1) you can always do old good curtain
2) where the current shower head is? It would be less expensive to leave it where it is now
3) for the same reason hand held shower bars are places on the same wall where the main controls are -> less plumbing, less money
4) you can do a fold-up cedar plank bench on any wall you want, wall B would be my preference if the shower head is on wall C
5) if you have shower controls on wall C, it might be too busy to put a niche there. I would say wall A
6) somewhere on the right from the bench - is this what you are going to use it - to get up from the bench? are you right handed?
7) - 11) have no advise. Usually this kind of things have to follow a local building code, and the contractors would give you their opinion on where lights/vent/fan should go in your situation
I am no expert, but my 2 cents, just in case they come useful
Good luck with your project!

I am no pro, but can give you an opinion or two :)

You say no glass, but would you be willing to have glass on the top of a 3/4 wall? I would do that so the shower isn't so cave like. Either full wall or 3/4 wall with glass, you can add a glass door later if you find you have too much splash.

If you opt for a 3/4 wall, I'd put the shower and handheld fixtures on wall A with the shower controls on wall D (or C, if the plumbing can be routed under the glass) so you can reach them before entering the shower. If you have a full wall, you could also put the fixtures on wall C but you are effectively losing the space that the door takes up and cramming everything into the width of the smallest wall - so I'd still put them on wall A.

Niches: If you do a 3/4 or full wall, with fixtures on wall A, then I'd put niches on wall C. Unless you want them to be a strong design element then put them on wall B.

There are so many variables, depending on some of your decisions. I wanted a full bench, but finally opted for a corner, which I am happy enough with - I just don't usually care for diagonal spaces, but it's fine. Unless you really need to sit for a shower, I don't know if I'd give up the space to a full bench.

I'd be more worried about a fan capturing moisture asap than with odor control from the toilet, so I'd put a fan with light inside the shower and a light of some kind in the toilet area. Check out the threads about Fantech...they are fantastic and so powerful and quiet, I think you can get the odor control with no problem. I have the dual outlet and have one directly over the tub and one inside the shower, both with halogen lights.

Here is a link that might be useful: one fantech thread, there are more

Thank you ekat. The current showerhead is on wall D just inside the entry to the shower space. We are stealing a little space from the adjoining room and making the shower stall about 10" deeper and 12" wider than the old fiberglass stall.

Because of the toilet, we have to keep the entry to the shower where it is, but we would like to move the showerhead to a better location so it is not directly inside the entry.

Better luck on answers this time! I couldn't help but thinking of the parable of the persistent widow who bugs the judge until he accedes to her request "lest by her continual coming she weary me." :)
I'll share my very limited knowledge on the bathroom subject. Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully chime in soon.

In anticipation of doing a European style shower screen for our upcoming MB reno, I've been trying out taking showers with our shower curtain opened to the width of the screen we're planning on buying. If you haven't started your project yet, or if you have access to a similarly shaped bathroom, you might try out that method--just lay down some towels to protect your floor and see how drafty it gets with the curtain opened. Last year when I switched to a curved shower curtain rod I could feel a noticeable increase in draftiness just with that. That said, I am going ahead with the screen option for my reno, though it'll be a bit wider than many screens (see dreamlineshowers model # SHDR-3148726) I've found if you've got a decent amount of water coming out of your showerhead, it helps warm up the shower area.

Two questions: Is your shower area only North of Wall C in your diagram? Does it currently have plumbing in that wall, and if not, do you know for sure that you can run plumbing in that wall?
For budget reasons, I'm just doing one fixture that is a rainhead-like handheld , but even if I weren't going with one fixture, I like the easy switch-over that comes from having all fixtures on one wall, plus the fact that I'll get a clean wall of tile with no fixtures, niches, etc. to stop your eye. Other people would probably say they like the water coming at you from different angles. Another consideration: do you have pretty good water pressure? I'd ask smarter people if having fixtures on different walls would have any impact on that. I'm attaching staceyneil's Master bath pictures so you can see what it could look like to have all fixtures on one wall.

I am planning on having our niche on the wall opposite of our shower head for two reasons, 1) I'm going to have a 36" slide bar, trim, handshower w/cord etc., and I don't want it to look to busy on that wall. 2) I feel more comfortable about having the niche where there is less opportunity for water damage. I'm putting the triangular Innovis Better Bench opposite the showerhead for the same reason.

Hope this helps a little

Here is a link that might be useful: staceyneil's MB shower fixture placement

Thank you for your opinions, olychick and reel life.

