It's a good system. The first Kerdi shower I did was photographed for
an article in a construction magazine, those are the photos I used in
that Kerdi Shower thread way back when. The purpose of that article was
just that; someone using Kerdi for the first time.

Kerdi Shower Part Deux

For better or worse, in the GWeb-to-Houzzzz transition, many of the photos were lost.

So yes, everyone has to have a first time. If your guy is conscientious, a fine result can be had by a first-time user.

Any
surface applied membrane has advantages. Be is a sheet membrane like
Kerdi, Hydroban Sheet, Nobel, or a liqud membrane like Hydroban Liquid,
RedGard, etc.

Kerdi sheet has thinset restrictions that other sheets don't have.

Sheet
membranes, as long as you get proper overlap at the seams, you know the
membrane is good. Liquid, you have to watch for air bubbles and you
have to apply the proper film thickness when it's applied.

Sheet
membranes can get tricky is you have an area, usually a compound corner,
where you may have several overlaps of membrane. You need to be careful
you don't end up with a hump. With liquid, that's not an issue.

So, pros and cons to each side. If you go with Kerdi, I recommend applying it over cement board (Durock or Wonderboard) and not using a hardie product.

Thanks Mondo. Yes, only a few pix on the link. Shame as they are so helpful. If you ever find them and do a repost I'm sure folks could benefit. This likely won't be my last question LOL.

Our contractor used a Schulter Kerdi kit for our shower. There are also others out there that pros on here say are better. I'm not sure if I would want something doing my shower for their first time around, but it can be done & done right. The videos are helpful, but those are pros in the videos. They are paid to make it look easy. We used Kerdi board instead of the membrane. Good luck!!

@mark_rachel - Which systems do the pros say are better? And what sayeth Mongo on that subject?

Not doing a steam shower so that simplifies it somewhat. But we are building out over the garage slab for the shower so don't want any possibility for leaking since the shower floor will be heated. Sounds like mine is a fairly routine job. 1 niche. No bench.

Unclear to me if the Schluter Ditra can be used for a shower floor. Warmly yours makes a special shower mat.

This is not my area so just trying to figure out how to get an excellent result.

Ditra is not for a shower floor. If using Schluter products, you'd use Kerdi instead of Ditra in a shower. The Ditra has a waffle-like surface, the recesses could hold moisture. Just like maple syrup on a waffle. Dang. Now I'm hungry...

If you use Ditra on the bathroom floor and want to completely waterproof the Ditra, then have the installer run a strip of Kerdi Band over the Ditra seams. The Ditra itself is waterproof. The Kerdi Band will waterproof the seams between the adjacent sheets of Ditra.

Research? It's good!

If I use Warmly Yours heating, they have a shower mat so the shower floor can be heated which would be an excellent features since this bath is being added as semi-accessible for use by us old folks.

Warmly yours gave me a good quote. But when I saw the Schluter Ditra I thought it was a 2 in 1 -- waterproofing and heat. WY didn't have the waterproofing aspect.

WY told me that a vapor barrier would need to be put under the heating to prevent leakage. But the contractor looked puzzled when I mentioned a barrier below the heat.

May just be my lack of understanding of how the floor goes together and perhaps I didn't explain it to him properly. But since I'm likely to buy materials, I'd like to understand what I'm doing & what's needed.

In the Schluter video they put in a slanted pan, then a white piece that looked like a blister pack with mortar on it and then the Ditra.

So how to solve the issue of heated shower floor if Ditra is a no-go Perhaps another system that allows that and also waterproofs?

Just wanted to say that we used Warmly Yours in our last home master bath (not in shower) and DH said they were great to work with.

We did a mud pour in the shower with Kerdi over the entire shower including an extremely large niche we designed hidden in a knee wall with glass above so you didn't see all the shampoos, etc. That way it didn't detract from the tile work.

Good luck with your reno, Rococogurl. Be sure to post pics!

@designsaavy - any pix of your shower niche? TIA

Oh, gosh. They've been stored somewhere in boxes in the basement since we moved to this house 4 years ago. I wouldn't know where to begin to find them.

If Ikeafans was still around, I had my remodel posted there since I utilized Akurum cabinets for the vanity. You'd think I could find them on the internet somewhere.

These are not mine, but this first pic is how we did the niches with larger on bottom for bottles, smaller on top for soaps, sponges etc. But, ours was about 18" wide, as I recall. Similar to this second pic.

From outside of shower, it was set up just like this with vanity next to knee wall. We didn't have a window in shower. Our vanity was dark contemporary just like this.

Btw, I LOVED using Ikea kitchen cabinets for the vanity because the storage was amazing. Even a pullout hamper.

