[onmywayup]

I had a meeting today with a homeowner looking to do a full master bath remodel.

She has in mind a curbless tile walk-in shower. We've tiled many many showers, including a couple of curbless now, but this is the first time I've faced this particular situation.

According to the blueprints she still has from the original construction (this part of the house was an addition), this bathroom is built directly on a slab.

Would I be correct if I told her that the only way to do curbless here would be to jackhammer out the shower area in order to be able to have a slope down from the rest of the bathroom floor? I mean, short of raising the rest of the bathroom subfloor up, this is the only way to get the slope, right? This is what I intuitively feel is the solution, but I want to make sure I'm not missing something stupidly-obvious before I send this quote over.

 

[ohiohomedoctor]

You could pour 3/4" of leveler in the rest of the house.. :lol:

Jack or grind out the shower as needed..

 

[cleveman]

You would be wrong to tell her that. You could also cut it out.

 

[Texas Wax]

Linear drain across the front, and pitch up the back ?

 

[onmywayup]

You could pour 3/4" of leveler in the rest of the house.. :lol:

Jack or grind out the shower as needed..

Not THAT far off from what my regular tile helper suggested, actually. He suggested raising up the rest of the bathroom floor, but then we'd have a pretty good threshold at the entrance to the bathroom.

 

[onmywayup]

Linear drain across the front, and pitch up the back ?

I'm fairly certain that we're going to find the drain assembly set in concrete once we bust up this shower. Adding a linear drain is a nice idea, but we'd still have to bust up concrete to get it in there flush with the rest of the bathroom surface.

 

[ohiohomedoctor]

Busting concrete out isn't that hard. I'd much rather install a curbless on a slab than a wood sub floor..

 

[cleveman]

I saw out the area with someone spraying a continuous stream out of a good garden sprayer. Doesn't make much of a mess. The exhaust is the worst part. Last time I used a large fan and took a lot of breaks.

 

[DaVinciRemodel]

As Wax said, a linear drain is a good option. This one was done in a framed floor but would have been very easy to do in a slab. The shower and room design are important – do you have any drawings?

 

[Inner10]

I was working on a job last January and the builder raised the floor in the bathroom then built a ramp from the master bedroom into the bathroom. The ramp was well done, hardwood nice picture frame, looked a little unorthodox but nice.

 

[Texas Wax]

I'm fairly certain that we're going to find the drain assembly set in concrete once we bust up this shower. Adding a linear drain is a nice idea, but we'd still have to bust up concrete to get it in there flush with the rest of the bathroom surface.

Yes the drain will be in concrete and the sanitary will be >"Somewhere"<
under the concrete. The mystery is half the fun

Obviously there is a reason y'all are avoiding concrete demo. The linear drain concept here is the ideal solution. Gonna cost more than floating or raising the floor 3/4"+ ... but there has to be some transition somewhere without a flush solution.

 

[GO Remodeling]

How big of a shower foot print? Shower door or clear entry? nce you start breaking concrete at the drain the rest shouldn't be too bad. The gravel can be removed under the next edge creating a hollow spot that will break easy.

Membrane the shower floor and the rest of the room.

 

[tjbnwi]

Lineal drain. This is a 48" Noble. I like the way the drain grate adjusts on these.

Most often it's put along the back wall for water management. You'll end up busting out the floor, to reroute the waste line.

Tom

 

[Shellbuilder]

Curbless is what every aging in place house should have. Figure about 10 to 14 hours of pain for a good carpenter to cut, remove, cleanup and reinstall concrete. Almost every bath I do is cureless. Wood framed subfloors can get in to installing piers and footings because of joist span problems.

 

[Stevarino]

I've done curbless on framed rooms but not on slabs. If you have to bust up the concrete anyway to move or add a drain you may as well busy up a little more and slope it that way. Unless the shower runs the length or width of the room building up the back wall for a linear drain is going to leave you with a ramp shaped curb at the end...unless you do two linear drains but that's just getting ridiculous.

 

[world llc]

it's much easier to do in framed rooms than on a slab, but i'v done it.... just takes longer

jack it out

 

[Hardly Working]

I've used my demo saw(beater wormdrive) with a masonry blade. No fumes. I score it with a shallow cut then full depth. You don't get all the way through but it will snap with a clean line. Old trick is a 2 liter bottle with a hole on the outside bottom edge. Fill with water and crack the cap to adjust flow.

Best of luck.

 

[ohiohomedoctor]

it's much easier to do in framed rooms than on a slab, but i'v done it.... just takes longer

jack it out

This depends on which way the joists go. Id much rather spend 20 minutes with our jack hammer than have to modify and reengineer the floor joists..

 

[world llc]

This depends on which way the joists go. I m uch rather spend 20 minutes with our jack hammer than have to modify and reengineer the floor joists..

or simply turn drain 90 degrees... :whistling

 

[DesignerDude]

If you decide on the raise-the-floor option, why not raise the floor by adding electric radiant heat under the tile? Insulation boards that are 1/4" thick go down first, then bury the wire or mat in a scratch/base coat of thinset or leveler on top of the insul board, then tile as usual.

You can expect to spend about $400 or so on materials for the average size bath + one days labor (installing insul boards, mat & scratch coat) + electrician (should be minimal).