Remodeling continues…
The next step was to raise the shower floor to match the level of the floor the tub sat on. Here my neighbor Ricardo is trowelling the cement smooth.
We filled in the old shower floor with cement and left it overnight to set up.
The next day I worked on getting the new pipes lined up since we replaced the copper with PVC.
I needed a “curb” between the new shower floor and the bathroom floor, so Ricardo created one with two 2×4’s by nailing them to the floor with his handy dandy nail gun. The right tool for the right job… Once that was nailed down, I covered it on 3 sides with the cement board. (Note, this picture shows the curb after the plastic shower pan was in place.)
Then we cleaned up the floor really good and put down the plastic shower pan. The final cement floor will be poured on top of the plastic.
To ensure that none of the shower water goes anywhere but down the drain, the shower pan sheeting is secured under the drain flange.
I had to work on the walls next. We are using Hardibacker cement board instead of drywall since it is extremely water resistant. The Hardi boards have to be put up before the final cement floor can be poured. First I cut the blue foam insulation sheets and glued them to the wall with Liquid Nails.
Then I began cutting the cement board and screwing it to the walls. When cutting cement board with my circular saw, I had to get the special blade for cutting this stuff. It throws out HUGE amounts of dust, so I cut it in my garage with a box fan turned on high and pointed out the garage door so that it would blow most of the dust out onto the driveway where I can just hose it down when I am done.
Here I have most of the outside wall done, with just a few trim pieces left to put up.
Once I have the showed heads lined up right and secured to the wall, I can proceed with putting the rest of the cement board up on the remaining 2 walls.
