Sorry, I guess I should clarify. (This is why I linked the product page, because I knew I would not be able to explain this properly.) The oval tub has a "preexisting" sort-of-deck with a flange on three sides, otherwise I would not be so daft as to try to put a shower over it. I like my kitchen ceiling where it is! Here, this is what it looks like: However, and this is what I was asking about with the deck question, from the instructions it appears that there must be some kind of deck on the fourth side which does not have a tile flange if one does not use the optional (icky) apron, but it does not say how wide this deck must be. We both would rather not have to clamber over a wide margin to get into the tub - DH has to use this for showering every day. I'm mostly a lay-backer, not a sit-upper - my shoulders and upper back get very very painful so I have to get them into the scalding water. Unfortunately there isn't enough room for the 5'5" tub that would let me keep both shoulders and knees underwater and actually cover up most of the protruding bits on the front, leaving pretty much just my head and hands (to hold my book, of course) out of the water. ;-) The room is only 60" wide - it was carved out of a bedroom - and even if we had budget to redo all the plumbing there isn't room to turn the tub round sideways. I dislike the look of "stuff" cluttering up tub corners so I'm considering a down-low niche for my shampoo/soap/etc. and a high-up one for DH's shower things, and there will pretty much never be any kind of decorative bits on the corners because they'd just get soaked with the shower spray anyway. Well, okay, maybe a rubber ducky. (But no flamingos!) :-) Those four were pretty much the only tubs I've found that fit the parameters of size/depth, cost (crucial!), and appearance. I'm a short-but-wide person and DH is medium-height(5'9")-and-wide and we both manage OK in a standard 60x32 oblong tub - 34" or 36" would be a nicer but pretty much all I could find in this price point were funky molded-up things that looked like they belonged on the space station. Yuck-O. The deepest of the four tubs is actually the oblong Bancroft at 15" water depth but I'm not thrilled with how it looks, the other three are 14" water depth. The oval looks like it would have less shoulder room but that's not the case? The one oval tub I've seen available for sitting in was just about big enough for a kindergartener to do laps in, so it's pretty useless for comparison!

Hm, I had been wondering if you'd taken the past surround *down* or just put the new surround over it. If you've *taken it down* and you didn't see any rot behind the sheetrock when you removed it, then I'd venture to say that you're safe. There was *no* black or otherwise unpleasant anything where the low point was? Checking downstairs will eliminate the other one possibility, which would be that the rot went straight down and didn't communicate upwards at all into anything you removed. Which would be odd, but I guess possible. Maybe you just had *really good* sealing. We don't.

Thanks Jewel - that is the School of hard Knocks at it's best. A better plan is to have first the plywood - then some 1/2" Wonderboard Lite and then cover that with something like Laticrete's Hydro Ban Sheet Membrane. That way the tub deck is prepped for tile and would be acceptable even in a commercial steam shower environment. This is my last shower with tub deck. The tub is Kohler and the olive green material is Laticrete's Hydro Ban Sheet membrane. Installing it tight to the plywood was not ideal but again better than doing nothing at all. The shower side saw a heated bench get build and I used the sheet membrane to vapour proof the bench. The membrane then was used to protect the rest of the plywood tub deck from ever seeing water. Later a slab from Ceasar Stone was installed and I tilted the entire bathroom with a 1'x2' marble looking porcelain tile from I Marmi. Turned out nice.

I know this is an old thread. I'm comtemplating if I want a tub at all but if I get an air or a jetted tub, if the sides have stone around, how do you reach the motor if you need a repair? Just curious if anyone has dealt with that situation. For my current outdated tub, I can reach the motor through the the cabinet; I have a cut out there. I could do the same thing. But adding a slab of quartz to a tub make for a very expensive tub. Dominique, what did you decide and are you happy with your decision?