**The Simplicity and Benefits of Installing a Waterproof Wedi Shower Pan**

When it comes to installing a waterproof shower pan, many DIYers may feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the task. However, with the right tools and techniques, installing a waterproof Wedi shower pan can be a straightforward process that provides numerous benefits. In this article, we will delve into the world of Wedi shower pans and explore the simplicity and advantages of using this system for your next bathroom remodeling project.

**Understanding the Challenges of Traditional Shower Pan Installation**

One of the biggest challenges when installing a traditional shower pan is ensuring that the entire area is properly waterproofed. This can be a daunting task, especially when other contractors are involved in the renovation process. For example, if you have a sheet membrane installed before your tile work begins, it can be difficult to determine where water may be entering the system. In contrast, the Wedi shower pan offers a more straightforward solution to this problem.

**The Benefits of Using a Waterproof Wedi Shower Pan**

One of the most significant advantages of using a waterproof Wedi shower pan is its ease of installation. Unlike traditional shower pans, which can take days or even weeks to complete, installing a Wedi shower pan can be done in as little as half a day. This rapid installation process is due in part to the simplicity of the system and the fact that it doesn't require extensive waterproofing measures.

**The Importance of Embedding the ½” Pieces of Wedi**

When building a curbless shower using a Wedi shower pan, it's essential to embed the ½" pieces of Wedi into the joint between the subfloor and the main floor. This is critical because these small pieces are made to fill in areas where the shower will be curbless, and they provide the necessary strength for the system. If these pieces are not embedded properly, the entire waterproofing process may be compromised.

**The Role of Sealant in the Waterproofing Process**

Sealant plays a crucial role in the waterproofing process when installing a Wedi shower pan. In areas where the shower is curbless, a small piece of Wedi must be filled with sealant to provide adequate strength and protection against water damage. This sealant should be applied on both sides of the Wedi piece, creating a secure bond between the two.

**Tips for Installing a Waterproof Wedi Shower Pan**

When installing a waterproof Wedi shower pan, it's essential to follow these tips:

* Always have waterproofing going outside of your curbless entryway at least 3' or more.

* Wrap up the sides of the liner up the wall about 4".

* Go 4" above corners and 4" past the seam of your shower.

* Install a heated flooring system, if desired, to take advantage of the Wedi system's ease of installation.

**The Importance of Thin Setting and Wrapping Up the Sides**

When installing a waterproof Wedi shower pan, thin setting is essential for ensuring a strong bond between the subfloor and the main floor. Additionally, wrapping up the sides of the liner is critical to prevent water from entering the system. This can be done by applying sealant on both sides of the Wedi piece.

**The Simplicity of Tiling Over the Waterproofed Subliner**

After sealing all the joints, the tiling process can begin about 30 minutes later. The simplicity of this process is one of the most appealing aspects of using a waterproof Wedi shower pan. With a traditional system, it's not uncommon to spend days or even weeks waiting for the entire area to be properly waterproofed and ready for tile installation.

**Flood Testing: A Final Step in Ensuring Water Resistance**

Finally, before completing the renovation, it's essential to perform a flood test on the shower floor. This can be done two hours after having the system installed. By flooding the shower floor, you'll ensure that the waterproofing process has been successful and that your new bathroom will be safe and reliable for years to come.

**Conclusion**

Installing a waterproof Wedi shower pan is a simple yet effective solution for DIYers looking to create a curbless shower without sacrificing water resistance. With its ease of installation, simplicity, and numerous benefits, the Wedi shower pan is an excellent choice for anyone planning a bathroom renovation project. By following the tips and techniques outlined in this article, you'll be well on your way to creating a safe, reliable, and beautiful bathroom that will last for years to come.

