The Shower Floor

Believe it or not, the shower pan dilemma has been holding my brain captive, as of late. At dinner, my girlfriend would be talking about her day at work, while I'm gazing right through her, wondering how in the heck I'm going to make a shower pan fit within the dimensions I need for my layout. I know. I'm an obsessive super freak, and she'll be the first to tell you.

The standard resin pans are around $250 dollars and don't come in the shape I need. And, besides, they're white and boring. I need something that speaks to the theme of my build -- river rock!

I bolted to Home Depot and gathered up the necessary supplies for a test of my crazy idea. Basically, the concept is to build layers of plastic upon one another, in order to create the relief necessary for water to flow toward the drain. I would then slather Henry's 900 Roofing Adhesive over the entire surface and press small pebbles into the soft compound. When dry, the adhesive forms a solid layer of rubber.



After the compound dried, I knew I would need something to seal the rock. I found another cool product at Home Depot -- Glaze Coat. You mix equal parts resin and hardener and pour over virtually any porous surface. Low and behold, the Glaze Coat created a hard clear plastic surface over the rocks that I could actually stand on.



The only problem is that the rock I chose was a bit too jagged and a single layer just didn't cut it. I would need so much resin to even it out, that a pool would actually have to encase the rock. And then I'd just be looking at a plastic floor with rocks embedded in it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I guess, but not really what I'm going for. Really, I just need to build up the layers of pebbles so that a board can press them completely flat. Essentially the top layer locks into the bottom layer, thereby forming a perfectly flat surface.

I decided that further testing was necessary. So, currently, I'm waiting for my new product, Henry's 209, to dry. It's a black sealant, rather than gray, which I think looks pretty cool around the stones. The three types of stones I'm trying are small pond rocks, micro rocks, and polished white rocks. I found them at a masonry supply store.

As soon as the black compound dries to a hard shell, I'll brush a layer of the Glaze Coat over the stones. Once the whole thing is dry, I'll determine how solid the new test results are.



At that point, I will make an informed decision about my shower floor.