Replies

1. 
   jrnbj | May 27, 2008 08:10pm | #1

   A roll-in shower is really no different than a regular shower, except that you have to figure out how to keep the water contained in the room.
   Usually this means you need a floor drain in the "shower" area, and another floor drain in the center of the room, because even if you can get the max allowable slopes (per ADA code) into and out of the shower area you can almost guarantee water will get past the shower curtain. (Note that this implies a rise to. or a threshold at, the main room door...)
   I've hear of using a strip drain where the curb would normally be, but I've never built or seen one done that way.
   Ditra isn't required, but might help. What I usually see done is a scrim fabric + waterproofing, but that's on slab....not sure how I would approach a roll-in on wood, but I'm thinking Schluter Kerdi system would probably be my first choice.
   I don't know specifics re in floor heating, but my gut feeling is that the more water you foresee being on the floor, the less wise ELECTRIC in-floor heating is-not to mention how it would play with a Kerdi installation.

1. 
   wane | May 27, 2008 09:13pm | #3

   strip drain sounds interesting, but would reduce the subfloor strength ..

   what's scrim fabric, that like the schluter water proofing membrane?

2. 
   FNbenthayer | May 28, 2008 02:40am | #7

   If "Barrier Free" is the goal, your best bet is is to drop the floor at least in the shower area. Otherwise, while you are removing the curb barrier, you create another at the threshold. 

    

    

    

   The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.- Fyodor Dostoyevski

1. 
   jrnbj | May 28, 2008 06:47pm | #9

   My experience is turning standard hotel bathrooms into ADA compliant ones. Typically you are working on slab, so there is no dropping the floor. So, you slope UP to the bathroom doorway, then down into the bathroom to the center drain, then back up to the shower area, and then back down to the shower drain.
   But there's lot's of amateurs out there. Last job I was on was a new build. The architect neglected to spec. any pre-slope for the showers (all of them, not just ADA ones), and being it was a hard bid job, that was a large extra.
   The ADA rooms had no center drain spec'd, nor any slope inside the room, and the local code required the shower controls to be on the long back wall of the shower stall, so the shower head sprayed right on the shower curtain. There was a marble threshold--beveled on the "room" side & flush with the tile in the stall! Needless to say, it really didn't work well.

1. 
   wane | May 30, 2008 07:35pm | #10

   thanks all, 1 more question, the last shower I did I centered the drain in the pan, now I find I'm always standing on it when using it, do you normally place the drain closer to the wall, off-center?  thanks again

2. 
   Mongo | May 27, 2008 08:25pm | #2

   A couple things to consider regarding code:

   Floor slope (in the shower area) needs to be a minimum of 1/4" per foot and a max of 1/2" per foot.

   You need a 2" height differential between the top of the drain and the top of the curb. In your case teh "curb" can be the unsloped part of the bathroom floor.

   Will add more later, gots to run for now...

   Mongo

1. 
   wane | May 27, 2008 09:19pm | #4

   thanks Mongo .. was planning on sloping the whole room towards shower drain, 2" without a curb is huge, I slopped the basement shower floor 1/4" per foot and you feel like a marble trying to stand on that slope .. a second floor drain midway between shower and door is a good point, just in second shower gets plugged .. trying not to have to drop the floor in the shower area ..

1. 
   Mongo | May 28, 2008 04:13am | #8

   The vertical for the slope has to originate somewhere. Not dropping the floor in the shower makes it tough.A few options, the entire floor gets packed up. You have a transition at the bath entry, it can be a ramped transition. Then the floor slopes down to the drain. It can be awkward having large expanses of sloped floor.Another is to raise the bulk of the floor up some, say an inch, then prior to the shower entry have a 1" "hump" in the floor. The hump acts as your curb of sorts. Mild enough to roll over on wheels. 1" plus 1" will give you the 2" drop to the drain.You could even have the bulk of the floor at its existing level, then have a 2" high roll-over hump as your curb. Depends on the layout of the room though.There are roll-over "pop-up" curb strips available. Sort of like an inverted rubber "U". Roll over them and they compress. When the tire clears the strip it pops back up. Not pretty, but they are effective.What brownbag wrote. I've dropped the floor in the shower and sloped the shower floor to the drain, then inserted both stone slabs, gapped a bit, or teak grids, on the shower floor. Held level with feet beneath them. The elevation of the bathroom floor and the top of the slab/teak grid is the same, so ADA-wise it's a breeze. Water drains through the gaps in the slab or the teak, down the slope beneath, and down the drain.Tom Meehan wrote an FHB article about a year ago. A wet bath, but he built the floor up with mud.Sorry I can't be more help!Mongo

   Edited 5/27/2008 9:15 pm ET by Mongo

3. 
   Piffin | May 28, 2008 12:13am | #5

   If you are doing a mud bed, you do want tarpaper or a liner, but do not need Ditra

    

    

   Welcome to the
   Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
    where ...
   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   brownbagg | May 28, 2008 01:07am | #6

   I wonder why they dont slope the hell out of the shower floor like 3/4 per foot and then have a fake floor on top of that, So water get wick through. a fake floor thats level. then you would not need a curb.

   Edited 5/27/2008 6:07 pm by brownbagg