**Additional Resources**

For more advanced bathroom remodeling videos and tutorials, be sure to check out BathroomRepairTutor.com. Our website features over 100 different videos covering topics such as tiling the floor, tiling the shower, installing waterproofing, and much more. Whether you're a seasoned DIYer or just starting out, we have the resources you need to create your dream bathroom.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIf you want to learn how to build a walk-inshower, then you’re in the right place.This is my walk-in shower. I personally loveit because it’s easy to clean. You justwalk right in. There’s no tripping overcurbs or tubs. It’s phenomenal. It’s ourdream bathroom that we saved up to remodel.Now here’s the deal: In today’s video,you’re going to see how to build a walk-inshower using the Wedi building panels. Theygo on your framing, then you put your tileover top of that. And the reason why we’reshowing you this is because we feel like youcan do this yourself. If you’re a DIYeror if you’re professional, we know thatyou can use the Wedi building panels.So we’re going to show you how to buildout the walk-in shower today. If you missedour first video, you can watch I right here.That’ll show you how to install the WediLigno shower pan, which is pre-sloped andeasy to install. So right now, let’s diveinto this video. We’ll show you how to builda walk-in shower step by step. We did thisin less than 6 hours, and we know that youcan do it yourself. So let’s do it.Okay, so our back wall with our bench is 5’¼”. So we’re going to have to go aheadand cut this first panel around the bench.You just want to measure down to that dadojoint off the top of the bench. So I got 20”.It will measure to 12’ 3/8”. So I alwaysjust cut my cut mark here. I just use a chalkline. Just score this with a knife. What wedo is we fill this dado joint with the Wedisealant, and be very generous with this becausethat’s going to be your major waterproofarea here. So you basically just squeeze thatinto place.You want to put your first screws from thebottom of the pan. You want to be about 12”away from the bottom. And the main reasonfor this is keeps this joint nice and tight.Because you don’t want to screw this inand have this deflecting in and then pullingaway from your dado joint. So about 12”is usually pretty good for that first rowof screws. And then after that every 12”.And you want to tighten these washers to thepoint that the washers indent into the Wedi,just kind of like a drywall screw. You wantto just have it recessing.One nice thing about the Wedi: If you missthe stud for any reason, you’re just goingto be able to apply some sealant over thathole, and it’ll be waterproof. So aboutevery 12”. And then when we do the nextpanel, we’ll be pinching them both togetherwith the washer.One thing that I did want to mention is thereis no front and back to the Wedi buildingpanel. But when you see the Wedi wording onit, that gives you orientation. So we’llshow you the top and the bottom, the leftand right. So when you make a cut, if yousee the Wedi wording on the front, at leastyou know the right orientation of your cutsand whether or not they are on top or on thebottom. Now what Steve is doing here is applyingthe Wedi sealant on the top of the first panel.That’s critical to create a waterproof seam.Now he’s puncturing the back of that firstpanel to indicate where the hole is for thepipe coming out of the wall and then cuttingthat hole using a 1” spade bit. We kindof forgot that the pipe was in the wall, andwe applied the sealant. So we had to applythe second time to make sure that that seamis 100% waterproof.So yeah, so that really makes it easy to beable to figure out where your hole is justby puncturing back the membrane and then cuttinga hole. So now you have the pipe stickingthrough here. Now you can just flash thiswith the caulking to make it seal around thispipe. But we’re probably going to end updoing that once we get all the tile in andfiguring out exactly how deep it has to bewith our tile work. Okay, so when you putthe next panel in you just pinch the two togetherwith one washer, and that makes a nice, flushtransition.I meant to mention that these building panelsare meant to be on 16” centered walls. Somake sure that your framing is 16” on centeror close to it.Now let’s go ahead and smooth this out.We’re going to be going back over this.We don’t want this stuff setting up.So we do have a niche here. And what we didwe marked out the bottom of the niche. Goinside here. We’re going to cut this out.So we have 34’ 9/16”. And we put our levelmarks for where we’re going to cut this.Steve used a level to mark out the