We have thought about making Wall C 3/4 high topped with glass for more light, but it depends on the best location for the showerhead. We want to minimize splash into the area just inside the entry. If we place the showerhead on Wall C aiming toward B, we have to deal with splash coming from the side of the stream of water. If we place it on Wall A aiming toward D, we have to deal with splash at the end of the stream of water. Of course, a person in the center of the stream will affect splash too. Our current shower stall is so small that we can't experiment to see which direction splashes less.

Another thought about making Wall C 3/4 tall--would you take the glass on top of it all the way to the ceiling or would you leave a gap at the top? What if we made it a little taller and just had a gap but no glass at the top?

Niche is not a design feature. Even if I were to line it with beautiful tile, I do not want to see the bottles and other stuff inside, so I want to place the niche in the least conspicuous location. Is there a risk of water damage if I place it on the same wall as the showerhead? It seems as though it would be behind the water spray and not as likely to get wet there.

A corner bench probably makes the most sense, I assume at the intersection of A and B. If there, does that influence the placement of showerheads? I am not sure where you want the water to be coming from if you are sitting on a bench. I'll probably use it mostly as a prop for shaving my legs; but I want to put it in a logical location in case either of us decides to sit for a while.

reel life, the shower is only in the space north of Wall C. Currently there is no wall there, just the glass of the old fiberglass stall that we are replacing. We will be building a new Wall C and have been told that we can put new plumbing in that location. Currently the plumbing is on wall D, but we do not want to keep it there as that is the only place for the entry. If possible, we would like to keep all of the fixtures on Wall C or Wall A so that Wall B will be uninterrupted. It is the wall you will see most and we are thinking about placing some sort of vertical accent tiles opposite the opening.

where is your handrinsing sink?

Your bathroom layout is very similar to ours except our shower is 72" long and only 31 inches wide. It isn't done yet. We plan to keep it doorless. I believe the pocket door will make the shower warm enough. We have our shower head on wall "A". I think this would be a good place for yours too but I would suggest putting it closer to wall "B" than wall "C" to minimize splashing out of the opening. We will be placing a hand held slider bar on wall "B". In our bathroom, wall "C" has two niches for the same reason you mentioned - we don't want to see the shampoo bottles, etc. Our wall "C" is 49" long and 5' tall. It has a 4 x 4 post that's anchored to the ceiling. We plan to put a piece of glass on top of the wall. The glass will be 12" to 18" tall. We built a corner bench on wall "A" but it was a hard decision. Not sure if we'll use the bench or if it will just be in the way.

Here are some pictures.

If you put your fixtures on A, I would put the corner seat in AD corner. That corner will be the least used when showering as you'll want to be standing closest toward A. At least that's how I did mine and it works fine.

If you put a showerhead facing down, like a rainhead, maybe on a 12" arm, you will reduce splashing back toward D, I think.

If you use preformed niches and benches, I don't think you have to worry about water damage. They are waterproof. I tucked a couple of tiny niches in outside of the splash area for soap, even though the handheld also has a soap shelf, which works great, too. My rainhead doesn't show in this pic. but it's centered on same wall as handheld.

kendog2 and olychick, thank you for the pictures. The image of kendog2's partial wall looks interesting--we'll have to think about that if we do not mount fixtures on Wall C. I wish we could make our room 72" instead of just 59". I would feel more confident about trying to go doorless in that case, but we are bounded by attic and roof-line to the left and a hallway to the right.

olychick, I am not sure which corner you mean for our bench. You wrote AD, but those walls do not meet. Did you mean AB, AC or BD?

davidrol1, our vanity with double sinks is just outside of the toilet/shower room to the left of the pocket door. A walk-in closet is at the other end of the room. I drew just the area for toilet/shower for this post, but I can add more detail if anyone is interested in the whole layout.

Olychick has good sense to tell you not to stress about water damage in the niche, at least not until you look into the issue. Please forgive me as I'm in the middle of a bout of water-damage-phobia. I had to empty out my bank account earlier this year to replace water-damaged wood flooring.

As you are deciding which walls to put the fixture on in your rectangular space, have you tried standing in the space and making the motions like you are taking a shower? Of course other considerations might outweigh this, but maybe you'll find you want more side to side elbow-room than able-to-take-a-step-or-two-forward kind of room, or vice-versa?

Oops, I meant BD.

I'd put the shower head and handheld on wall C. If you put them on wall A, which is only 36" wide, and you center it, you'll be squished when showering. If you don't want to be squished, then it'll be off-center, which would look a bit odd. The only concern about wall A is that the controls would be tough to reach from outside the shower, if you typically turn on the water to warm up before you hop in. You could put the controls on wall A and the shower head on wall C to work around this.

