ASK THE EXPERTS QUESTION We have a customer that set the drain back against a wall in a shower. It’s in California and it’s an outside shower. Shouldn’t this be a linear drain, or is it okay to have a 2”-3” drain against a wall? The pitch seems to be okay. The actual issue is people were slipping. It’s an outdoor shower for a commu- nity pool with older tile. We’ll be suggesting a tile replacement and, if they want to keep the existing tile, an epoxy coating option to help mediate the slip-fall issue. Thank you. ANSWER You are correct in reasoning that a linear drain would likely be most appropriate for a shower drain placement that is very close to a wall. With a linear drain, the floor of the shower can be uniformly sloped in one or more flat / properly sloped planes toward the sides and ends of the drain. Having said this, the waste pipe needs to be carefully located and sized to accommodate the linear drain being used. With a round drain, it may be more difficult to obtain the correct slope (minimum 1/4” vertical per 12” horizontal) consistent slope to drain. A typical round clamping ring drain and many round bond- ing flange drains may not be able to be positioned close enough to the wall to allow for proper water- proofing connections and/or slope to the drain. There may, however, be some round drains especial- ly designed to work properly in close proximity to a wall while still allowing for proper waterproofing connections and slope to the drain and/or weep holes. – Mark Heinlein, NTCA Technical Director QUESTION I am in need of your expertise. I have a client that installed Porcelain Statuario polished and honed 30” x 30” and 15” x 30” field tile in both a lobby floor and a dance floor of a country club. It’s quite a large area, so there were about 912 of the 30” x 30” tiles and about 132 of the 15” x 30” tiles, in total. About 80 Sponsored by Ask the Experts Q&As are culled from member inqui- ries to NTCA’s Technical Support staff. To become a member and make use of personal, targeted answers from Technical Support staff to your installation ques- tions, contact Jim Olson at jim@tile-assn.com. 28 TileLetter | December 2018