so will make sure this issue gets communicated to subs. We do have pretty strict building codes where we are.

Thanks for the tips. I did see a thread a few weeks back about another manufacturer for trench drains so at least there is some competition there now,the ones I looked at last year were insanely expensive, but yes, a much better option than the trapezoidal thing.

It is interesting how often it turns out that what seems simplest and thus less expensive actually turns out to be more labor-intensive. It is not always apparent to me going in, so it is good to hear from those "in the know."

So it is OK to use large tiles on a shower floor?

Thanks for taking the time!
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dorry, As you know, water can get past the tile and grout. Once it does, it'll hit the tile backer board. Cement board is an excellent tile backer board because it is not negatively affected by water. Wet it, dry it, repeat the cycle...and in 50 years the cement board will still look like cement board. Unlike a gypsum board, which will slowly turn to mush with repeated wetting and drying cycles. Now cement board is not waterproof. Wet it and water can pass through it. That's why you need some sort of drainage barrier in the wall. It's often done by stapling 6-mil polyethylene plastic to the studs, then lapping the bottom edge of the poly over the tub flange. Any water that gets past the tile/grout and through the cement board will hit the poly. The poly prevents the water from getting into the framing bays. Most of the time all will be well. The tile and grout shed 99.99% of the water down the drain. Any minor imperfections in the wall, the cement board might get a little bit wet. But think of the cement board as a sponge, it can hold a bit of moisture in it's pores. When the shower is not in use, any moisture that got into the wall usually evaporates back out of the wall. No big deal, no damage. Now if you had a damaged wall...bad grout, a cracked tile, etc...then you could get more water into the wall. If thee is more water getting in than can get out via evaporation, then the poly will stop the moisture from getting to the house's framing. It'll hit the poly and flow downward, over the tub flange, and back into the tub if weepholes were left in place. Poly is one type of membrane. Anther is a topical membrane that can be used on the face of the cement board. RedGard, Hydroban, etc. They get "painted" on the cement board, then you tile on the membrane. But as Bill wrote, any partial repairs leave you in an conundrum of sorts. Not sure if this is worth anything, but you mentioned greenboard. Greenboard as a tile backer in a shower has been a known poor building practice for decades. It has been an outright code violation since January of 2006. That's no help to you now, I know that. The big concern to address with your worker is the top horizontal seam of the repair. You'll have a seam in the tile backer, topped by a "seam" or grout line in the tile layout. A seam over a seam is an excellent point for flexure failure (cracks in the grout) and eventual water intrusion into the wall. Any issues will be compounded by there being nothing behind the tile backer to contain any water that gets back there. At a minimum, I'd remove the cement board and try to slide poly up behind the bottom edge of the existing tile backer, between the bottom of the existing tile backer and the wall studs. Even an inch will help. Enough to get some protection behind the eventual double seam. Then drape the poly down over the tub flange. Reset the cement board over the poly.
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MongoCT
12 years ago
Large tiles are fine in a shower. Try to have one with a little texture, or at least one that is not polished or slicky-smooth when wet.

Laticrete is now marketing a trench drain if that is what you were thinking of.
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LE
Original Author
12 years ago
yes, I think that is the drain I read about here. I was looking at porcelain tiles with some slight ribs or a slate-like texture, so that should be enough. Thanks for the input.
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phylliswallace1990
4 years ago
morning

I'm just connecting to this thread

I have a remodel that I am desperate for input

I am wanting an infinity drain and curbless shower

mthe area to become the shower used to be a vanity area - so it's flat m/level concrete

how do I establish a slope on the flat concrete to get a curbless shower when I also want the bath and shower floor to b flush ?

also i read these linear drains should extend the entire shower length and should be placed wall to wall either at the back or front of the shower ( meaning against one side - not down center of shiwer)

xan anyone help me with this? Thank you - Phyllis
0
PRO
Creative Tile Eastern CT
4 years ago
Phyllis. This thread is 7 years old. Start a new one and you will receive plenty of input.
0
phylliswallace1990
4 years ago
Ok how do I start one

I nust came across this on the web
0
enduring
4 years ago
Phylliswallace, go to the main bathroom page:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/bath

OR

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/bathrooms

Both links take you to the same place. When this original thread was written, this site was called Garden Web. In 2015 Houzz bought it.

There you will find a spot at the top that says "start you discussion". Click on that and a dialogue box will open for you to place your title of your thread where it says "enter your question". Below you will enter your statements/questions. At the bottom of the dialogue box are options to change formatting, link a picture, etc. When you submit, you will get options to link other House/GardenWeb forums that might also be applicable to your query.
0

concrete shower floor? (or tile it)?

MongoCT

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LE
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concrete shower floor? (or tile it)?

MongoCT

Comments (8)

LEOriginal Author

Related Discussions

MongoCT

LEOriginal Author

phylliswallace1990

Creative Tile Eastern CT

phylliswallace1990

enduring

COMPANY

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LE
Original Author

LE
Original Author