positionof the niche, as you can see there. And thenwhat he’s doing is cutting out the nicheusing a Fein Multi-Master multi-tool. Youcan also use a utility knife, but using theMulti-Master is way quicker and saves youtons of time. Now what you’ll do is you’llpinch the screws about 1” from the edgeof that niche. You can use a chalk line tocut out the rest of your boards. And whereverWedi meets Wedi, apply a generous amount ofWedi sealant. Only use Wedi sealant. Thenyou can apply your next board to the top ofthat Wedi sealant. Put it in place. And thenagain pinch the screws between adjacent boards.This will save you screws, it’ll save youtime, so on and so forth. From the edge ofthe top, you’ll always want to put a Wediscrew about 1” away from the edge on eitherside. As you can see, that’s exactly whatSteve is doing here. And only use Wedi screwsand Wedi washers when applying Wedi to yourframing. And smooth out any sealant that oozesout between the seams. Again, Steve is markingthe position of his niche and cutting it out.So for the niche, we’ll go ahead and cuta bottom sill first. Okay, and you want tomake sure that your sill is actually draininginto the shower. So if any water hits theback of the niche, if it gets underneath thetile, make sure that it’s level to pitchon the shower. You don’t need much. It’sroughly say ¼” per foot, just like theshower pan will be good enough. Just makesure you have Wedi caulking to the bottombuilding panel. And we’re just going toseal this bottom together. That’s just theWedi sealant. So just make sure that you haveenough sealant around the perimeter of theniche. And then wherever Wedi meets Wedi makesure you have… This is the most importantjoint I’d say here at the bottom here, makingsure you have a good caulking joint. We’llsmooth this out for now. We’re going togo over this on the final sealant stage.So what our recommendation possibly for theniche if you want to get a little bit deeperof a niche, is to use the real thin board.This is 1/8” thick Wedi, so you’ll beable to do this in the back and give yourselfat least another 3/8” in depth. So it’salways an option.Wherever Wedi meets Wedi, you want to puta nice caulking joint, especially at the bottom,and then going up the side panel as well.So let’s set this panel in place. That justmakes a nice, flush cut on that.Apply a generous bead of Wedi sealant to theback of the niche and to anywhere where theWedi meets Wedi. In this case, Steve is applyingit on the blue part of the Wedi panel, puttingin his small piece for the niche. And thenusing screws and washers 3” from the top,3” from the bottom, and right at the centerof the small portion of the panel. Smoothout the Wedi sealant, so it doesn’t gunkup on you. We are going to apply a secondlayer of Wedi sealant later on. But as youcan see, Steve is applying a nice, generousbead to anywhere where Wedi meets Wedi. Nowone thing we did want to mention is you canbuy a pre-fabricated Wedi niche. In this case,the niche is so small that they didn’t makea pre-fabricated one at the factory. So wehad to build it using excess Wedi panel. Soyou can do the exact same thing that we didfor a customized shower niche. This only tookSteve about 20 minutes for Steve to do, soit doesn’t take all that long.Okay, so the most important part of this systemis making sure that you have a sufficientamount of sealant in your dado joint beforeyou adhere that panel into the channel. Sobe very generous with the amount. And that’swhat also is nice is to have some blockingbehind here. Now we recessed this pan belowthe subfloor. So I mean it’s your bottomplate allows it to just squeeze up againstthat. But it’s a good idea just to fillthis entire joint with sealant. All right,in where the corner where Wedi meets Wedi,you want to make sure you have a nice joint.You can see the way that’s oozing onto thatjoint. That shows that you have a good amountof coverage in there. We’re going to begoing back over this, but you don’t wantthis to setup and be all clumpy in the corners.So again about 1’ from the bottom and thenevery 1’ after that. Notice that Steve ispositioning the washers on the Wedi panels,then he’s going to back and screw them intoplace. You can also draw a vertical plumbline on the Wedi panel using you level anda pencil or just a chalk line.We have a port here for a handheld shower,so we’re just going to demonstrate how youeasily be able to find where that locationis. So you usually have an area where that’sat. So that makes it pretty easy to find.Okay, so that dry fits well. So wherever Wedimeets Wedi, put a good caulking joint.Wherever two panels meet, you can pinch themtogether using a screw and a washer. Wherevertwo