Price Analysis for New Shower

There are two reasons that I like to do things myself. The first reason is that I am cheap. The second reason is that to be quite honest, I don't like paying what contractors charge, which translates into I am cheap. I also like to get my supplies at the lowest prices possible. Below is a spreadsheet detailing what I spent in the remodeling of my shower. I came in under $700 which I think is pretty commendable.

The shower pan along with most of the other supplies came from Lowes. Things are a little more expensive there but I am paying for convenience. The whole body jet set I got from Ebay through a company called Senry. I am an engineer involved in the distribution of solenoid valves so I have a little insight into the quality of these types of products. I can honestly tell you the casting and parts used in these Senry faucets are extremely high quality. They use better materials than your standard Moen or Kohler faucets. Hey I like to save money, but I don't cut corners. You can find their products at http://www.senry.com.

The rainfall shower head came from Overstock.com. Trust me when I say that it also is heavy duty, works well, and for $20 you can't go wrong.

The tile was from home depot. I caught a pallet of wall tile being taken out of inventory and liquidated at $0.88/ea. It matched the tone I was going for so I grabbed them right there on the spot. You can be flexible and still come out with what you want, so hunt for the deals. I had a mosaic picked out that cost $14.00/ft. I ended up going cheaper with another one that was $4.00/ft. It saved me $90. Again I got the same look, but knocked almost $100 off my budget.

I will review some of these products again periodically just to give you a good idea of how they are holding up but for now, on to the next project.

How to Install the Shower Pan

Well I am back from a week of vacation spending time with my wife and new son. It was very relaxing. This is the next step in installing a tiled shower stall.



Once I had the solid plywood subfloor screwed down it was time to put the shower pan in. The first step is to connect the drain to the pan. You can follow the directions from the manufacturer but basically you put a bead of 100% silicone caulk on both sides where the drain will seal against the pan. You then place the two halves of the drain on either side of the pan and screw them together. This will allow a flange to tighten against the pan on both sides with the silicone completing the seal.



The next step is to make sure the drain in the shower pan will sit nicely into the waste pipe in your floor. I just placed it in the shower stall and dry-fitted it. Since my shower drain was self-sealing I did not have to worry about any further installation details.



I removed the shower pan, spread a layer of thinset morter with a notched trowel just as if I was laying tile and then set the shower pan into it. The drain fit nicely into the waste pipe as it did when I dry-fitted it. I then used the wrench provided with the drain to tighten its gasket around the waste pipe, completing the seal. I walked around on the shower pan to set it in the morter and then left it to set for a day before moving on. Here it is installed.



This is probably one of the most critical parts of putting in a new shower. When you think of the volume of water that has to be processed through this pan and drain on a daily basis and what can happen if there is a leak it is scary. I myself turned the water on accidentally before hooking the drain up and had water pouring from the ceiling on the first floor. It could have been a real disaster.

If you have any reservation about this step I would suggest ordering the new video by Randy Davis. I have found them to be very high quality and you get a 2 month money back guarantee. Check it out HERE.

Next we will talk about moving to the walls.

Demolishing the Old Shower

The first step in replacing the shower was to demolish the old one. This proved to be pretty simple as it was just a flexible surround that was held to the wall with a few screws. After removing the screws I simply rolled it up and threw it in the back of the truck. The next step was to remove all the drywall that was behind it. Again, this was an easy job. I scored it with a box knife where I wanted to end and then knocked the rest of it in with a hammer. I picked it all up and moved it out of the room.

The previous shower pan was not an easy task as it was glued with construction adhesive to the plywood subfloor. It was in bad shape so I decided to break it out of there too. Using my pry bar and a hammer I slowly began tearing it away from the plywood. Most of the top ply came with it so I knew I would need to replace the subfloor in that area.

The last step was to take out the ceiling. This is a job that may or may not need to be done in your bathroom. I decided that I wanted to put in an exhaust fan/light combo so I needed some space to work. I took it out just like the drywall, by scoring, cutting, and then pounding it out with a hammer. Here is a picture of the finishied demo work along with the old plumbing.

How to Tile a Shower

When I decided to replace my shower I knew exactly what I wanted. Nothing short of a spectacular tiled shower with rainfall shower head and body jets would do. However, it is extremely expensive to have done so I decided it was time for a little DIY tile work.

I had already tiled several floors in the house so I was pretty comfortable with the tiling process. What I wasn’t comfortable with was the amount of water that would be testing my DIY tile job on a daily basis. Now I am not one to shy away from any project so I decided I just needed some more knowledge. I turned to the internet. After doing a few searches on how to tile a shower, how to tile a shower floor and how to tile a shower wall I found that the wall was not too bad, but the floor was going to be a little more work than I could take on. I decided not to tile the shower floor. Instead, I bought a nice shower pan from Swanstone with a tile lip on it.

Over the next few posts I will go over the whole job from start to finish with quite a few pictures. Hopefully it will help give someone else the confidence to take on a project such as this. To begin, here is a before and after shot of the master bath.

How To Sweat a Copper Pipe

You will have to have a hot water line leading to the dishwasher. If you do not already have a Tee in the hot water supply underneath your sink this might involve a little sweat-soldering of copper pipes. This is not too hard to do once you have seen it done correctly. I will try to explain it and then place a link for a comprehensive 7 minute vidoe demonstration.

The first step will be to sand the ends of the copper tubing being joined. You can do this with an emery cloth or buy a wire brush made for this purpose. Make sure they are clean and bright after sanding. Then smear flux all over the mating surfaces. This will clean the surface and allow the solder to flow and bond to the metal. Your next step will be to fit the two ends together and light up your torch. You want the inner flame of the torch to touch the copper tubing. The solder will flow from the colder section to the hotter section. Once the pipe is hot enough, you will probably see it smoking and when you touch the solder to it the solder will just melt. Touch the solder to the joint and allow it to flow into and around the joint until it drips out the bottom. Take the heat and solder away and then use a heavy rag to smooth the joint.

We did most of the soldering on top of ceramic tiles on a work bench away from the sink. In this way we ony had one joint to solder while in a tight space. Below you can see the new tee, valve, and threaded connection that we soldered together for the supply line. You should have a valve dedicated to your dishwasher.

Notice, the piece of tile behind the connection. This is what we used to keep from catching anything on fire. You can also use a metal sheet or fire-retardent blanket. Below is a link to the video demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH5Uy8Uf1xs