Here's my two plans for the first two showers - if anyone has any comments please let me know.

First one:



Fix holes in floor with mortar.
Redgard entire shower including floor with two coats and use fiberglass mesh in all corners and seams.
Place in kerdi curb and kerdi shower tray cut to fit.
Retrofit drain to kerdi shower drain system.
Tile over all that.

Second one:



Place in kerdi curb
Staple in vapor barrier
Install traditional shower liner mat between drain sandwich
Install cement board over shower liner mat
Mortar and cement board tape over seams
Mud in shower slope with pea gravel around weep holes OR use kerdi shower tray cut to fit with kerdi drain retrofit?
Install redgard OR kerdi membrane over cement board
Tile over all that

The white washed look is way better.

Couple of questions about your kitchen:



1. Where is the sink?

2. The island looks really large - are you going to be able to efficiently use the center for storage?





 

The sink is not pictured but will be a 36" white fire clay farmhouse style sink directly across from the cook top on the wall to the right.

The center of the island will have a little bit of dead space but not as much as you think from the renderings. The cabinet depth for the modules we chose worked out great but we have a large plumbing stack to hide from the previous island shown here gong diagonally:

Had some drywall guys come today and fix my mess/complete the drywall work so I could focus on the floors.

it really is a night and day difference between someone who has no idea what they're doing like me and someone who does drywall for a living. A single pass of mud for them was perfect and needed no sanding what-so-ever.

They worked all day today from 9AM to 10:30PM so here is a night-shot of them putting the knock-down texture back on the ceiling of the kitchen after hours of mud work:



I'll get some better photos later - but these guys did an amazing job and went above and beyond any other contractors we've had over so far.

I also put down ditra and the remainder of the LFT tiles in the last bathroom - the large guest bath. This is another night shot until I can get a good daytime photo as I was working on this on and off all day:



I return to working full days tommorow after my two week renovation-cation so I will only be doing work for a few hours a day after I get off and full days on weekends.

I'm not a fan of the kerdi shower stuff. The curb is huge and ends up like 8" wide after you tile it. I much prefer concrete block curbing - lower profile 4x4x16 and its solid for anchoring a shower door. And if you tap on the styrofoam floor and curb after tile they sound hollow. Also you need to be careful if you use a small mosaic on the floor, being foam it tends to squish under weight. So dropping something heavy or using a ladder in the shower in the future can damage the floor. Not to mention a kerdi curb is like $60 compared to concrete block about 10. And a few bags of deck mud is cheap.

The schluter drain system is top notch though, I've used it plenty of times on both foam floors and our preferred way using deck mud and floating it out. If you decide on using a liquid waterproof  membrane and a kerdi drain system you don't need to have a pre slope under your mud bed either do to the design of the drain eliminating the need.

Can you go more into that part in bold?

you can easily rip it down to whatever size you want using either a razor blade, hand saw, or a table saw. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UNhm1pzrw8


schluter specifies the smallest tile on the foam base at 2"x2".


sorta.

the schluter drain is set up to used with a waterproof membrane such as Kerdi.  hence you can skip the pre-slope step, simply make a one-step sloped mortar base, and set the schluter drain.  let the mortar dry, then thinset the kerdi to the top of the mortar base.

the trouble as usual starts at the edges of the floor and transition to the walls.

the right way to do this is to use kerdiboard on the shower walls, or apply kerdi membrane over sheetrock using thinset.  then, you are left with the trivial problem of thinset'ing strips of kerdi band at the floor/wall transition joints and/or using the clever little pre-made corner pieces.  when you are done, the shower is completely waterproof (note: prior to the tile being set) -- you can take a shower without the tile in place and the water is going nowhere except down the drain.  

the hard way to do this is known in the tile setting industry as a "kerdi-stein" -- that is, a frankenstein kerdi job: schluter kerdi used in conjunction with some other non-schluter stuff.  schluter designed a complete system to defeat *most* foolishness, but by substituting materials or straying in process you are venturing into unproven-land.

there are several reasons/approaches for a kerdi-stein, but they all have to be approached with caution.

in conjunction with using a schluter drain...

using a roll-on waterproof membrane (Redguard, AquaDefense, Hydro Barrier, etc) on the shower floor is not advised; there is too much to go wrong, and 20 square feet of kerdi membrane is cheap insurance.