I'd put the niche on wall A. Putting it on wall C with the shower head plumbing would be problematic because the plumbing is right behind the wall, not leaving room for a recessed niche. Unless you put the niche off center.

I don't think your shower is big enough for a full-length bench. I'd go with a triangular one in any of the corners. BD is probably my vote.

I like the idea of having wall C be a 3/4 wall. You could probably get away with not putting glass above it, as topside splash would be minimal.

I'd put the fan just outside the shower door opening.

As for the door, I'd put blocking in behind the walls, then try it out without a door, and if it's drafty or leaky, it's easy to add one later.

weedyacres, thank you for your suggestions, but I think that you may have mixed up the labels for my walls or I am not reading your comments correctly. I am inserting the diagram again for easy reference. I realize that my labels do not show clearly.

A is the wall on the upper left (west). It is about 40" from the inside of C back to B. Solid wall with tile floor to ceiling. Next to the attic so no option for moving or making it a partial wall.

B is the top wall (north). It is about is about 59". Also solid with tile floor to ceiling. It backs up to the hallway bathroom so we can't move or make it a partial wall.

C is the shorter wall separating the toilet from the shower (middle). It is about 36" wide. This is the only wall where there is the possibility of making it 3/4 high. We definitely want to put the shower controls on this wall for easy reach, but we don't know if we could/should put showerhead on this short wall or place it on the west Wall A.

D runs the whole depths of the room from top to bottom (east). It is about 80". We probably will tile this whole wall, especially if we go doorless.

The pocket door at the bottom of the diagram leads into the rest of the bathroom with the vanity and doors to the closet and bedroom.

My concern about a corner bench at the intersection of B and D (northeast) is this is just inside the entry which seems far away from the water. exposed and potentially drafty. I don't think I want to sit in front to the entry or stand there to shave my legs. It would be cold if we do not have a door, and even with a glass door, I would still feel very exposed in that location.

that makes sense...I put mine as far from the stream of water as possible so I could use the bench and be out of it when I wanted to be, but made sure the handheld reached easily for when I might need to sit on the bench and use it (injury, old age, etc. )Will others in your family use the toilet while you are in the shower? And how will you heat that room? Some things to consider about whether you will be exposed or subject to drafts. I find the heat from the shower seems to keep it warm enough, but I do have a curtain (still trying to decide if I want doors). But the curtain doesn't go all the way to the ceiling, there is 2.5 or 3 ft open above it.

are you able to place the drain totally anywhere?

also, the supply pipes. Anywhere?

Olychick, what are the dimensions of your shower?

davidrol,

The drain is currently near the center of our old fiberglass stall. We are making the shower portion of the room deeper by about 10 inches and wider by about 12". I assume we should be able to put the drain anywhere in that space.

Our old showerhead is on Wall D, but we prefer not to keep it there because it is just inside the entry. Right now we get wet whenever we open the door a crack to turn on the water, so that is why we hope to move the water to Wall A or C.

Wall B could be another option. It already has plumbing for the sink in adjoining bathroom, so there should be no problem putting fixtures there, but we prefer not to have the water aiming from B toward C and the entry.

Wall A borders the attic, but I assume it can handle plumbing.

Wall C will be a new wall and we have been told we could put pipes there.

far too many assumptions are being made here, based on non-knowledge.

Moving a drain is often not all that easy, for reasons related to the subfloor's structure, the slope of the drainpipe, the total number of turns (bends) that a drain pipe can have, the total length a drain pipe can be, etc. etc. So, all bets are off.

Draw the existing drain pipe hole on the existing drawing. Make all the text two or three times bigger.

You're welcome, Dibgar. I know what you mean about wishing you could enlarge the dimensions. I wish I could make my shower 40" wide instead of only 31.5"!
Here's a before and after photo I found a while back of a doorless shower that is 5' long and probably not as wide as yours.

I don't know who it belongs to or how well their shower functioned but thought you might like to know that it has been done. This is what made me think we could attempt a 6 foot shower without a door. I'll let you know how it works out if we ever get it finished:)

Dibgar, I keep neglecting to measure my shower and have forgotten the dimensions, but the tiles are 12" so from the pic it looks like close to 40" ish by 40"ish.

Hi kendog. The bathroom isn't mine, but I posted those pictures here some time ago. I found them on a tile site that can not be named here. I saved the pictures because I thought it was a very clever conversion from bath tub to doorless shower.

Hi Terriks,

Thank you for posting that photo! We liked the slanted curb and copied it in our shower. (I posted the photos above.) This is how it looked before we set out to do a minor tile repair. Somehow, one thing led to another and we ended up in the midst of a full-blown remodel.

kendog2,

What is the width of your opening in the photo you posted much higher up? Are you thinking that the angled curb will help with splash-out if you go doorless?

Argghhh! I mixed up A and C in my response above. What was I drinking? Delete! Delete! Delete! Sorry for the confusion. Here's my do-over:

I'd put the shower head and handheld on wall A. If you put them on wall C, which is only 36" wide, and you center it, you'll be squished when showering. If you don't want to be squished, then it'll be off-center, which would look a bit odd. The only concern about wall A is that the controls would be tough to reach from outside the shower, if you typically turn on the water to warm up before you hop in. You could put the controls on wall C and the shower head on wall A to work around this.

I'd put the niche on wall C. Putting it on wall A with the shower head plumbing would be problematic because the plumbing is right behind the wall, not leaving room for a recessed niche. Unless you put the niche off center.

I don't think your shower is big enough for a full-length bench. I'd go with a triangular one in any of the corners. BD is probably my vote.

I like the idea of having wall C be a 3/4 wall. You could probably get away with not putting glass above it, as topside splash would be minimal.

I'd put the fan just outside the shower door opening.

As for the door, I'd put blocking in behind the walls, then try it out without a door, and if it's drafty or leaky, it's easy to add one later.

Davidro1 asked me to re-enter the diagram with bigger labels and more info re existing drain, etc.

I have shown the outline of the existing fiberglass stall and marked the existing drain. The toilet will not move. The shower currently drains toward Wall A and current venting is in Wall A. The joists under the subfloor run parallel to B and C (left to right in this diagram).

Should we keep the drain in its current location or move it over to the left?

The toilet will not move, but we will gut everything else so we will have access to all of the walls and floor. We may be opening up from the underside as well because we need to replace the ceiling in the room below that was damaged by a leaking drain in this old shower stall.

Sorry to chime in late here. Your set up is close to the one I have except that I have 48" where you have 40". (My pics are posted under "Pics of my new bathrooms".) Other than that 8" width difference, I have the same "C" wall, which is a 36" long half wall with glass above it and the niches in wall C. About nine inches of our wall C is solid and we put tall skinny niches in there too. So if you can picture it, the C wall is like an L. I don't think that you would be happy with a 3/4 wall because the water will likely spray over and get the toilet all wet. On the other hand, making that a solid wall will make the shower and room feel like a tomb. You can definitely go doorless. This is exactly what we have. Our wall "C" is also 36" long with a 24" inch opening. We get very little overspray. We keep a bath mat right outside the curb and it picks up whatever small amount of spray comes out. I don't see why you can't center your shower head on wall A with the handshower placed in the corner. If it swivels, you can direct it where you want when it is in the holder. In our 48" space, we have a rainhead in the center (hanging from the ceiling, the handshower in the corner (close to your wall B and we even have body sprays on wall A close to your wall C (which can be rotated and which we permanently tilt inward toward the middle). So with only 40" but no sprays, just the fixed head and the handshower, I think you will be fine.

nycbluedevil,

I looked at your pictures. Your room looks lovely but I am not sure exactly what I am looking at. Is the footprint of the shower L shaped? I see your half wall with glass that I think is comparable to our wall C if your room is a mirror image of ours. Again in mirror image, I also see the fixtures as you described them on what I am calling wall A. I am not sure that I understand the L, however. Is your bench on what I am calling wall B? If so, what am I seeing on the left side of your picture? Is there a wall that comes into the middle of the shower space? Please explain. Perhaps I am just not looking at it correctly.

Dibgar

You are correct. Your space is a mirror image of mine. The footprint of the shower is a bit odd because this is a Manhattan apartment! What you are seeing on the left is a structural building column. Without that column, my bench would span the entire length of the wall (yes, your wall B). Another small column also juts into the space in the corner of your AB, with the result that my bench is recessed between the columns but I don't think that is relevant for your purposes.

The "L" that I referred to is hard to see but I will try to explain. My vanity and its tower cabinet butt up against my shower. The towers are 9" deep so there was no point in running glass on the "C" wall for those nine inches. Instead, I built and tiled the wall C for only 9" from the shower faucets wall (wall A, that is) and used the space for long vertical niches. Looking at the shower from the front of the room, you can't see this portion of the wall, which was the point. All you can see is the half wall and the glass on top of it.

Hope this helps. I really do think that you can accomplish what you want to do, because it works great for me and it is indeed very similar. Feel free to ask more questions if you need more help.

Dibgar,

Our doorway is 24" wide without the tile so I'm guessing it will end up to be about 23" when finished. We angled the curb partly because we were thinking that it might help reduce the splash-out. It probably won't make much difference but we thought it looked a bit more interesting that way.