cement question

Dutchman · Oct 11, 2016

My wife is in a wheelchair and I'm making a roll in shower room // I need to put cement on floor ... to get the slope it is 1 3/4 at wall { room is 5ft by 6 ft } and 3/4 by drain in center of room ...

I'm going to get BAGS of mix .. QUESTION .. How many do I need ?? I know the room is 30 square ,, but I DON"T know how to figure how much I will be needing ..

THANKS for any advice you share on this matter ...................... mark

Billy NY · Oct 11, 2016

Concrete will not work for that application, its too thin, the aggregate alone may be 3/4" passing through a sieve. What other materials or construction can you apply to this?

30 square feet x your thickness. I think you are better off converting to square inches x the thickness, and you would just have to estimate the 1 3/4 all for the entire area.

There is 27 Cubic Feet in a Cubic Yard of concrete. 1 yard is way too much, so take whats in a bag mix, convert to inches and you'll figure out what you need, and its not much, if you could use concrete.

Cement is the material used to bind the aggregate in concrete its not used by itself.

I'm not sure what is out there in a pour in place material for this purpose, hopefully you have alternatives so you can help your wife as I am sure this is very important with her being handicapped.

Dutchman · Oct 11, 2016

Billy ,
I got a "kit" and talk to the people and concrete w/sand is what they say to use . there will be a membrane and tile on top of the concrete ...

I have to do something , and this is where I'm at ....

............. mark

flying H · Oct 11, 2016

I would check into using floor leveling compound. Its made for thin applications and then you could cover with tile or whatever.

Steve@Advance · Oct 11, 2016

What you are trying to do can get really complicated and if not done properly be a disaster!

Sounds like the same procedure for building a shower pan is more along the line of what you need. There are many Youtube videos for how that is done. I just did one, it turned out well, but what a job!

It involves installing a vinyl liner, and covering that with "sand topper mix" mortar. It is mixed very dry, packed into place and formed with a level to get proper drainage. It is then covered with tile.

But even this has it's limits as far as tapering out to a thin edge. Really the only way to do a taper down to floor level is to cut the floor and make a thick edge that can be brought down flush.

If you want to DIY this, you might want to get some bids, see what the pros would do, then decide if you want to try. Just be aware, water WILL get under the surface! Where it goes is what you have to prepare for. Best done right the first time.

Steve in VA · Oct 11, 2016

So, I THINK you're describing a pour that out be 0.75" at the room center and 1.75" thick at the perimeter. If that's true then we can treat the volume as 2 components.

First, the bottom is a solid 0.75" thick and 30 sq ft in area. Converting units I get 1.875 ft3.

Second, the top component is a rectangular solid 1" thick by 30 sq ft MINUS a cone representing the slope. It's complicated by the room not being square so I treated the cone as having a base diameter of 5' and discounting the fact that the opposite dimension of 6' would really be an ellipse. Anyway. the rectangle 1" thick would be 2.5 ft3. The cone would be 0.54 ft3. So, the second component would be 1.96 ft3.

So, if I interpreted the room correctly and I avoided any math errors, you will need 2.415 ft3 total.

Steve in VA · Oct 11, 2016

Hit wrong key while double checking and so there IS a math error. The total should be 3.835 ft3. Sorry.

Bob Harvey · Oct 11, 2016

Premix (bagged) concrete aggregate is closer to 3/8". Just sayin'.

Tim in OR · Oct 11, 2016

I know this is a different angle to your Idea, but, I put a fiberglass wheelchair accessible shower in one of our bathrooms in our adult foster home. I went to a real plumbing supply store and they had a catalog of different sizes and shape shower enclosures.
It made it much easier than installing the tile that went in front of the shower.
These commercial built shower enclosures are ADA compliant including grab handles.
Tim in OR

rpllr · Oct 11, 2016

If this is on a wood subfloor you need to use the proper materials or you will have water issues. I have built a lot of custom showers in the remodeling business. You need a waterproof membrane, if it is a vinyl liner it needs a pre slope layer poured and then the liner is placed and bolted to the correct drain, then the final layer the tile is set on. There is also a system called kurdi by Schluter and they sell products to build a curbless shower I would Google them.

Stephen Newell · Oct 11, 2016

At 4" thick 30 square feet would be 7.5 cubic feet. There is .6 cubic feet in a 80 lb. bag of cement so I would get 12 1/2 bags. If you are going over another floor I would recommend putting down a rubber membrane before pouring the cement so a leak doesn't transfer out to another part of the house.