using a roll-on waterproof membrane (Redguard, AquaDefense, Hydro Barrier, etc) on the shower walls means that somewhere you are going to have an interface between roll-on membrane to kerdi membrane.  ensuring that there are no leaks now and down the road is up to the application skill and experience of the installer plus the characteristics of the substrate (CBU, etc) and roll-on product -- and not inherent to a complete proven system.  in general you will want to put a final application of the roll-on membrane over the "vertical lip" of the kerdiband, to ensure that any water which gets behind the tile walls ends up on top of the kerdi on the shower floor.

the other kerdistein approach is to use GP DensShield (http://www.buildgp.com/densshield-tilebacker-board) on the shower walls -- this is a fiberglass-faced "drywall substitute" which takes the kerdi nicely.  it's relatively inexpensive compared to kerdiboard, it's very light, it cuts more or less like drywall, and best of all comes in 4x8 sheets so you have fewer joints in the shower walls.  screw it down with rust-resistant bugle head screws, dot the screw heads with redguard, seal all corners with thinset+kerdi, and you are ready to tile.  

ar-jedi

ps
here is a "traditional" mud pan + liner job, showing the pre-slope step...

btw, that guy Sal making those videos actually knows what he is doing; this is not the case for a lot of folks posting on youtube...

ar-jedi

Any reason you chose to leave the drain off center?
I've got an old shower that has been gutted that has the drain off center, but I was planning on putting in a 3 piece fiberglass unit myself, so the drain needs to be centered.

that picture (***) is from google images, so i don't know why whoever built that shower decided to put the drain off center.

nevertheless, if the drain is in a slab, you don't have much choice, it is where it is and you construct the stall around it as best you can.  if it is wildly off-center you can use one of the newfangled linear drains and make it look nice.  on the other hand if the drain location is between some joists which you have access to underneath, then sure you can move it anywhere you want.  in the case of a fiberglass base, temporarily set the base in place, mark the location, pull it back up, and you are on your way.

(***) there are a few things astray in that picture.  for example, the kerdi should have been wrapped all the way over the curb; you can see that the face of the curb is kerdiboard surface (the printed 1/2" squares give it away).  the kerdiboard on the stall walls seems deficient in attachment screws as well.

ar-jedi

Thanks all! Great info and video series to have before tackling the showers.

I have a little bit more tiling and masonry bricking to do on the floors for the laminate install and then it's on to the shower for move-in.

Small update:

I'm back to work full time now so I'm only working on weekends and after work from 5:30-9:30PM and progress is a little slower.

I installed a vanity light so now you can see the full guest bath tiles better...same as the other but the LAST of the LFT tiles! Donezo!



The brick veneers got grout and were brushed over. The dark spot in the back is still wet.



The fireplace also got a brick floor area in front of it for embers just in case - so the wood laminate doesn't catch fire



I will probably end up doing brick around the fireplace itself to match the floor when the time comes.

Drywall is dry and done! So glad this came out great

Before:











After:

Doing redgard and the the schluter system is overkill in my opinion.  I am a contractor by profession and honestly we do one or the other depending on budget.  We've not done either also.  We've put up cement board and waterproof all the joints as another method.  We've never gotten a callback for a leaking shower.  You can have the best product and if the installation is poor, then it does you no good.  Either one will do it's job, just a matter of what you are willing to spend.

Out of curiosity, once you put up cement board, what do you do after that BEFORE putting the tile on the walls?

folks assume a tiled surface (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter) is impervious to water. it is not, because the grout lines "leak". for this reason, when constructing (for example) a shower wall, you either need to use an inherently impervious backer (e.g. Kerdi, DensShield, etc), or use a CBU backer with a waterproofing liquid applied (e.g. Redguard or Hydroban or Aqua Defense over Durock or Hardiboard).

water (more specifically, moisture) that gets behind wall tile has three ways out: evaporation back through the grout, collecting and draining down into the pan (fiberglass base) or pan liner (mud base), and finally *but not desirable* wicking into the surrounding framing. the last leads to mold and structural degradation.

showers without an impervious backer or waterproofing liquid basically rely on the CBU simply drying out into the wall cavity. while the CBU itself is not prone to mold, it does hold a lot of water and will eventually become saturated. older methods of shower construction have the CBU attached to the framing over a vapor barrier (poly sheet or 15# felt). while a "barrier", it is still perforated in many places by attachment screws or nails, and the now-saturated CBU simply "leaks" into the supporting framing (plus the screws/nails rust and become weak).

