I built three showers and one tub surround in the 1990s using details from Setting Ceramic Tile by Michael Byrne. One section of Byrne's book appeared as the article "A Mortar-Bed Shower" in FHB #32, in which he demonstrates how to build a shower by attaching roofing felt to studs, topped by a floated mortar wall, or cement backerboard. For showers, this method was combined with a shower-pan liner, mud bed, and subdrain. On the walls and the shower floor, the waterproofing layer was not directly under the tile, resulting in perpetually damp mortar between the tile and the pan liner, and a musty smell when regularly used. When building a new home in 2016, I found that methods and materials have taken a quantum leap forward and the waterproofing layer is now commonly placed directly under the tile, using sheet or fluid-applied membranes. Lightweight, already-waterproofed backerboards are available. And, with the waterproofing layer directly under the tile, traditional shower-pan liners have largely been supplanted by surface-level center or linear drains. I have now built two showers and one tub surround using these new methods and materials. The ease of installation and quality of the finished product is light-years better.
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