Shower basin

The hallway has continued with the majority of the ceiling covered and the stencilling done except for the section next to the back door. The white paint ran out and the understair area is going to be treated differently.

 

A change was needed and the shower was leaking again. At first I thought it was poor fitting of the shower surround but then realised it was the crack in the tray itself. This crack had first been noticed on my return from Africa but it had been ‘sealed’ with numerous things! The pivoting door was a bit of a nuisance as it gave very little room for people to get in and out so a decision was made to replace both the tray and the surround. A new tray was purchased along with a new surround that had a folding door (three times the cost of the cheap pivoting one).

So, next, take down the shower surround and remove the tray. The surround came down with no damage but the tray would have to be tempted out with the sledge hammer and lump hammer
 
.It cannot be seen in the photo above but there was two inches of water under the tray. This was a concrete floor and to give room for the waste, the tray had been positioned on top of wall bricks.
It was obvious that the original support given was not enough for the tray and on reading the instructions for the new one understood the difference needed.

The tray should have been bedded on a 5:1 sand/cement mix on a solid base of either marine ply or concrete! After getting the water out it was noticed that the bricks and the concrete floor were water sodden so the new tray would have to wait until things had dried out a bit. This would take a long time, perhaps two air vents could be put in the side to allow future air flow!

Marine ply – the cheapest board found is £54 and will they sell half a board? A piece of plywood was found in the garage, exactly the right size but with a melamine top, could this be used? Would the mortar bond to melamine? Doubtful!