screws meet in a corner, you always wantto stagger the screws. And then you’ll seehere that again Steve is just puncturing theback of the Wedi panel and then cutting itout using a utility knife. That is so mucheasier than using a cement board, which canlead to you have to measure and cut it out.So wherever Wedi meets Wedi, you got to usethe Wedi sealant. Apply it to the blue portionof the board. To the corner, like Steve didthere. You’ll see many of the principlesthat we’re showing you right now, we’reusing over and over again throughout thisvideo tutorial, like pinching the screws,putting them 1” from the top of the framingor the edge of the board, and so on.So after you have two walls put in, you haveover half an hour of time. You can take offthe weight out of the shower.Okay, so against the bench, we’re goingto end up Wedi-ing this entire bench and tubsurround. But for right now, we’re goingto just go to the edge of the shower, andwe’re going to just notch out the Wedi sothat this sets down into the dado of the showerpan. So if you’re not going to waterproofthe entire tub surround, you definitely wantto come out a good 2’ to 3’ outside ofthe shower area and seal this down. We’regoing to make sure that it sits tightly toour subfloor here. Sits well with that dadochannel. Again, fill this joint with the Wedicaulking. Again, make sure you clean out thisjoint of any thinset or any debris, and makesure that you could get adhesion to the actualfoam pan. You don’t want anything hinderingthis sealant from making contact with theactual Wedi. Wedi the corner. And what we’regoing to here we’re actually going to usethe Wedi caulking on the main subfloor aswell. Now there will be a waterproof heatedcable system that we’re going to be usingon the outside of here. But we’re just goingto seal this Wedi panel to the subfloor. Tehnwe’ll show you how we’re going to completethe waterproofing of the edge of that.On this bench material, we’re just goingto be screwing a washer about 1” away fromthe top of the edge, and we’re going tostay within 8”-12” from the bottom ofthe panel. So just like your other wall panels,you just want to make sure that you’re atleast 8”-12” away from the bottom of thepanel. And every 12”.Okay, so on this bench any horizontal surfacethat you put Wedi down, you don’t want touse the washers and screws and screw in horizontally.So we’re going to thinset this board downinstead of using any of the fasteners. ¼”notch trowel. Again, either flat side yourtrowel and burn it into the substrate first.Where the Wedi is, you want to wipe that thinsetoff and get down to the blue because you’regoing to want to seal the Wedi to the Wediwith the sealant, not the thinset. So withthe sealant, too, you don’t have to worryabout it being wet. It’ll seal itself tothe membrane even wet, even with a littlebit of water on it. We’re also just goingto back butter the back of the Wedi as well.So yeah, anything Wedi to Wedi make sure youhave a good amount of sealant. Wipe the excesssealant. Smooth for now. Hopefully when you’veframed it, you sloped it as well. You alwayswant to make sure that your bench is slopinginto the shower, so when you tile it, if anywater gets below the tile, that you’re waterproofingdouble the drain that water. So here we gotabout ¼” per foot. So that’s about whatyou want. Yeah we’re pretty level that way.So just double check. You can always possiblybuild up the thinset and get that slope ifyou needed it.Wherever Wedi meets Wedi, apply your generousbead of Wedi sealant. In this case it’sup against the framing as well, where thebench seat is going to be, and then up thewall. And this is really important becausein this particular shower, the sprayers aregoing to be hitting that back wall possibly.Now water goes everywhere in a walk-in shower,so you have to make sure that you’ve got100% waterproof panels. In this case, theWedi system really helps you do that. Again,what Steve is doing is placing the washersabout 8”-12” up from the bottom, and thensmoothing out any of the Wedi sealant thatoozes out between the panels. And also going12” in between the screws and then up thewall again. Many of the principles that we’vealready showed you with the other panels we’reusing with this wall as well, all right? Sojust continue to follow these general principles,and you should be good to go.So this is your plumbing wall. I also meantto mention that you can install this panel.It doesn’t matter whether the lettering’son the front or the back because each sideis waterproof. So it really doesn’t matterwhich way you install the panel. So we’rejust going to use our panel. Puncture thecenter. I’m just going to use a 3” holesaw for