I know this thread is a couple of years old but after a little Googling I found that this question has not been answered very well anywhere. What I have discovered is that you are not going to be presented with many soaking tub/shower combination photos in magazines or books. They all tend to focus on 'idealized' situations where there is ample room for both a soaking tub and a detached shower. But combining a soaking tub & shower is very possible. Here are a couple of ways it can be done. a. The free standing tub (e.g. clawfoot tub) with a wraparound shower curtain on a circular shower curtain rod. This is probably the simplest way to achieve a soaking tub/ standing shower combo. And if you do not car for the 'clawfoot' design there are many new free standing tubs that have bases other than clawed feet. Some are very elegant looking. b. A 'drop in' tub with square corners where tiled walls can be brought right down to the lip of the tub so that there is are no flat, horizontal surfaces where standing water from a shower can accumulate. This might require bringing the wall a bit closer to the tub. No problem. It can be done. Say your space is 80 inches and your soaking tub is only 70 inches long. Bring one wall 10 inched closer to the end of the tub (or both walls 5 inches closer) and create cubby holes (shelves) for towels in the walled area. c. Install a drop in soaking tub in the typical fashion, but include a circular shower curtain rod above it, and place the shower head above the center of the tub, or even hang it directly above the tub pointing straight down from the ceiling. This is actually the design I am considering. I may be a bit unconventional but who cares about convention if it is functional, serves your purposes and it installed in such a way that it looks visually appealing. If you place a cute ring to hold the shower curtain away from the tub when not in use and purchase a pretty looking circular shower curtain ring you could have yourself a real winning design. You could even place a horizontal beam covered with tile along the ceiling that would hide the shower curtain ring. d. A wet design. Either a claw foot style tub or drop in tub can be coupled with an overhead shower with no shower curtain whatsoever if you tile and slope the floor toward a floor drain. If using a drop in tub, slightly angle the horizontal tiled surfaces surrounding the tub so there is no free standing water, so that any water runs off onto the floor and into the floor drain. There is no reason why this cannot be done. After all, the floors of showers are slightly sloped, tiled, horizontal surfaces! Just use some creativity and do what you want. There are many ways to accomplish a soaking tub/standing shower combination! Of course you don't want to do anything too weird of it might affect your resale value. But if you use common sense you can definitely come up with a wonderful design. Don't let other people tell you what to do!! Note: If stepping in and out of a tall soaking tub seems unpractical for daily use, considering building 2 or 3 tiled steps up to your tub. problem solved. For extra safety a chrome grap bar or two and be affixed to the walls. Never a bad idea in any shower or tub anyway! -MyDogBurt

Add this to my previous: If the glass will be pulled, then work out the scope of work and responsibility ahead of time. In writing. In a perfect world you'd have the glass company come out and remove the glass, then when the repairs are done, they come back out to reset the glass. That'll usually cost $$$. That money does not come out of your pocket. Your tiler can pay for them to do that. He may insist he can do it himself, with the caveat that he is accepting full responsibility for damage to any of the glass panels. And that's where the problems arise. Will he pony up $500 or $2500 for new glass if he shatters a panel? I'd let him have that responsibility only after he gives you a deposit of the $500 or $2500 that the replacement glass would cost. The glass breaks, you have cash on hand for new glass. If the repairs go fine with no damage, he gets the full amount back.

More notes regarding setting drain depths... once the rough plumbing is run under floor, whether its a raised floor or slab, the maximum drain depth is set, as slope from the sewer tap to the drain has limits. The installation of the actual drain fitting is subject to those previously set limits. Its really important to PLAN AHEAD. Curbless showers are still getting introduced into the market. I have one in each of my current homes underway, but only in the master. Installed my first over a decade ago for wheelchair access. Costs more to do. Cannot always retrofit as it requires lowering the entire drain system under floor 4". Linear drains cost more to do. Etc. Anything that doesn't cost more would show up in production homes.

We did have our sunken tub flood. It wasn't from the drain being clogged. The sewer pipe from our house to the main sewer was clogged by tree roots so all drainage from the house stopped. Because our house is elevated a bit from the street level, the clog was around 5 feet lower than the house. Being higher than where the clog was didn't help. The sewer pipe filled. The water didn't come from the shower above the tub. The tub drain was just the lowest drain in the house. So water from anything drain that was used (the clothes washer, dishwasher, sinks, toilets, other showers) came out that drain once the pipe filled. The tub bottom was about 3.5 x 5 feet (the lowest part so not counting the area of the step in the tub. It filled to above the step in the tub so deeper than 6". That means more than 8 cubic feet of water. Now that the lowest drain will be in a shower, a curb wouldn't have contained the water. As myrica4 points out, there are other sources of flooding. The one that happened to us once in a prior house was a toilet tank that cracked. Nothing hit it - just one night it gave way. I got up to use the bathroom (pregnant at the time so not uncommon) and my feet slipped in the water. At least that was clean water, but a pretty unpleasant surprise at 2 AM or whatever. We cleaned it up and no permanent damage. The place where being on a hill helps is if the sewer line clogs below at least your next lowest neighbor. Then the water will come out of their drain and the pipe to your house won't back up. But if it clogs close to your house, the elevation of your house won't make a difference.