Bathroom Renovaton, Walk In No Barrier Shower, Large Tile, Glass Door

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Massive ice dam damage here in New England brought an opportunity to renovate and expand a bathroom shower. We are at a tile install stage and no one will touch it. I'm including a description for this and a diagram. For notation, room is plastered with wall tile being the covering on the shower walls (shower denoted in orange) and on tub (blue) valance. There is no partition between bathroom (red) and shower (orange) floor. We are looking at a 12x24 floor tile and a linear drain and would like to have a barrier free entry for both elderly use and modern look. It will also help the relatively small floor space/room size. Arrow is direction of water from shower head. solid black line is door to hallway. Floor is level and down to subfloor. We have access to floor from below.
Shower floor is 33" deep and 50" wide. There is a boxed bench 32"Wx12"D depicted in yellow. So, I need to know how this can work with all the parameters (linear drain, large format tile, no barrier and a swinging glass door). I'm hoping this is a challenge, but not impossible. Thoughts, insight, ideas are all welcome.

Featured Answer

Judy Mishkin

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

no diagram.

you'll want small mosaic tiles for your shower floor, for better contouring and better footing.

true 0 entry in existing space requires trimming down the floor joists or else building up the rest of the floor, which would just shift the step up to the bathroom door.

we built an open shower with about a 1 1/2 inch step up that came out nice, if you change that parameter you might get a contractor willing to do the job.

last thing, skip the built in bench, a teak shower stool can be moved under the shower flow (if you want to sit while showering) or removed entirely if you need a health aide to assist the showering.

this was before a fixed glass panel was added to the left side.

this gives a better sense of the step.

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Comments (6)

J$hort
Original Author
11 years ago
Uploaded diagram, I'll get some pics as well.

Was thinking of a linear drain on opposite side for glass door and sloping on a single plane toward it. 33" is not much to work with. Wondering if the same large tiles in shower would help the continuity. We'll be sloping "across" a few joists in that case. If there is a need for a barrier, it would have to be pretty low. The one you show would be much more acceptable than the 6" ones being suggested by the installers.
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Judy Mishkin
11 years ago
so here's the thing...the lower your barrier, the easier it is for the drain to be slow and your shower water goes 'over the dam' our shower area is 4' x 8' so thats a lot of capacity. but there is no reason why yours should be 6", as a normal shower pan would be much less than that.

there are all kinds of contractors who have all sorts of experience, and what they dont know they dont want to do, which is a good thing! ours hadnt ever done a shower like ours, but his plumber had and now our contractor is really proud of his new skill.

best of luck, and really get large format tile out of your head for the shower floor, srsly.
J$hort
Original Author
11 years ago
I have seen many large format tiles on the shower floor. It is a modern practice and many of the contractors are old school. Sloping the room floor is an option but challenges the swing out glass door. The goal is continuity. Breaking up the room/shower space loses that, especially in a small/medium size bathroom. I am looking here for more innovative approaches to the design. We will discount this idea when it is absolutely impossible. There are strong feelings about this, there is a good size budget, and we will be faced with the same dilemma on 1st floor bath (replacing fiberglass tub/shower stall. The wet room look will add to the modern design, help the elderly issue and impress buyers on resale. All of these are future items, but this is the last remodel I plan to do. So, ideas?
mariajgray
11 years ago
Larger format tiles are certainly possible, as there has to be fall to the drain be prepared for cuts in the the tiles to allow for this. This should not be a problem for a good tiler. Having a screen with a door opening out should also not be a problem, once you establish the set out for the laying of the tiles, the fall to the waste will start from where you will have the screen. Having no screen is great in theory but you you quickly get tired of having to mop up the water from the splashing.
J$hort
Original Author
11 years ago
Cuts in the tile would be at the break (beginning of the slope). Assuming a single plane from shower door (or beyond) to back wall linear drain? Glass door will want to be 32" from back shower wall. 33"W bench and glass cut around.