my dial. You can obviously just cutthis out with a utility knife, too. But thislooks a little bit nicer. Okay.So make sure you clean out that joint beforeyou go installing some new dado. Then ourWedi meets Wedi. So then in the corners youwant to offset your washers. So you don’twant to put the washer next to a washer inthe corner and have that big void all theway around that corner.What we’re doing now is prepping for theWedi sealant. We’re applying a generousbead of Wedi sealant against the framing.And then Steve is marking out the positionof the joists on the Wedi panels so that heknows how to attach the screws through thepanels.Okay, so we put our sealant around the edgeof the perimeter of the shower where Wediis going to meet Wedi. So the biggest differencewe do in a ceiling is the spacing of yourwashers. You want to go every 6” ratherthan every 12”. And we’re actually goingto be putting another little piece here, sowe’re going to put these two together. Itjust requires a lot more fasteners.To make life a lot easier with the ceiling,you can place your washers in them every 6”like Steve is doing here. Sometimes it justmakes it a little bit easier to place thewashers first then drill the Wedi screws throughthem. It’s up to you. Whatever you wantto do is fine. But in this particular case,sometimes it’s nice to just have the washersin place and then screw them.So as Steve mentioned earlier, we had to placea little piece of the Wedi panel up on theceiling there. Not a big deal. Just screwyour washers in about 1” from the edge.And then pinch your washers and screws inbetween the adjacent panel.Okay, so now that we have all the buildingpanels up, we’re going to go ahead and applythe Wedi sealant to all our screw washers,all the joints and all the corners. Two toolsthat are really helpful: Wedi actually sellsa corner putty knife. This makes it tremendouslyeasy to have a nice joint in the corners,keeping you from scraping out the sealantin the corner. So definitely get yourselfone of these. And this is just a standard4” putty knife. And the rule of thumb ispretty much getting 2” of coverage on ajoint. So 1” on either side of the corners.So that’s kind of what you’re lookingfor. But it’s a very simple process. Let’sshow you how to go across. You just have anice, thick bead of the sealant. You know,I’ll do this whole wall first rather thangoing back and forth with the putty knife.But you want to just dot every one of yourwashers. And then the corners. Just put agenerous amount in that corner. That’s wherethe sausage gun is really helpful becauseyou have a lot more caulking in this tube.You get a lot more done than just a regularcaulking gun.Okay, so your corners. So a corner putty knifereally makes a nice, sealed joint in thatcorner. So that makes a nice corner jointthere. As you can see I have some of my washerthere. So you just want to make sure thateach washer is completely covered. That’swhere the flat putty knife is helpful withthat. So anywhere you see those washers. Andreally anywhere you missed the Wedi screw,make sure you just apply that sealant overthat joint as well.Anywhere a Wedi panel meets a Wedi panel oryou have a screw hole or a washer, make sureyou apply generous amounts of the Wedi sealantbecause this after all is what will make theWedi panels 100% waterproof. So be generouswith the Wedi sealant.All right, so around the niche you just wantto fill in—you don’t have to worry aboutthe blue being exposed necessarily, but youwant to be able to coat this entire jointthat we have between the side panel and thefront panel here. Because even if this blueis exposed, it’s still waterproof. Thisis actually the waterproofing. So you don’tactually necessarily have to have that allcovered, but you probably will be having itall covered once you spread out the sealant.Be generous with the Wedi sealant where ourvertical building panel meets up with thepan because this is where you want to makesure that it’s 100% waterproof. Keep inmind that the building panels are sittingdown into the ¾” dado joint and alreadyhave sealant on them. So this is really asecond layer of the Wedi sealant. Now in thiscase we’re applying more of the sealanton the bench because this is exposed to thesprays and the shower head. And also the cornerbetween the vertical board and the showerseat itself. And then smooth out all thosejoints, ensuring that you get that 2” bandwithin the seams.So one of the things that I absolutely loveabout the Wedi system is, you know, a lotof times you do this waterproofing beforetiling. And you have other contractors comingin and working on the place. And it’s justvery easy for somebody to puncture the membrane.And