for the above reason, modern shower construction is such that you first need to accept that the grout lines will leak, and thus the conclusion is to ensure that the moisture goes no farther "in/down" than the thinset under the tile. the only way to accomplish this is to use an impervious-to-water surface directly under the tiles -- Kerdi, DensShield, Redguard, HydroBan, etc. -- and make sure that at the bottom of everything there is a way to capture water from behind the wall tiles and direct it to the drain (again, using Schluter's shower system, or a traditional mud base sloped rubber membrane which comes up the walls at least 4-6").

so, the short answer to your question is that when using cement board (or ANY material that can absorb water) for shower walls you *must* apply a waterproof surface treatment.  that treatment could be a roll-on product (RedGuard, ...) or a waterproof membrane (such as Kerdi applied over thinset).  (in general, note that applying Kerdi over cement board is a pain in the ass which you can and should really avoid.)

since cement backings require a surface treatment, adding another step, several companies have introduced "one step" shower wall products -- such as Kerdiboard (from Schluter) and DensShield (from GP).  you screw these sheets to the wall, tape the corners with Kerdi over thinset, Redguard the screwheads, and then you are ready to tile.  the nice part about Kerdiboard and DensShield are that they are light and easy to cut.  the downside is that they are somewhat more expensive than the combination of cement board and a surface treatment.

ar-jedi

I do understand that.  I was just curious about the poster who I quoted above to learn more about how he does it.

I know a lot of tile jobs are put directly on concrete board with no waterproofing and it works fine for many years.  However, I just got done installing 2 tile showers in the house I'm building and I put up concrete board and then waterproofed it with a brush on membrane.  Did two coats for the whole shower and then three coats for the area immediately around where the water will primarily be splashing.  I also used a custom premade synthetic shower pan for the base.  I don't think we'll ever have any moisture issues.  

I did two showers in my last house and used green board drywall in the showers with a brush on membrane and it held up just fine.  I agree that concrete board is much better but those brush on membrane products do work well.  I like Schluter products but I don't want to use their Kerdi membrane product.  I'm sure it's great but it's a LOT more work IMO than a brush on membrane.

Spent half the day pressure washing the roof Got about 1200 sq ft done in a few hours so not so bad. No pics of that.

The guest shower #1 that we'll be using while moving in got its first coat of liquid membrane today.

Will be going to lowes tommorow morning to get stuff to build the curb and then will membrane over that as well.



Some progress on the demo of the master shower area. The tiles have been chipped from the floor and my SO is working on chipping up the remaining thinset.



I have to re-sweat some new copper into the ceiling for the rain shower head and then screw in some greenboard to cover it up. I already moved the recessed light over and have a waterproof retrofit kit for it.



After that's done the drywall dudes will come back and do their knockdown magic on the green board.

This is my current clawfoot tub dilemma I have no idea WTF I'm gonna do here for the clawfoot. We're not going to purchase the tub itself for another 6 weeks or so - so I'm going to fill this hole in with concrete and then tile over it for now and deal with the rest later.

I will probably remove the 1/4" copper and union in some more 1/2" piping that's going to on/off valves instead of that 1/4" shit.



We also had the pool cleaned and acid washed this week while I was back at work:



Luckily the pool was in great condition and just needed a good cleaning and refilling. No cracks and nothing wrong with ANY of the pool system pumps!

While it was being filled I replaced the old halogen light with a new LED color changing one and also did the same for the jacuzzi/spa thingy:





Tommorow, ideally, I will be finishing the copper work in the master, putting up the green board, putting some some CBU in all of the showers as well as installing the shower curbs in both guest showers in preparation for tiling.

Also hope to begin bricking the kitchen area in preparation for the laminate install.

Schluter is not the only company making shower products like this, and to use  the schluter drain system you do not need to use any other schluter kerdi product. THe schluter styrofoam products (curb and floor pan)  are IMO designed for speed but not for long enduring quality. For an Inexpirianced DIYer you can get a perfect pitch system which is a just set of plastic screeds to taper down to the drain at a good angle - you pack this with deck mud and it helps keep your pitch good and straight without and high or low spots affecting drainage. As far as waterproofing, if you use a schluter drain you have to do a kerdi type membrane or a liquid membrane on the surface of the walls and floor, use mesh fabric in the corners and niches. I always do 3 coats on the walls and floors and 4 in the corners when using red guard or whatever liquid membrane you choose.

