To curb or not to curb

My vote is not to curb the entry to a walk in shower. Save the extra framing and tile, and leave it flush with the rest of the bathroom floor. Keep it simple. As you can see, the pans themselves don’t look glamorous, but they’re very important for the eye candy (tile) that goes on top of them.

As for splash, we have a curbed shower with a door now, and there are always spots of water on the floor when we get out. So it’s not like the whole bathroom becomes a bath tub. And that’s what bath mats are for, which you will have anyway.

Tile-Redi

Tile-Redi makes shower pans that are leak proof and mold resistant. The pan shown at right is their 48″x37″ fully curbed model. The design I’m actually after is essentially a walk-in shower – literally walk in, as in no curb at all. Their ADA compliant model seems to fit the bill. It’s a good size at 48″x37″, and the drain is shifted a couple of inches past center further from the curbless side, so water heads away from the entry with the built in slope of the pan.

The pans are polyurethane with integrated drains. The curb walls are 1/2″ wide, so you can set it directly on the subfloor, and then set wallboard right on top of it. These pans can be installed and tiled in the same day, which is also a plus. Here are their technical faq’s.

Not high on the green scale in terms of material, but it does eliminate some installation framing and finish materials and time.

For comparison, a previous curbless shower product post.

We stayed in a hotel in NYC a few years ago that had a shower floor flush with the rest of the bathroom floor. It was nice, and not nearly as water messy as I thought it would be. Curbless showers are great even if you’re not disabled or elderly. Plus, if you put blocking in the walls from the get go, you can install rails and a seat later, should you become disabled or if you plan on living out your life there. They look cool, and gives the room continuity with finishes and the flow of space. And you don’t need a shower door or curtain – I’d happily give up those gunk collectors, not to mention trying to scrub the additional surface area of a curb and jambs for the door.

Not sure if they still make it, but Dural has a product called TILUX that integrates the shower pan into the floor. Here’s a YouTube video showing how the installation works: