Yes, or at least cheaply.

Honestly...... a curb is no big deal unless you truly need to push a wheelchair in. Not the end of the world or the end of a great looking bath

It's not a huge deal on the curbless right now, but our son has some special needs, so we're trying to anticipate possible needs when he's older. He's 2.5 right now, so maybe there'll be something to retrofit with by then. :) Thanks for the advice.

It would certainly mean cutting out some of the concrete of the slab to accommodate the necessary drain slope, but as it seems likely you will benefit from having a curbless shower in the future, I'd ask your contractor now if I were you. Cutting the concrete out sooner than later may be less expensive than you think, and not really that complicated, especially when compared to ripping out and redoing a whole bathroom sometime down the road.

I wouldn't count on something being developed to retrofit it... water will never not travel downhill, so a slope to get a shower to drain properly isn't something that will ever change. If you put in a shower with a curb and determine at some later date that you need to be able to roll in, you won't have much choice but to tear out what you have. To not cut into the slab, you'd have to raise the rest of the bathroom floor above the level of the shower pan and put a ramp up into the room (or raise all of the other room's floors too.. which seems much more excessive than cutting down into the slab for the shower).

Our shower space is designed for two shower heads so it's pretty large in my opinion. Its a 4' x 7' space. I know the shower where my son takes water therapy does not have a curb or seem to slope and it's a smaller space than this. We are building this house ourselves, so we are the contractor. I'm not going to fall out if we can't do curbless, but idk that I'm comfortable digging in the slab either.

Cutting the hole isn't as bad as it sounds. It's not a huge, deep hole....it just needs to make the edges of the shower pan flush with the floor. It does require some tools and will create a bit of a mess - but better now before much is finished? I don't know anything about this particular pan, but the video does show the person installing it cutting the concrete down - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYICUBaO1pc

I'm sure the shower you are seeing does slope - 1/2" to 1/4" per foot isn't necessarily super noticeable.

We retrofitted my mothers bath when she had a stroke. It is certainly doable. I have children with special needs also. So I knowI its always good to plan ahead. I would do it now if you can. I made one of our bathrooms accessible in our new build after seeing how we had to rush to get it done for mom. We also put in grab bars and a vanity that is wheelchair friendly. We might not ever need it, but it's there just in case. Good luck.

K'anna,

It can be challanging recessing the shower floor. A curbless slab install can be a serious endeavor more times than Not. I have done a fair amount of these here in my locale. If you go this route the very first thing id look at is how much available drain trap depth you can gain IF you remove slab, my plumber is always my first call.. - best

I would do it now before you progress further on the build. It can be done and the cost is not as bad now as it will be later. It takes a bit of work, but we do it pretty frequently in basement remodels and it is not as bad as some are making it out to be.

Who is the laborer that would help us with this?

If you think you'll ever want a curbless shower then now might be the time to fix it. Not after your home is built.

I'd start with a plumbing contractor. Good luck.

I used a general contractor in both cases. The first was a retrofit to my mothers existing home which involved removing a tub, installing a curbless shower with grab bars and bench, replacing the vanity with a reinforced pedestal sink and widening the door way for wheelchair access. On our new build I used the general contractor who worked with his plumber and tile people on the shower. In this case I had told them up front that I needed a curbless shower so the house was already framed accordingly..I worked with the cabinet maker to design a wheel chair friendly vanity. If you have a current general contractor, ask him/her to write up a change order/ quote for you.