Shower pans

Barrier-free shower pans run about $1,490 to $2,100 depending on size and drain type, with trench-drain pans sitting at the upper end. Buying the pan on its own is often the smartest purchase in a remodel: if your walls are sound, it can cut the product cost by more than half compared with a complete system.

Nothing meaningful. The two terms are used interchangeably for the moulded floor of the shower. Some suppliers use base for a unit that sits on the subfloor and pan for one that is recessed, but there is no industry-wide rule, so always check the actual threshold height and dimensions rather than relying on the word.

No. Our pans arrive pre-leveled and self-sustaining, so no mortar bed is required. This matters more than it sounds: a badly packed mortar bed is one of the most common causes of a shower pan failing years later, and removing that step also takes real time out of the installation.

0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2 inches, in quarter-inch increments, plus a traditional 4 inch curb. Both beveled and traditional edge profiles are available. The quarter-inch steps exist because real bathrooms have floor build-ups, tile thicknesses and joist depths that do not care about round numbers.

Only 0.5 inches. The ADA caps a roll-in shower compartment threshold at half an inch. Pans at 1 inch or 1.5 inches are low-threshold products, which work extremely well in most homes, but they are not ADA roll-in thresholds and we will not describe them as such. There is one narrow exception: a 2 inch threshold is permitted in transfer-type compartments in existing facilities, and only where a half-inch threshold would disturb the structural reinforcement of the floor slab.

Left, right, centre and front trench, plus custom drain locations for difficult remodels. Choosing the position that matches your existing waste line is the single biggest saving available on a shower project, because moving a drain means opening the floor.

A trench drain is a linear channel along the front edge of the pan rather than a single round outlet. Water runs toward the entry and drains quickly, which lets the floor slope in one clean direction instead of four. It drains faster than a round drain, which makes it a strong choice for roll-in showers. The trench threshold version combines drainage and containment in one detail at 1 or 2 inches.

With a barrier-free pan and a traditional round drain, we recommend one. A removable water stopper or water dam sits across the entry and gives you extra assurance against water finding its way onto the bathroom floor. It is inexpensive, it lifts out for wheelchair access, and it is included in our accessory package. With a front trench drain it matters less, because the trench is already catching water at the entry.

Yes, and often you should. If the tile or panels around your shower are still sound and the base is what has failed, replacing only the pan saves a great deal of money and disruption. We stock twenty barrier-free pan sizes and build custom dimensions on request.

Twenty barrier-free pan sizes, from 36x36 up to 78x48 inches, including several footprints such as 45x50 and 51x39 that exist specifically to solve awkward openings. If your opening does not match any of them, we build custom pans to your measurements.

Yes. The floor has a slip-resistant texture moulded into the surface rather than a coating applied on top, so it does not wear off. Pans are craftsman-made from reinforced fiberglass with a stain-resistant polyester gelcoat finish and carry a 30-year limited warranty.

Usually, yes. To get the top of the threshold within half an inch of your finished floor, the pan generally has to sit down into the floor framing. On a timber floor that means cutting and reinforcing between joists; on a concrete slab it is a considerably bigger job. Budget for it, and if that is not practical, a 0.75 or 1 inch threshold gives most of the same benefit with far less floor work.