Now in our current house, our builder grade master bath doesn't have heated floors....which we really miss. Getting tired of hopping from rug to rug in the winter. :-(

Thanks so much @designsaavy - I have a whole partition wall on one end of the shower as I need it for the sink. Using the existing Lefroy Brooks pedestal.

Since the shower has no door having the niche in the front or side is difficult.

So you've given me a great idea -- to put it in the partition wall where it won't show at all. It's just a step or two back.

Reworking the plans this week so just in time! Perfect!

I think you'll like it better without seeing all the stuff. I know I did. :-)

One tidbit....make sure the shelf has a slight angle toward the shower so it drains out and doesn't puddle. We always kept a squeegee in there. One thing I regretted not doing was putting something hidden on that niche wall to hang a washcloth. In the end, I bought a heavy duty, 3M self adhesive hook and put it there. Not as good, but it worked.

Also, since we did not put a bench in (thought as we got older I could buy a teak bench), I wish I had put some tile angled low in corner that I could prop my foot on to shave. In hindsight. !

I recently did a shower and, rather than a bench for a "footrest," the Owner found a chrome bar, about 12" long and about an inch in diameter designed just for this. Flanges on both ends to screw into the tile! You drill a couple of holes in the tile, squirt in some silicone, insert plastic anchors and screw it in. Looks great and works great. Don't have a pic, but I'll look for one...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's the fifth one or so down from the top. Fits in the corner.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=shower+footrest&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=3527177538&hvqmt=p&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_46h6j83o2i_p

If you buy huge shampoo bottles with a pump, you'll want to have enough height to put your hand on top to use. The bottom of my large niche I'm thinking was about 12" to 15" above the shower floor to have room for that and the smaller niche above it and the framing. But, my knee wall was about 42" tall. You can never have a niche too big, IMO. DH uses different shampoo and conditioner from me, and we each have different liquid body soaps, in addition to shave cream, etc. So, lots and lots of bottles!

If you have an entire partition wall, you could have some serious niche storage! :-).

Storage envy!

So many issues for a shower. It's really helpful to hear the thinking through others have done. I am revising my plans and spotted the Schulter 21" niche, which is a good size. Two tier. Partition wall is 29" wide. It's prefab so the draining angle should be built in. We don't use pumps as the nozzles dry out and they annoy me. But we both have different products so I agree -- the bigger the better.

I also felt teak bench would work and not be fixed. Also not cold, slippery or uncomfortable when wet. I have some Turkish hammam towels which are not terry and really work well to throw over a bench if needed.

Warmly Yours also can be used to heat a bench, however.

Trying to keep this shower basic and adaptable. The niche placement idea is a big help although it would be on the left vs right and slightly behind.

The footrest bar is terrific. Thank you @Avanti!

Also needing to figure placement of grab bars.

Will post photos of the elevations when I finish.

We didn't put a grab bar in ours, but that would have solved the needed bar to hang a wet cloth to dry.

This is a very helpful site.
starcraft custom builders bath design

Oh, noooo! I'd saved a link to all your photos, Mongo, at the weedy acres Google pages site. Opened it, and photos are gone though the text remained. That's what I get for procrastinating on my shower project. You and Bill are the two sources of info I most trusted.

merrymj...someone notified me of your post.

The first version of that thread, the photos disappeared when the original forum the photos were hosted on reformatted and went kaput.

The second "Part Deux" thread, Houzz thrashed the photos on the thread when they changed from GW to Houzz.

Weedy's version? The photos might have been lost because they were initially hosted on photobucket, and not too long ago PB sent me a message that PB no longer allows third-party linking.

But the Kerdi Shower thread?

It...is...ALIVE!

Sort of. lol

Version 3.

I'm bumping this link....done!

Ah, Mongo... loved that Kerdi post! I remember the first time I mixed thinset, an entire 50lb bag, all at once... yikes- more like mushroom soup than pancake batter. Sometimes I am shocked that my tile is still on the wall with the kerdi below.

we are just about to finish an Adirondack bathroom in a house that gets winterized on and off about 5 times in the deep ADK freeze. We used the ditra in the mud room and that tile and grout are awesome after a few years (tile sits on floor over a moist crawl space).

We just finished tiling the bathroom with Ditra underlayment. I think I still have waffle marks on my palms ;-)

what I mean to say is thank you!

I am building a new house while recessed floor for a zero entry shower. I am using Schluter Kerdi and Ditra heat. I was thinking of running the heat cable through the shower floor and bench and just adhering it with a hot glue gun, thin set and then tile. Has anyone tried something similar?

Heating cable should be beneath the membrane. Check with the RFH manufacturer, not all recommend their cables be used in wet areas even when under a membrane.

Some of the towns near me allow them, two prohibit them in a wet area, even under the membrane.

Might want to call your local AHJ prior to proceeding and read the manufacturer's literature as well.

Most users find that shower water sprayed on the shower tile warms it sufficiently, no RFH required.