Linear drain installation

A linear drain lets you build a walk-in shower with no tray, tiled flush with the rest of the bathroom floor. It looks simple, but it is one of the most demanding bathroom jobs: the drain needs a good fall to the waste pipe, the floor needs a fall to the drain, and the whole thing needs watertight waterproofing. A linear drain goes in at the screed stage, long before tiling.

Stages of installation

• checking there is enough floor depth for the drain trap and enough fall in the pipe to the stack;
• setting the drain body at the right height and connecting it to the waste;
• leak-testing the drain before screeding;
• forming the fall in the floor towards the drain;
• waterproofing with a sealing collar and corner tapes, and only then the tiles.

By the wall or in the middle

A drain against the wall allows a single-direction fall and large tiles with no envelope cuts. A drain in the middle of the shower needs falls from several sides and tiles cut along the fall lines, which looks better with smaller formats. In prefab blocks height is often the issue: the old screed is thin and the stack sits high, so there is simply no room for a drain with a proper fall. The handyman checks this before you buy the drain.

Waterproofing is the foundation

Grout and tiles are not watertight. Underneath there has to be a continuous waterproofing layer, bonded to the drain collar and turned up the walls. Without it, water will sooner or later get through the floor to the neighbours, and fixing that means breaking out the whole shower floor.

Common questions