"Lobster" wrote in message
...
I'm in the midst of installing a large stone resin shower tray; it's going
in an existing alcove where it will be a snug fit on three sides; the
alcove
being as deep as the tray is wide (760mm). I've built the required
platform
for it to sit on, topped with 0.75" marine ply, and now just need to lay
the
tray down on a bed of mortar as per instructions.

Trouble is, this thing is obviously very heavy and I can't get access to
anything but the front edge to lower it down flat, ie parallel to the
floor.
Having tried several 'dry runs', the best I can do is stand in front of
the
tray, standing up on it's front edge, and then lower the high (ie back)
edge
away from me till it reaches the deck. If there'd been mortar in situ, it
would have squeezed out the front all over my feet.... The tray is now 3
or
4 inches away from the back of the alcove, and has to be slid back into
place (which would bugger up the mortar bed still further).

Anyone done this before? I can't think of an easy way to do it, certainly
not without crippling nyself. How critical is the integrity of the mortar
bed - am I worrying too much about it? I sure as hell want it to be
right,
though; I don't plan on replacing this tray in the forseeable future!

Thanks
David

David,

Cut a couple of timber strips the thickness that you want the bed to be and
a little longer than you need, lay these on the deck and fill between them
with the mortar and run a straight edge across these to get an even mortar
thickness. Leave them insitu and "drop" the tray onto these and slide it
into position and then remove them. Once this is done, give the shower tray
a little "wiggle" to set it on the mortar bed and job done. If you cut the
strips fairly narrow, the gaps left when you pull them out will cause no
harm as tray will span these without causing any problems

IMPORTANT. Make the mortar of 3 sand and 1 cement and mix this with just
enough water to bind it together (pick a handful of it up and squeeze it and
if it stays in a ball when you open your hands with no surplus water around,
then your ok and it will stay in position whilst fitting the tray - this is
called a SEMI-DRY mix and is all that it needs to be. Once you have laid
the tray, leave it alone for 24 hours and the mortar will have set with the
tray in the right position.

If you make the mortar to wet, then you will have problems with it dropping
off the edge of the deck, spreading all over the place and the tray sinking
into it.