I like my deck mounted filler as it is one less thing to clean around on the floor compared to a free standing one. l notice my tub looks short in the photo. Just weird perspective and taken with a tablet. The tub is fitting in a standard 60 inch space although if you had more, the curved end could just be away from the wall. It is a tall tub as it has optional air and water jets, so I do like the ability to hang onto something. I am still pretty nimble and fit for my age, but we plan to be here for an unknown number of years. We used thin quartz as the tub surround and tiled the floor so that everything is quite waterproof and maintenance free. It doesn't show real well in the photos as the colors are a bit off. Would love to see a photo when yours is finished. You can also get a heated back on this tub and I do like it.

Even with 48" I have to be careful not to put my foot too close to steam head. You could do it with 42". It's just going to be a little tighter. I moved my toilet 12" so I could make mine 48". I probably could have gone a few inches longer but 48" made it simple. I did not do the work myself. It would take me forever and I would tire of it. I hired guys and did a little and butted in a lot which is much more fun for me. I hired the following contractors: - A guy to do the demo and frame the structure that supports the shower ceiling and the tub surround framing. I know his parents. He's quite good. I also hired his hispanic helper and a compadre of his to remove the old wall paper and clean out my attic while I had a dumpster. - Hired another guy that was primarily a tile guy. He also did most of the plumbing (including plumbing in the generator) with a little help from me. He and I both did minor electrical like moving boxes. He also had the usual crew of hispanics including one guy that did most of the prep and tile as well as the heated floor with my help. - I had an electrician upgrade my electrical service to 400A (I have some hungry kitchen appliances) and installed an attic sub-panel with a circuit for the generator and one for the heated floors. - Had a drywall guy to drywall the framing holding up the shower ceiling and fix the walls that were wallpapered and where we put holes for electrical work. - Painters - Cabinet maker And then there was the glass guys and granite guys. So, had to deal with 8 different contractors and about 6 or 7 different city inspectors. I designed it using Google Sketchup so everyone knew the dimensions of everything. Don't recall the specific tile but got it at Mosaic tile. I was wrong on the shower floor tiles - they are 3". HD did call it something other than Cold Spring but the guy knew what I wanted. After I made the purchase I didn't deal with HD anymore. Just the stone yard and the fabricators. A steam shower should be built very carefully to insure there is no chance of steam leaking into your walls or ceiling. There are a few different technologies and systems to do this. I went with the Schluter System. You also typically slope the ceiling so you don't get water droplets falling on you as a result of condensation. It's a bit of a pain and adds quite of bit of expense. I would do it again. The bench is not exactly comfy. It's a teak bench. Kinda hard and flat. But, it's awesome. We added backing between the studs that this thing is anchored into. It's not going anywhere. Folds very easily and is good quality. I spent a lot of time planning and dealing with contractors. Do I want to do yours? Wouldn't mind if I could earn as much as I do for a living. Unfortunately don't think that's going to happen.

If you have a 1/4" to 1/2" gap at the tub that needs to be filled, consider installing a veneer of cement board on the walls. That would cover the gap and give you a pristine surface to work off of. The negative to that will be twofold; you'll need to consider the detail at the edge of the tile on the two end walls with regards to hiding the edge of the cement board, and you'll want to make sure your valve trim kit can accommodate the extra thickness of the cement board. The cement board edge can be hidden with a tile trim piece, a return, or with a wood trim boarder that melds with the other trim in the bathroom. The semi-gloss paint on the walls is a big negative for me. Thinset is less likely to develop a bond with it, and because of it's permeability, semi-gloss can create difficulty with modified thinsets drying versus an unmodified curing. With that info given, I'll try to answer your questions: "1) Can I use a lightly modified thinset (versabond) instead of unmodified? (I know this will void the warranty, but will it hold better?" Modified will develop a stronger bond then unmodified in a pristine installation. But you could encounter drying difficulties by sandwiching modified thinset between the semigloss paint on the wall and the kerdi membrane. 2) The plaster wall substrate is not even, particularly where the wall meets the tub, as mentioned. Will this cause a problem when tiling or will the Kerdi membrane help create a flush surface for better tiling? The kerdi will follow the lines of whatever it is installed upon. If the wall is wonky, the kerdi will be wonky. if there are just a few recesses on the wall, they could be built out to the proper plane with applications of thinset or mortar feathered into those areas. Let the thinset or mortar cure, then apply the kerdi. If the recesses are deep and numerous, it might be easier to skin the entire wall with cement board, shimming the board out as needed to get the walls in plane. 3) Should I score the painted wall before applying the thinset to help it adhere better? Yes. Especially with a semi-gloss paint. I'd recommend you go further than that and attack the paint with high-grit sandpaper to really scuff it up, or to even remove it. If you end up with a variety of materials on the wall when you are done (some semi-gloss paint residue, some thinset, some drywall mud, etc) it might make sense to prime the wall in its entirety. Let the primer fully cure, then thinset and Kerdi over the primer. You recognize yours is a messy installation based on your existing substrate. Some plaster. Some semi-gloss. Some drywall mud. Some thinset. Working off a Frankenstein base like that offers no guarantees. That's why my advice, especially considering you have that gap at the tub that needs to be bridged, is to veneer the wall with cement board. Since your walls seem to be a thin plaster veneer over blueboard and not a thick plaster over lathe or a thick multi-coat plaster, you could even strip the walls to the studs. It sounds like a lot of work, but you may very well spend more time trying to make your existing walls right without them ever really being right, versus going to the studs and making them right. Get to the studs. Shim the studs out if needed so the three alcove walls are all in plane. Cement board. Kerdi. Tile. Grout. Done. Shortcuts sometimes take longer than what seems to be the more arduous path. I HIGHLY recommend you contact Schluter tech services. I can somewhat assure you that because of the hybrid nature of your walls, they'll not guarantee you anything. But they can offer you another perspective. Good luck!

I have measured flows on my hand held shower head: max flow = 8.5 l/min, min flow = 5.6 l/min. (max flow=volume control all the way clockwise, min flow=volume control all the way counter-clockwise, flow reduction of 34%) Even with the hand held shower head removed (no restriction at all, free flow out of the hose) my min flow stayed about the same while max flow obviously have increased therefore bumping up flow reduction to something higher than 34%. Since my max flow is fine for me and I would like to see my min flow decreased, the solution of removing flow restrictor will not work for me. There is an option of adding flow restrictor to the Smart Control Cartridge which will reduce max flow, but it should hopefully also reduce min flow which I would like to see. I might try it, but it is a bit painful to disassemble the whole setup. Hoping this info helps someone.