Questions & Answers

I’m going to be installing a seal system shower (I think that’s what it’s called, with a FloFX bonding flange) in my pier and beam house I’m building. Shower base is 76”x42” over 3/4” Advantech plywood. One of my many questions is this: can I use 1/4” cement board (could only find PermaBase in my area) as an uncoupling membrane of sorts? I am going to install it throughout the rest of the bathroom and laundry room floors and figured I could run it continuously into the shower floor as well, including under the concrete curb I’m going to pour. Then when I install my deckmud, it can bond to the cement board. Would I need to still install tar paper and wire lath before deck mud if I did it this way? Thanks in advance. And sorry for the blurry picture, it’s a screen shot from a video I took.

I am installing a schluter pan and am considering adding a liquid membrane of some sort as additional insurance. However, schluter does not recommend it but do not flat out say it will fail. Anybody have experience combining these products?

I'm framing out a shower and getting ready to order a Tile Redi Base 36x60 (flat bottom, single curb, center drain). Per the spec sheet, the drain should be centered at 30" from each side wall (60" length).

My center drain measures about 29 7/8" from one framed wall. Since I know Tile Redi's custom pan options are offered in 1/4" increments, I'm assuming anything less than a 1/4" off standard spec would fall within normal tolerance for a standard pan — but wanted to sanity check that assumption with people who've actually ordered/installed these.

My real concern is the "short" side of the pan — if my drain is sitting close to that 1/4" edge of tolerance, could the shorter distance from drain to wall on that side cause the pan to not physically fit within the framed space, even if the offset itself seems minor on paper?

5x8 bathroom. 5' wall parallel to bath is cinder block and will be framed out with 2x4 and insulated. Adjacent walls are 2x3" framed. One backs to a bedroom that has rockwool insulation in it. The other (shower head side) backs to the other shower in a utility wall.

Should I install any vapor barriers before installing backer board? Seems like it would make sense.