For the curb/ flor schluter kerdi is hard to mess up especially for a newbie, the foam pan gives the right slope, the kerdi waterproof system is good although it’s a little thick so it gets built out in the corners where it overlaps a few times. Before setting the foam pan, I always recommend using self level concrete poured Into the shower area to have a dead smooth and level Surface so your foam pan gets installed level and drains properly.
There are other ways too, using a liquid membrane (red guard, Aqua defense, hydroban etc) is a good way if done properly. There is a variety of ways to use these products too, either fully painted on everything much like a kerdi sheet membrane would be, you need to used the proper style “flanged” drain for this( look at the schluter drain for what I mean by flanged drain vs a traditional shower drain. You would build your mud bed sloped to the drain and waterproof the surface you need to use reinforcement mesh over all the seams and corners to make sure you have a thick enough coating and it wont crack in the corners. This type the mud bed stays dry same as with a schluter kerdi system
Or you can use a traditional shower drain and pre slope, vinyl pan and then final mud bed and use the red guard on the walls only. This type of shower water flows through the mud bed to the vinyl pan and down into the weep holes around the drain. It’s never done properly because people dont bother to do the pre slope to guide the water to the drain once it’s hits the vinyl pan, without pre slope it holds water and will mold.
We typically build our curbs out of pressure treated 2x4, cover it in your backer of choice - we use denshield lately it’s like Sheetrock so easy to cut but has a waterproof coating but also like fiberrock. Schluter Kerdi foam panels can be nice too but expensive.
This is what a proper shower waterproof job looks
Like. We waterproof over the already “waterproof” backer boards.
![](https://i.imgur.com/SOSb1hE.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/HRo1rvV.jpg)
Here is the mesh over all the seams and corners to keep it water tight and not cracking in the corners.