North Gower Al · Oct 11, 2016

I did something similar for a friend, I recommend you Google "schluter" products, they make shower systems that are properly sloped as well as compatible drain systems and waterproofing membrane that is tile compatible. This is the same company that makes the "ditra" brand uncoupling membrane system. They have excellent planning and installation manuals available on line. I have installed a few regular showers as well as the accessible one and have never had any problems with leaks.

Al

in-too-deep · Oct 11, 2016

Ultradog can sure help here!

Hobo,NC · Oct 11, 2016

(quoted from post at 04:48:09 10/12/16) What you are trying to do can get really complicated and if not done properly be a disaster!

Sounds like the same procedure for building a shower pan is more along the line of what you need. There are many Youtube videos for how that is done. I just did one, it turned out well, but what a job!

It involves installing a vinyl liner, and covering that with "sand topper mix" mortar. It is mixed very dry, packed into place and formed with a level to get proper drainage. It is then covered with tile.

But even this has it's limits as far as tapering out to a thin edge. Really the only way to do a taper down to floor level is to cut the floor and make a thick edge that can be brought down flush.

If you want to DIY this, you might want to get some bids, see what the pros would do, then decide if you want to try. Just be aware, water WILL get under the surface! Where it goes is what you have to prepare for. Best done right the first time.

That's about the way we did mine other than the mix was not on the dry side. I intentionally built the room with 2X12 floor joist knowing I was gonna cut into them about 4" were the shower pan went.

3000OH · Oct 11, 2016

Excellent, excellent idea. Google is your friend. Type in ADA fiberglass shower pan.

Traditional Farmer · Oct 11, 2016

Cement is an ingredient in concrete.

IaGary · Oct 12, 2016

Average depth will be 1 1/4 inches so a cubic foot will do about 9.6 square feet.

So you will need no more than 4 cubic feet of mix. 3.125 cubic feet to be exact if you get the exact thickness.

Gary

Angle Iron · Oct 12, 2016

Google search concrete calculator as I did. Input the room size 5ft by 6ft and if I am right its 1.25 inches thick as an average. Shows concrete and sand as 5.2 80 lb bags or 6.9 60lb bags. I assume this is sand mix(mortar mix) which is cement and sand. If that is what your application calls for.

showcrop · Oct 12, 2016

Concrete that thin will have zero strength, but since it is a kit it must include a very strong subfloor and framework.

IaGary · Oct 12, 2016

Just to add to my 4 cubic feet.

A 80 pound bag of concrete mix will make .60 cubic feet so 4 divided by .6 is 6.6 bags.

Get 7 bags and you should have some left.

Gary

HenryO · Oct 12, 2016

to make it stronger add some latex to the cement, sold at most big box store in the cement aisle, when you mix it. It strengthens to cement . Especially since it is so thin

JMOR · Oct 12, 2016

so, there you have it! 3.8 or 7 or 12 1/2 bags. WWW is wunnerful isn't it? :wink:

WCS · Oct 12, 2016

I want to know where you can buy a half bag of cement (or half a bag of anything).

Stephen Newell · Oct 12, 2016

Well, you never want to start any cement work with just enough. It's far better to have a few bags left over than to run out before you get done. I remember my dad pouring some steps onetime and realized he didn't have enough and I think it was Sunday when everything was closed. He started throwing old bricks into it and anything else he could find but still wasn't enough and ended up mixing lime into the last few batches. The steps didn't last a month, the surface started crumbling away.

showcrop · Oct 13, 2016

(quoted from post at 21:21:52 10/12/16) Well, you never want to start any cement work with just enough. It's far better to have a few bags left over than to run out before you get done. I remember my dad pouring some steps onetime and realized he didn't have enough and I think it was Sunday when everything was closed. He started throwing old bricks into it and anything else he could find but still wasn't enough and ended up mixing lime into the last few batches. The steps didn't last a month, the surface started crumbling away.

Ten years ago when I had my dump truck I was talking with the super for the company that was doing the concrete work. He was kind of smugly telling me how accurately he could calculate and order the amount of redimix needed. I noticed that they were very close to the end of the pour when I delivered a load of gravel. I was back in an hour with another load, and there was another redimix truck and they were adding to the end of the form. The form must have bulged a little.

cement question

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads