A curbless shower can be built one of three ways. The floor under and around the shower decides which way your bathroom gets, not the tile. So before the shower is drawn, ask your designer what the existing floor allows. Then confirm that slope, drainage and waterproofing will work together as one system.
Order matters. If the flush entry gets settled as a finish choice first, the existing floor can change the scope of the remodel once it’s examined. Then the plan gets redrawn. The entry is a floor decision before it’s a finish decision.
A Curbless Shower Is Built Into the Floor
A shower like this has no raised threshold or curb at the entry. The shower floor sits flush with the bathroom floor around it. You walk straight in, with nothing to step over. That’s a step-free entry. With no curb to contain water, the floor itself has to do that job.
One tile-setting system maker’s page describes the job this way. Because there’s no curb to hold water, the shower depends on how the floor assembly is built, along with slope, drainage and waterproofing that are designed to work together as one system. Slope sends water toward the drain, and the drain carries it away.
The waterproofing protects the structure from moisture. That’s one maker’s account of how its kind of system approaches the job.
That’s the part a drawing hides. On paper, a flush entry can look like a tile choice. In the house, it’s built into the floor. So it belongs in the plan before the finishes.
What Are the Three Ways to Build a Curbless Shower?
That maker names three ways. One recesses the shower floor so the finished shower floor sits level with the surrounding bathroom floor. One uses a prefabricated tray and ramp, which creates a gradual transition and leaves the existing floor structure intact. The last raises the bathroom floor around the shower to meet the height of the shower assembly.
That page calls recessing the cleanest result. It keeps the rest of the bathroom at its original height, and that maker calls it the preferred approach where the structure allows it. That last phrase carries the weight.
That maker says the remaining methods are the route when the floor can’t be recessed. It also says the methods differ only in how the height is achieved. Height isn’t the end of it. Once the height is settled, slope, drainage and waterproofing still have to work as one system in every case.
What Decides Which Route Your Bathroom Gets?
The existing floor does. That’s why the route can’t be chosen from a photo or a finish sample. That maker’s own qualifier is worth holding onto: recessing is preferred where the structure allows it. The structure is the floor you already have. A designer reads it in the room.
In our process, designers make a jobsite visit for a complete in-home analysis. That’s step 4. At step 5, the design team finalizes the floor plans and the mechanical specifications. So the plan for a flush entry can be settled after the floor has been looked at, and not before.
Asking early which route your floor points to can keep the shower from being drawn twice. It’s one question. It changes what the rest of the plan has to accommodate.
Why Does the Waterproofing Reach Past the Shower?
In a curbed shower, the curb marks where the wet area ends. A shower without one has no such line. So, as that maker explains, the protection has to carry on past the shower opening and into the room. The wet area no longer stops at the shower.
That maker also reports that industry guidelines recommend waterproofing a minimum of 1 foot beyond the shower area where there’s no curb. Take that as the maker’s report of an industry guideline. It isn’t a measurement for your bathroom. It isn’t a requirement for your bathroom either.
The reach of the waterproofing is part of what a remodel covers. So ask your designer to show you on the plan where it starts and where it stops. It may run past the shower opening. Seeing that line drawn tells you what the work touches.
A seat belongs in the same early conversation. As our post on whether a walk-in shower needs a bench says, the seat and the waterproofing can be planned together while the shower is still on paper.
How Steep Can the Shower Floor Slope?
According to one federal accessibility guide, shower floors can slope to drains, and a 1:48 maximum slope will help control water without impacting accessibility. That ratio works out to about a quarter inch of drop for every foot. The conversion is ours. The guide gives the ratio.
That guide also describes roll-in showers, which give wheeled mobility aids access without a transfer to a seat. It says a threshold height up to a half inch is permitted if it’s properly beveled. It adds that trench drains and other designs allowing a flush transition will provide easier access. Those are that guide’s figures for roll-in showers. They’re a reference point, not a rule written for a house.
Your designer will say which of those figures, if any, apply to your project. A curbless entry is a flush transition, so that guide’s remark about easier access is worth raising with your designer. Then ask where those numbers land on your plan.
How Does a Curbless Shower Fit an Accessible Plan?
If the reason for the flush entry is access and not looks, the entry is one piece of a wider plan. When a bathroom is designed for accessibility, we point to features like a thresholdless shower and grab bars. Thresholdless is our word for the same kind of entry. The shower is one part of that plan.
The entry is also a decision to make with the people who will use the shower. What they want from it may not match what’s on the drawing. As a general rule, that conversation belongs before the plan is final. So ask them, and bring what they say to the designer.
For the wider plan, our post on designing a bathroom you can age into covers planning an accessible bathroom as a whole.
What Should You Bring to the First Design Meeting?
A designer can start from a short list. It’s what you want from the shower, whether that’s the look or the step-free entry or both. It’s who will use the shower. And it’s anything you already know about the floor of that room. The floor question starts at this meeting.
That list is enough to open a design conversation. The jobsite visit later checks it against the real room. One is what you know. The other is what the house says.
Whether it’s a master bathroom or a kids’ or guest bath, our bathroom remodeling team can help design the space you want. See more about bathroom remodeling with Lang’s designers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Step-Free Showers
What is a curbless shower?
One tile-setting system maker defines it as a shower with no raised threshold or curb at the entry, so the shower floor sits flush with the surrounding bathroom floor. We call the same kind of entry thresholdless. Both words point at one thing: an entry with nothing to step over.
Can any bathroom get a curbless shower?
No article can promise either way. The existing floor decides which route is available, and that isn’t something a photo or a finish sample can tell you. Lang’s designers visit the jobsite for a complete in-home analysis before the design is final. Ask the floor question early, and the answer can shape the plan instead of interrupting it.
Is a curbless shower allowed where I live?
Rules on this can differ from place to place, and this article doesn’t cover them. Your local building code office is the place to ask. Bring the question to your designer too, since the answer may shape how the shower gets drawn. We won’t guess at it, and no article should.
How much does a curbless shower cost?
No article can give you an honest figure, because it depends on what the design includes. Our 12-step process puts a computerized floor plan and pricing analysis at step 3, and a final floor plan and quote at step 5, after the in-home analysis.
Will Lang’s help me decide how mine would be built?
That’s a conversation to have with a designer. Our design-build team has built curbless showers with integrated, built-in seating across Newtown, Yardley and Doylestown projects. Our bathroom remodeling team can help design the space you want, and our designers visit the jobsite for a complete in-home analysis. Design consultations are available in the showroom and online by appointment.
Bring the Floor Question to a Design Consultation
In Lang’s 12-step remodeling process, designers visit the jobsite for a complete in-home analysis before the design team finalizes all dimensions, floor plans and mechanical specifications.
As a general rule, the route to a flush entry is easiest to settle while the drawings are still open. So raise it at the first meeting, before the shower has a shape on paper.
If you want to see where that visit falls in the order of things, Lang’s 12-step remodeling process lays out the steps from the first appointment through the final plans.
If you’re planning a curbless shower for a bathroom remodel, bring your questions about the floor and talk with Lang’s design team before the shower is drawn. Our design showroom is in Newtown.