what I wanted to share with you—thisis just one of the washers that we have. Nowimagine if you used a different type of systemthat was only just a surface membrane, andif you were to step on this, you could easilyjust puncture a membrane. But with the Wedisystem, this is ¾” thick. So as long aswhatever you drop, say even a utility knifethat falls into this pan, as long as it doesn’tactually penetrate all the way through thepan, you’re safe. It’s going to be waterproof.So that’s one of the features about theWedi system I absolutely love. You don’thave to be as nervous about dropping a toolor dropping something that could possiblypuncture the top of the surface because you’restill waterproof underneath that as long asit doesn’t go all the way through the pan.And that’s a very common time is betweenhaving other contractors coming in and doingdifferent work before you do the tile. Ifyou did a sheet membrane of some sort, itwould be very difficult for you to tell wheresomething was dropped and potentially wheresomething was compromised with the waterproofing.But with the Wedi, I mean even if you droppeda good size hammer hole, you can just fillin this hole with some Wedi caulking and begood to go.Okay, so with the Wedi shower pan, it’llcome with these little ½” pieces of Wedithat is made to fill in anywhere that theshower is going to be curbless. And it’sreally important to use this between the subfloorand the main floor. And you’re just goingto seal this in just like you do everythingelse with the Wedi sealant. And it seems alittle silly to have such a small piece, butthe main important part about this is thatif you just fill that with sealant, it’snot going to have the strength it needs forsay if you have smaller mosaic tile, there’sgoing to be a little bit of a flex. So youwant to make sure you have this little pieceof Wedi embedded into this joint.Okay, so we’ll fill that just like all theother dados. Just apply a normal 1” layersealant on either side of this. And then whatwe have is a Wedi subliner. And what you wantto do is…So in this situation, you always want to havewaterproofing going outside of your curblessentry, at least by 3’ or so, and wrappingup the sides of the liner up the wall about4”. So this is prior to obviously beforewe’re going to be installing the drywall,and then you have this against the Wedi. Alwaysgo 4” up above your corners, and then 4”past your seam of your shower. So you wantthis subliner coming into the shower. Nowin this particular situation we’re actuallygoing to put a heated flooring system outsidethe shower. So this subliner will go overtop of that heating system after we have thatinstalled. But I just want to reference thatif you were not going to install a heatingsystem, you just put this straight down overthe plywood by thinsetting this and wrappingup by 4”. And then you just simply cut theexcess of the doorway and allow this to flapover and into the shower.Okay, so that’s it. That’s installingthe waterproof Wedi shower system. And what’sawesome about it is that that took about ahalf a day to install this entire waterproofsystem. And I can actually get started ontiling here. Basically after you seal allthe joints, about 30 minutes after that youcan start tiling. And if I wanted to do aflood test on the floor, which I do recommend,you can go ahead and flood test this showerfloor two hours after having it installed.So really there’s no other system that canbe that quick. It’s really incredible. Atraditional way of doing this, you’d beset back two, three days easy. So that’sone of the major reasons I love Wedi. Andall of that, just the simplicity of puttingeverything together.So I hope this helps you out. I really feelthat anybody can do this. You just followthese tips and the way to install it, andyou’ll definitely have peace of mind thatyou have a waterproof shower. So thank you.All right, so that’s how you build a walk-inshower. Remember if you missed the first video,you can watch that right here. It shows youhow to build out the Wedi Ligno shower pan.If you liked today’s video, give us a thumbsup over here on YouTube, so that people canfind it. And then finally, if you’re lookingfor more advanced bathroom remodeling videos,you can check them out over on BathroomRepairTutor.com.So you can go to BathroomRepairTutor.com.That’s where we have support for DIYers;we got extra videos. Actually we have over100 different videos for you to watch on tilingthe floor, tiling the shower, putting in waterproofingfor your floor, and so much more. So again,you can check that out on BathroomRepairTutor.com.Thanks for watching today’s video. We’llsee you in the next one. Take care. Have agreat day.\n"