without a curb he needs to cut down the joists. with the curb he doesnt. our contractor said forget it, you are getting a curb.

this is what our curb looks like, there is a glass panel floor to ceiling on the left side, 30" wide, the rest is open. it came out great.

Don`t know about what is involved to do this, maybe one of the contractors that comments on here could help you, but I`m sure there is more to it than meets the eye

Personally I would keep the curb, it makes a break from the two different types of tiles used.

megan in any case you really do need to do a small mosaic on the floor, larger tiles cant make the subtle slope changes that are required.

Going curbless will give us more room in the shower (couple more inches) and more room
between the shower glass wall and the edge of the toilet (couple more inches). Plus we like the look and think it will help the bathroom remodel look more modern. ; )

we're going with cut pebble flooring.

stand on the sample board in bare feet for 10 min before you pick it. i know that sounds funny... but grout wont make it feel different unless the pebbles are completely buried.

There is a great deal more work if you do it the conventional way - which would be to lower the flooring system below the shower area so that you can properly build the shower floor back up without going over the height of the floor in the remainder of the room. There are some new systems out there that are saying you can install a curbless shower by using some membranes. We have looked at one and it is more expensive that the conventional way. We're also just not sure yet whether they will hold up and work over time. They look nice - but we aren't ready to jump into that yet until the bugs get worked out.

Schluter Kerdi Line Drain installed at the curb location. The drain would be 3/4" on top of existing 3/4" subfloor. The bath floor - same existing 3/4" subfloor plus a layer of 1/2" exposure 1 plywood & Schluter XL (1/4" thick) You are now even and the Ditra is your waterproofing. Also you can now use large format tiles. Yes it will cost more but it can be done without cutting into joists. I have successfully installed well over a hundred Kerdi showers. Photo with different drain location than what you would require.

Schluter Before & After · More Info

Schluter Before & After · More Info

My contractor is saying that in order to slop properly to the circular drain that we need to change our tile for the floor in the shower. We are using a larger 8 x 10 tile on the floor and the tile sub is saying it needs to be a smaller tile in the shower area. Any truth to this?

yes...he is correct...all those little grout lines are also to keep you from slipping..

@ Tim Sonberg You stated a circular drain therefore tiles need to be smaller to conform to the pitched base. If you were using a linear drain then I would use an approppriate large format tile as you are only pitched in one direction. It may have been better to start a new thread instead of attaching to a 2 year old one with a different original topic.