Mud Pan with Flo FX drain
So we built a mini "practice shower" to practice our mud pan and eventually practice some tiling. We implemented the "Training wheels" method in Isaac's video by using MDF board to screed off of in order to have the appropriate slope. We already realize some things we need to do differently for the real mud pan. For example we accidentally had the mix way too wet, so it was a bit difficult to shape/screed. We also probably needed a bit more deck mud in order to pack under the MDF board appropriately, but it was difficult to get mortar mix so I didn't want to use more than one bag for our practice shower.
But I did have some more specific questions:
How smooth does the surface need to be? We are planning to put a sheet membrane over the mud bed, so I'm not sure how much give and take we have with that to smooth things out. On our practice run, we had some divots, which I think was partly due to the mix being too wet and will hopefully not be as bad when we do the real thing.
Any suggestions on how to remove the MDF board on the back wall of the pan if we can't reach it? Can we wait until it's a bit drier to remove it and add more deck mud if need be after the fact? In the practice pan, which is smaller, I had a hard time reaching to the back and of course didn't want to put any pressure on the mud pan itself in order to reach back and remove the screws from the MDF board.
Here's some pictures of our practice pan. Like I said, I know there's divots and that we didn't pack the edges enough.
To lean on your float, simply use the largest trowel you have to hold your weight as you lean over, and use your free hand to do the work. The trowel will distribute the load and won’t compress the mud if it’s mixed properly and not too wet.