Well, there is no way they are putting a pIece of vinyl base -I'm picturing a wide strip of ugly stuff like they use in commercial locations between the rug and the wall - maybe you are thinking of something else. What about a well primed and painted piece of wooden quarter round or other nice looking trim? Could we caulk the seam and then apply the trim and then caulk the edges of the trim between the tub and floor? I took a couple of pictures and I don't think the gap is quite as wide as in Bill's pic of the motel.

I'm not a flooring expert, but we did float our floor in our house (over vinyl tile). As the others have suggested to you, first make sure that your floor is made to be installed as a floating floor. Our house is a concrete slab, with old vinyl tile under it, probably from the 60's is our guess. Definitely has black adhesive, and it's a pretty good guess that they have asbestos. We didn't even bother checking it -- we figured it would just be easiest overall to do a floating install regardless, as the thought of dealing with glue seemed way too messy and tough for us to handle. We used an underlayment called QuietWalk -- it has a moisture barrier attached on one side. They sold it at our local Lowes, so it was easy to find and purchase. You basically just roll it out on the floor, cut it, and tape the pieces together with a special moisture-barrier tape. The installation was a fairly easy process -- our brand (BR-111) requires that you use glue in the tongue and groove, so with my husband and I working together, I would glue the piece of wood, hand it to him where he was kneeling on the floor, and he would hammer it into place. At the end of a row, he would measure how long the piece needed to be, jump up and go cut it, we'd put it in place, and the process would continue. We became like a well-oiled machine :) Doing a floating floor like this is really quite easy, and I don't have any problem recommending it to a DIY-er, even ones that were brand new to home projects, like we were. One caveat -- our floors do have a slightly "springy" or hollow feel to them. I think a discerning person can probably tell that the floor is not affixed to the flooring underneath. Personally, we don't care or mind -- they look beautiful.

"@MongoCT - thank you - I visualize your explanation - can you elaborate as to how they would have avoided that situation ? should the drywall not drop all the way down? or the waterproofing should have taken care of it?" Jim, here are the installation instructions from the manufacturer. If the link does not work, which can happen with links to pdf documents, just google "denshield installation instructions". See the drawing and text on page 6. The general idea is that: 1) A preslope of mud should have been placed on the shower subfloor, properly detailed. 2) On top of that sloped mud goes your waterproof membrane. The edges of the membrane get turned up the walls. With the membrane going on top of a sloped surface, the membrane is now sloped to the drain, which is a requirement in the building code. It is a code violation for the membrane to be placed directly on a flat surface/subfloor. The membrane itself needs to be sloped. 3) On top of that membrane goes another layer of deck mud. 4) The bottom edge of the Denshield gets held just above the deck mud. The Denshield should not contact the mud. 5) The gap between the denshield and the mud gets completely filled with sealant. The objective is to get sealant on the entire 1/2" thick edge of the denshield panel so the exposed gypsum core will be sealed, so it will never see moisture from the mud. On the curb? If yours was a wood core curb, built up from stacked 2x4s? There are various ways to do this, however... The membrane gets wrapped over the wood curb, with the membrane fastened to the curb only on the outside face of the curb. No fasteners go through the membrane on the inside face or top of the curb. Most folk will then wrap the membraned curb with an upside-down "U" formed out of expanded diamond lathed. No fasteners. It's a somewhat loose friction fit. You want the lathe to follow the shape of the curb, but you don't want the metal edges to contact the membrane. The lathe is coated with a thickness of Mortar/mud. Mortar gets placed on the inside, top, and outside face of the curb, completely encasing the expanded lathe and the curb within. It gets shaped as needed, with the top pitched slightly into the shower. The lathe provides structure for the mud to prevent it from slumping. When the mud cures, you tile on the mud. That gives you a sturdy curb base to tile on with no holes in the membrane on the top and inside "wet" faces of the curb. The Denshield instructions I linked to earlier show a rough sectional of a wood core shower curb covered with the membrane and mortar. They do not show the upside-down "U" of lathe that I wrote about. If installed, it would be centered in the thickness of mortar that covers the curb. With all that written? I agree with the others, that surface applied membranes are indeed superior. In the age of computers? Installation instructions are available from the manufacturers' websites. While you have to sort through them and discard the whackos, there are also good youtube videos available. Any shower system is only as effective as the person installing it. While I'm not a fan of Denshield myself, if it had been installed properly you should have had a properly performing shower. The gypsum core is the weak point with Denshield. Any exposed panel edge, or any drilled hole? The exposed gypsum needs to be protected from exposure to water. Referencing your last sentence: "...or the waterproofing should have taken care of it?" In a Denshield shower, the wall waterproofing is the acrylic surface of the Denshield panels. Any panel edges or drilled holes, the exposed gypsum core needs to be sealed with sealant. The shower floor, the waterproofing is the membrane. At the base of the walls where the two meet, the Denshield goes OVER the membrane. With the Denshield alone, your installer failed to protect the panel edges. He buried the bottom of the Denshield panels in mud that, for the most part after the first week of showering, the mud will become saturated with moisture. And he also used Denshield on the curb which is a no-no. I wrote a lot, I do hope it makes sense.

My husband and I recently relocated from Indiana to Florida. We installed LVP in our Indiana home prior to selling. With so many different types of flooring (hardwood being one) we wanted a co-hesive look for the 1968 home prior to putting it on the market. We used floating as to not damage the existing hardwoods should the new owner choose to refinish. When we moved to Florida the home we bought had old carpet, it was a no brainer on our part to replace the carpet with LVP due to humidity issues is Florida. We used the same brand just a lighter shade in our very large greatroom, dining, kitchen and guest bath areas. LVP is easy to clean, wears well with our two dogs, stays cool and provides a great waterproof surface when coming in from the pool. It's affordable and relatively easy to install for any DIYer with some experience in home remodel. We get compliments all the time and visitors have to reach down and touch the floor as they believe it is hardwood. I am sold on the product.