I am planning on having a walk-in shower in the new house that we are building. The original plan shows a jet tub which we don’t want and will be adding the walk-in in it’s place. I have ordered a 72×37 pan from Tile Redi www.tileredi.com. The thing is that I have a 9′ area where the jet tub was supposed to be so I thought the simplest thing would be to frame up a seat at one end of the shower. I’ve never done this before and may enlist some experienced help but thought I would ask the group for some direction, ideas and tecniques for framing and SEALING this type of project.
Thanks
Silas
Replies
If I had a nine foot area to fill with shower i'd dump the pan ad go with a custom sized shower.
If I ever build my own shower it wil be at least 48"x72". I like to have a little room in the shower.
As far as the seat, they sell some nice corner units that just bolt to the studs.
Are you talking about framing a seat just outside the pan you have coming? I dont know how well that would work. Usually when we made seats like that in the past it was in a custom pan situation and the plumber just ran the rubber from the floor up over the seat.
I'm with MS, get rid of the pan, build your own and use block for the seat instead of lumber.
http://johnbridge.com/shower_seats.htm
if you want to still use the pan, you could still use this method if you can build it outside the pan.
you can also look at Better Bench if you want it open underneath:
http://www.innoviscorp.com/
if you go the lumber route look at kerdi:
http://www.schluter.com/8_1_kerdi.aspx
Build a custom pan. IMHO a 37"w X 72" long shower with a single shower head would be odd, a 48" x 48" feels much more luxurious to me.
If I was wedded to the redipan, I'd go with the 60" pan and plane the bench into the pan with a Membrane on the walls and build a small closet or storage with the remainder.
That's just me though, good luck.
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
My thoughts also.With the orginal layout I would need my glasses to find the valve from the seat..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Every seat unit that i've seen bolted to the wall has come loose over time, usually from poor install. Do what the others have said ,reduce the size of the shower to say, 37 x 48. Then, build a proper bench out of 3/4" ply over 2x6's. wrap with membrane and tile away.
one thing i would suggest, is to use bullnose tiles on the seat edge, simply to keep the blood from being cutoff from your legs.
toolman65
Look thru Chuck Stevens thread on building a small addition onto his house. It's basically a tutorial. You can skip the framing stuff, if you like, just skim down until you see him posting pictures of the interior work. He gives a great description of building up a shower stall & bathroom.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages/?msg=79773.0
Thanks guys. I'm terrified of the Kerdi method and probably have no reason to be but I've decided to switch to the 48"x48" pan and build a seat using the Kerdi method. After looking at it the 72x37 does seem really long and skinny and the feel of the 48x48 is much more spacious. Thanks again.
Tom
Tom,
Here's a Kerdi Shower photo essay I posed a while ago.
Don't shy away from Kerdi just yet. After all, it's so easy even a Mongo can do it!
I agree with Mongo 100%, and especially on the kerdi...much better than other methods.If you build a tiled bench/seat in place, consider installing electric radiant heat under it. I've done a couple of these and the warm seat is a nice feature, appreciated by users.
Great idea on the heated seat. Can you share your method and some supply sources?Tom
I've used "Warmly Yours" and in a truly wet area like a shower, you install a 24V power supply (from the manufacturer) for the radiant heat coils.
Get a boat rated seat to use in the shower.... redwood and stainless steel.
Easy in, easy out, easy clean, easy build.
Why does everyone need to make this so complicated?
A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
Nothing complicated about any of this, really.If you want quick and easy just buy an acrylic shower stall. You can get them with built-in seats too...and in several colors.
We did a 48" x 60" walk-in shower as part of a larger reno about a year ago (no pan, just a membrane). Our tile guy used a triangular slab of granite (matches the granite used for the threshold), and bedded it into a corner of the shower. The triangle was about 20" on each edge. It makes a perfect seat with no extra framing. Sorry I don't have a photo to share.
I was planning the tiled seat route, then the boss (wife) changed her mind. Looked for wall mounted seats. Expensive and a bit cumbersome. Finally bought a teak bench and just plopped it into the end of the shower. Works great.
...that's not a mistake, it's rustic