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Sunken tub to shower conversion

17 years ago

Hi folks,

This is my first post on this NG so 'Hello all'! I'm completely remodeling a 30 year old So. Cal. house and I'm now in the Master bath. Previously it consisted of a sunken tub (well sort of) - it was a completely tiled rectangle and probably used more as a shower than a tub (I presume) because the dimensions and boxiness of it would have made for an uncomfortable experience and a lot of wasted water to fill it 42' X 78' inside dimensions. The 'sunken' part is approx 8 inches below the house slab. Our thoughts are to fill it in with concrete and convert it to just a shower with a showerhead at each end and a handheld close to one end. We have purchased a Hansgrohe Thermobalance III and the related heads and handheld. We are somewhat puzzled as to wether to bring the new concrete to the same level as the existing concrete and build the shower on top of that, with a step up as most new construction is done....... or keep it slightly sunken to eliminate a step up? Any and all comments will be appreciated because at this point we can go either way - what would benefits or downfalls be? We plan to tile 3 sides plus the ceiling and the entry wall will be all glass. A link to a picture of the present stage of construction of the shower is below.

Thanks, Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Galleries

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Comments (4)

ron6519
17 years ago
And where is the plumbing in this plan? Specifically the drain.
Ron
seasideal
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi Ron,
The old plumbing has been ripped out as it was in the wrong places anyhow and the valves and such were useless. If you look at the link that I added in the first post there is a picture of the present state of the room and the drain is a 2" pipe coming right up out of the center of the floor, it just hasn't been cut down low yet and maybe you didn't realize what it was - and yes there is a P trap down below. When we broke out the mortar surrounding the old drain to remove it we were able to cut some pipe and add a coupling to raise the drain level to wherever we need it. The plumbing will be brought back into the framing soon and it is a 3/4 feed.

thanks, Al
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Thanks for the input. I just measured my master shower door and it's 28.5". I think I will plan for a 26" door, swinging inward and outward. I like the idea of the pony wall being a little bit longer and just leaving the 26" space for the future door. My contractor is very thorough and will be sure to block for a door and grab bar to be installed in future if desired. Definately will put the controls in the pony wall like we did in master. The depth of the room right now is 64" from the current finished shower tile to the wall. So without encroaching on the 30" space for the toilet, we could get a 34" depth shower. That's still pretty small, but don't see a way to make it deeper without expanding the scope and $$ by stealing space from adjacent attic. If money were no object we would look into doing that. I'll ask the contractor about it, but I don't think budget will allow.
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melisande
16 years ago
I curious - any answers here?
PRO
Ged Dipprey
last year
same dillemna. did you find a solution?

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