The shower pan forms the most significant part of any ceramic tile shower stall. A shower pan directs water to the drain and prevents shower from leaking. That’s why its installation is so crucial and it should remain waterproof and durable.

The shower pan is actually a mortar bed consisting of a flexible shower pan liner that is squeezed in two layers of mortar. The walls of shower stall are framed with 2×4 studding with a facing of some kind of backer board underlay meant for receiving ceramic tile.

This is how the installation of a shower pan follows. A layer of mortar is spread out evenly and properly leveled and shaped to facilitate flow of water in the direction of the drain. On top of this layer of mortar, shower pan membrane cut to required size is laid.
The shower pan membrane liner needs to be hand molded into the shower base.

Note: care should be taken to cut shower pan membrane more than the dimensions of the floor, leaving a few extra inches along the periphery to enable it to run up the shower stall sidewalls and be secured with nails and studs. Further, the shower pan has to be installed preceding the installation of backer board on the shower walls.

Once the shower pan membrane has been secured, the second layer of mortar is spread over the base of the shower, again maintaining the slope of the mortar towards the drain, thus sandwiching the membrane in between the two layers of mortar. Having set up the shower pan mortar bed, you may proceed with the installation of the backer board to the walls and commence with the installation of ceramic tiles. The installation of tiles should be started from the center of the shower pan area and proceed outwards.

Now comes the installation of ceramic tiles on the walls. Use a plumb line and draw straight lines down the length of the walls. Hold the plumb line at the ceiling and centered on a wall. Snap the line to get a vertical line running along the length of the wall.

Go ahead with the installation of tiles in a direction outwards from the line towards the edges of the wall. Follow the same process with all the walls.

Use a wet saw for cutting of tiles to get accurate cuts and minimum wastage of ceramic tiles.

Apply grout only after the ceramic tiles have had 24-48 hours to set up.

And, finally a sealer should be applied on the grout to prevent moisture from seeping through the grout lines.