Can anyone give me a general idea on how to install a custom tile bathtub?

Question

I've been looking around the internet trying to find some general guidelines for doing this and have learned a lot, but I still have some questions. Mostly all I have found is installing shower pans, which I assume would be similar to what I have in mind, but I'm not sure if there are some slight differences.

Should the liner go up higher than for a shower pan, or is the idea to seal the lower area and floor regardless of how high the water level would generally be? To me, it seems like it should be high enough to reach the top of the lowest tub wall at least, or close to it since you'll be filling the tub with water.

If I need the liner to go higher, do they make them long and wide enough? I saw one on the home depot site that is sold in 5' by 40' rolls. The 40' should be far more than sufficient, but not so sure about the 5' (plus, I'd have all this liner left over). I don't see that I could really double up on the liner. Seems like it would defeat the purpose.

Another thing, should the edge of the tub be wider for a tub than a shower curb to support the weight of being filled with water? If so, how much wider?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

By the way, I plan to do this myself, so suggestions on making it as easy and cheaply as possible (without skimping on quality) would also be helpful.

Oh, and any input on how installing a concrete tub compares cost and difficulty wise would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This is an easy one......... Hire a contactor.  if for what ever reason your tub leaks,  not only you will havw waisted your time and money, you will also have to repair very expensive water damage.

Answer 2

P J  The way I understand as to what you want is not the average DIY job..A full tile tub and h2o proofing is not a beginner job..You d have to "weld" (w/ proper glue) 2 - 5 ft wide pans together and flash it up the sides high enough to form a "tub.. Then you have to do sides w/ a cement board or cement and then use a h20 product to seal it all..Cementing the bottom alone is challanging enough for a beginner let alone all the other stuff.. You d be really better off and a lot cheaper to do a new bath tub and then you can do a nice  tile walls w/ a liner bar deco or a nice stone/marble/ or whatever you d like tile look..

  HD and Lowes do offer classes but they wouldn t even begin to touch upon the complexity thats needed in your case

  I hope I haven t dashed your hopes ,I wish you luck and hope for the best for you  GL  

Answer 3

I would remove subfloor and reinforce the joists,then rough in the plumbing. Then build the frame out of 2x4's and clad it with 3/4" plywood. I'd staple tar paper and metal lath to that and shape it with a fine concrete sand and portland mix. On top of that I would lay a membrane such as a shower pan liner.

Then proceed to do a mud bed reinforced with 2"x2" 16 guage wire up to a 1 1/2" thickness.On that I'd install a waterproof membrane such as Schluter's Kerdi mat with an epoxy mortar. Then install the mosaics with Mapei's Keralastic and grout with an epoxy grout.

Answer 4

Home Depot and Lowes have FREE CLASSES on installing tile for floors, walls, counters, and showers.  These are hands on classes, and coupled with the internet knowledge should help answer all of your questions.  In addition, the person teaching the class usually has a touch more tile experience than the normal associate on the floor.  

Did you catch the cost,,,, FREE.