How to tile around a Pre fab shower base

geoffthemonk

Ok, I can certainly use some help and guidance with this one. I am finishing the bathroom in my basment. I am putting a round glass standing shower stall, the kind that come with a pre fab base. I have seen that he ones at home depot have a 'lip' on the base that you can put screws through and make sure the base stays in its place once installed. Mine does not have that kind of a lip that I can drive a screw through. It just has a bevelled edge.
Also, the base has small legs that can be screwed in and out to adjust their height. The place that I bought the shower from told me that the base would not move after it is installed if installed correctly. The correct method of installation is that the floor tile must go but agains this base. My contractor tells me that he is not sure if the tiles could be cut clean enough to have a nice clean edge around the shower base. he thinks that the tiles would be jagged around the shower base. To avoid this situation, he wants to tile all the way through under the base of the shower and then put the shower base on top. My concern is that this way, there is nothing that will keep the shower base and hence the shower from moving. Does anyone on the forum hass any experience with this type of shower base and what do folks here say about tiling around the shower base and under the shower base.

Thanks folks

CustomBuild

I have not worked with this particular base, but a typical installation would have globs of mortar underneath the base to keep it from sagging and bending under the weight of the person in the shower. That would help to keep the base where it belongs. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I have never seen a base without some means of attaching it. Are you sure that there is no specially made anchoring hardware that came with it? If not, maybe you can fabricate something out of flat stock steel, say 6" long by 1-1/2" wide, and 1/8" thick. Heat it up with a torch and bend it to look like a "J", and drill a few holes in it. Then mount these to the studs so that they catch the bottom lip of the base, and keep it from creeping away from the studs. Also, as a sidenote, is there any kind of channel or other means of keeping water from getting behind the unit?