Montgomery county does to specify a brand for your shower. I would eliminate who ever told you that information as a scam artist and does not bode well for a future working relationship with them. I would take a look at the bathroom forum on GW where tile installations are discussed at length. The first company is telling you that they don't have experience installing tile shower floors and that they are more comfortable with Fiberglass or acrylic shower bases. Take them at their word and if you want a tiled shower floor, they would not be the company to do it.

Good luck on your search!

The answer is that you do not want to work with either.

Yes, I prefer the Schluter system. And it is all I will use if doing a tiled pan and walls. But a solid material pan is also quite acceptable, if it is set correctly.

I just don't like fiberglass. I prefer either a high quality acrylic set into properly supportive mortar bed, or a cultured marble, or a Corian Swanstone material. But my favorite is a cast iron shower base. It is solid for the ages.

If you go slow, read the manufacturer's installation instructions, then you may be able to handle the shower too. The trickiest part is getting the base set to the drain. And personally, If you are GC in this, just call a plumber. You don't need any other trade if you are using solid surface materials for the shower. That's easy.

Thank you all for your input! From a cost & speed stand point, I think a pre-formed shower pan is probably what we would prefer. Our shower is a pretty standard size 36"x36" so I don't anticipate running into a lot of trouble in finding a pan that will work.

live_wire_oak thank you for your suggestions on other materials for the shower pan, I will look into them. I agree with you that if we had plenty of time, we could probably figure out how to do the shower pan & tile the walls. Our timing may not have been the best for this project as we have a fairly hard deadline of end of March for getting this done. As a result we're trying to do what we feel confident doing and farm out that which we could probably do, but would be massively slower at. Calling individual trades might be another way to go. Hadn't considered that option. I'm willing to GC it myself if that's what it takes.

calling youre own trades I agree is very smart. For tilers you can skip the GC and hire direct plz........!!!

Tile-Redi shower pan worked well for me - they make many sizes.

Joseph, just for the record, I've seen two broken plastic shower pans in my non-pro experience. Neither had been installed with a proper mortar bed and had enough flex to them that they cracked. I've seen more badly done tile jobs that leaked. It's possible to have problems with either. I've chosen tile for my own houses, but have been careful about installation

Agree with using a cast iron base / receptor - great fit/function and will never leak. Installation very easy as well