As for using a liquid membrane on the floor what would fail? I could possibly see failure happening using red guard on a schluter foam shower base (the shower base is also inherently waterproof being styrofoam) but I don't see a failure in a deck mud floor with a kerdi or liquid membrane happening unless there is an improper install from the beginning, or an earthquake that rips your foundation apart. Then again Mapei and usg products have their own versions of the schluter shower system with foam curbs and bases that you can use their liquid membrane on them. Again IMO the foam products are junk and I would never use them in my home.

Had a slow Sunday due to my body being in pain from the last few weeks and also had to finish up some in-wall work before the concrete board in the master shower goes up.

I decided I'm going to at least rebuild the walls in the master shower before I tile the floor with the mosaic sheets so I don't drop concrete board on top of it So the furring went up today



I relocated the shower head copper line directly above the middle of the shower for the 'rain' shower head:



I also removed the 1/4" copper ends that were feeding the built in jacuzzi bathtub and turned them into 1/2" valves coming from the wall so that we can attach braided steel lines for the clawfoot tub:

Before:



After:



The laundry room got whitewashed by my SO and is ready for sealer:



The 'big' brick project got started as well which is the kitchen area. You can also see two of the wall color choice swatches:



And one with the cabinet colors. The dark color is a 'grey' that looks lighter in full light:



Here is one of the brick landings by a rear door showing the finished smeared grout as well as the laminate floor color next to it:



And the fireplace one:



Also built a shower curb today in the small guest bath...don't mind my spot of not-dry mortar that I kinda put liquid membrane overtop...it will dry one day

I layed down some rebar inside to hold it together

Which mistake was that for?

No mistake... looks good, just liked the animation and there was a brick.

Keep up the good work, enjoying the progress.

Lots of stuff still being done. Coming down to crunch time as the laminate is being installed on Tuesday and Wednesday by the contractor.

The interior is now also painted!

All of the floor tile is now complete so they can install the t-molds where needed.

Here's the brick veneers down in the kitchen/dining room area. Most of it is not grouted/smeared yet but you can see some of it done.



Grouted section with laminate next to it





Better 'finished' grout photo



I was kinda hungover this morning So I did some odds and ends without any heavy lifting.

Switched out about 30 outlets and miscellaneous switches with new decor shaped ones as well as dimmers and new wall plates



Also got these really badass LED night light outlet covers



Some work was done in the guest shower and is ready to be tiled soon. The curb has been coated with membrane and everything has 2-3 coats



Drywall/paint was also completed



The master bath got the tiles down on the floor but I ran out of grout Need to pick up two bags tommorow





The master shower is also coming closer to completion. Cement board is up on the walls and the joints are together. I put down liquid membrane on them today and the drywall guy also put up green board on the ceiling with knock down here to finish it up.

Almost ready for tile!







So here's the deal with the master shower slope. The house was built before all the fancy shower methods so in order to fix this in a somewhat workable fashion I had to improvise. I'm using a pre-slope shower guide to add a small slope to the shower floor while still using the existing drain that's embedded into the home's slab.



This will allow me to get a good drain slope and still tile the shower with mosaic sheets in the photos from the rest of the bathroom and do minimal work

Of course I will put down liquid membrane over everything before I tile it - floor and walls.

Looking good there bud.

I would have tiled that shower ceiling if it was me.

Do you have a link to the night light covers? I've wanted to try some for a while but didn't want to get stuck with crappy ones.

Snap power covers

i saw an article today and was reminded of this thread, specifically those pictures.  

the following should be required reading for anyone building or hiring someone to build, a shower:
http://tileartcenter.com/kerdi-shower-preparation-fort-collins

ar-jedi


ps
it's nice to see the German folks at Schluter have both very high confidence in their products *and* a sense of humor!

Funny

I shall achieve maximum water-proofness with my liquid membrane, though.

The floors are in!!!!

But first - I finished my garage work table area tonight. A very nice upgrade from my previous 3x5 table I built in the current place.

I will install pegboard on that back wall sometime soon and wire up the CFL's to a plug-in whip underneath the first shelf you can kinda see.



Onto the laminate. All 2000 sq ft was installed and the guys did a great job. They will come back and do the T-molds when I have the baseboards in.







And how it'll look with 5-6" baseboards:

Looks awesome

Guest shower #2 got cement walls and cleaned up...will work on this next month



Moved and installed the washing machines in the laundry room



I was bored with tiling, cleaning, and hard work so I went and ran all my Cat5 cables for the home networking and security around the house.

Here's the 'server closet' endpoint



TV drop example



The kitchen floors are sealed! and moving boxes on top



The guest bath #1 is coming along but I don't like the technicals of how it's coming along

it will work, but it's sloppy. You can't see from the photos but the floor has a few low spots that will probably end up holding a few millimeters of water, and the wall tiles are sunk in compared to the tiles next to it in a few places due to low spots in the cement backer from uneven 2x4's.

I'm not super happy about it, but I'm hoping that clever grouting and some caulk will fix most of the cosmetics. The low spots in the floor I can't fix so...fuck it.

Wow. You've done a lot of work, looks good!

Looks like a small height mismatch where the laminate meets the brick floor, is there going to be a transition over the seam?

Grout it and see what it looks like, you may be surprised.  I always use a scrap piece of plywood or a grout float to press the tile down on a mud bed with pretty loose thinset. Same for the walls with a rubber mallet if it won't lay flat, check with a straight edge as you work up the wall, it's not a race.  I'll only use a leveling system if it has to be dead nuts on.

We grouted last night and it seems to look presentable

Will check it today after work when I go to the house - the grout should be dry with only minimal wiping with a damp sponge and I will be installing the curb marble as well so it will be 'finished'.

Will update with pics this weekend.

Shouldn't that pan membrane be BEHIND the wall material, such that any wall water penetration sheds into the pan and not potentially behind it?


OP that's a tremendous about of work in a short amount of time, congrats. Gives me flashbacks from some house renovations and the improperly done shit I found and had to fix.

In the photo above I believe there is a traditional shower liner behind the kerdi board and then this membrane is mortar'd on top of the sloped mud base

...and thanks!

The height between the 1/2" veneers and the 12mm laminate with padding is actually almost perfect surprisingly enough

And the last of my "move in" projects is complete! TA-DA!

The guest shower #1 is tiled and grouted and the curb top is installed.  I need to do a border around the outside of those tiles on the wall, though.

I angled the faux marble curb top slightly off level so that water on it will fall back into the shower.

Also installed another toilet.



After moving this weekend we are officially living in the new home. All renovations from here on out will be much more comfortable to do since I won't have to drive 45 minutes back to the old house at 12AM

no.  read the Schluter Kerdi PDF manual.
https://sccpublic.s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/sys-master/images/hd5/hda/8815709880350/ShowerHandbook-2015.pdf

also see
http://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Membranes/Waterproofing-%28KERDI%29/Schluter%C2%AE-KERDI-%26-KERDI-DS/p/KERDI

now then, when you use Kerdi membrane (note, not Kerdi board) it is possible to lap the Kerdi applied to the stall walls over the Kerdi applied to the stall base (foam or mud).   but it is not required to do so.  as long as there is 2" overlap of the Kerdi membrane or Kerdi band (over a butt joint), the system is waterproof.  in general the order of operations is such that the shower walls are Kerdi'd before the shower floor, for the simple fact that by doing so you don't end up  working on the walls by standing on the previously Kerdi'd floor (which, incidentally may be over a foam base).  

ar-jedi

there is no traditional shower liner anywhere.  the top surface -- whether Kerdiboard //or// the Kerdi membrane applied over drywall -- is 100% waterproof -- there is no additional liner or any such behind it, nor is one necessary.  

ar-jedi

nice attention to detail!

ar-jedi

next time...

https://www.google.com/search?q=schluter+jolly+images

ar-jedi

Well, son of a bitch. I saw those at Lowe's and was wondering WTF they were for

Next time...

So many good ideas in this thread! I'm currently in a pause of working on my house. I moved in last May and did lots of work. Now I need to save some money back up for the bathroom remodel. I think I'm taking it to the studs.

That's the way to go! It's tough work but its the best way to do things right.

there are a whole bunch of different profiles and finishes available.  
they come in handy when you have to "end".
simply thinset the trim into place with the last tile.

ar-jedi

Mounted some TV's and stuff





Also put the network stack in the wall and very messily hooked everything up.
Good news is the networks is working as planned with all the IP cams and etc, the bad news is I have to tackle this cable managment one day soon

Top to bottom:

16-port patch panel
16-port netgear PoE 8/8 gigabit switch
Two APC battery back ups (350VA and 650VA)
OMV-based NAS in miniITX rackmount
IP cam blueiris box running windows 8.1 in a miniITX rackmount
netgear C6300
4-port HDMI splitter