Shower Pan Advice

[mike802]

I am to the point where I need to decide on my floor plan.  The bathroom will determine just how everything else works out, so my question is should I go with a pre made shower pan, or should I build a tiled shower pan?

A store bought pan will determine how my bathroom is arranged, but will go together faster. If I make my own I can fudge the size to what I need, but I am worried if a mortared and tiled pan will hold up in a bus with all the flexing.  At this point I am leaning towards a tiled shower stall.  Any advice on what others have been through would be great.  Thanks.

[Sean]

I'm a fan of pre-made pans in a bus conversion, because, really, they just can't leak, and they weigh a lot less than a tiled pan with backer-board.  That said, many here have had success with tiling their own -- just make sure you reinforce the subfloor so that there can be zero flexing in that area.

We went with a Swanstone enclosure from Home Depot.  Came with a pre-made one-piece pan, plus the walls which are single Swanstone panels but can be cut to size.  Only two panels on ours, since it is a 36" neo-angle model.  Fit great and feels really large inside; most S&S owners comment on how large our shower is.  We had to angle in a bit at the top of one side, to deal with our heavily curved roof line.





-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[bevans6]

We have the same shower unit as Sean, but the rest of our bathroom isn't finished so i won't show a picture.  Lot's of people do tiles but my philosophy is to keep the bus as light as possible, so no tile, no stone, no slate and no marble.  Just my way, i guess.  I am currently  resenting the 3/4" plywood on the walls...   

Brian

[Ralph7]

     I used a 36X36 shower pan from Lowes, just leveled it when bus was level. Then made solid walls of 3/4 plywood and glued FRP to it, had a tough time cutting through floor cause I hit one of those floor braces.

[Scott & Heather]

We used a 39x39 floor pan from Menards. Works great and ensures you're shower is square before you try to connect the glass and frames together only to find out you're not square and there are now gaps...bummer.

[MEverard]

A manufactured pan is the best for the bus. I used cultured marble for the walls. It is not as heavy as tile or granite, and it comes in sheets so no grout joints to crack and leak.

[Dreamscape]

We used a Neo Angle shower pan, left over from the PO's interior I ripped out. Built the walls with plywood, covered in tileboard, which was a bad choice. I get to re-do a do-over.  Installed two medicine cabinets that I built into one wall on the outside. Works for us!

[mike802]

Thanks everyone for all your help, it sound like the pre made pan is the way to go.  After I posted my question I had a whole shower unit given to me by a friend of mine who remodeled his bathroom.  I took it out to the bus and it looks like I can make it work.  The drain in the pan just misses the heavy frame work where the seats were mounted, whew!  The walls will have to be cut down of course.  They are not just a sheet, but actually molded fiberglass with mounting flanges, the top's will have to be cut by at least 8 to 10 inches by eyeballing it. I think I can cut a board to match the molded profile, fasten it to the back side of the fiberglass walls with caulk and screws and cover it with some type of molding.  If it doesn't work what have I got to loose?  The pan gives the shower about 6' 1.2" of head room, kind of short, but still ok for my wife and I.

[gumpy]

http://www.gumpydog.com/Bus/MC9_WIP/Interior/Shower_Installation/shower_installation.htm

[Melbo]

Gumpy -- I gotta say that is WAY more cool than a kit from home depot ;-)

Melbo

[Seayfam]

Gumpy,
That is exactly how my shower is done, except for the cool design in it. My bus has odd angles in the shower, so a Home Depot model wouldn't work. That is the nice thing about building your shower out off tile, your options are unlimited. Pics of my shower are in my blog.

[TomC]

With every inch being used, I had a custom 38x26 shower pan with right 6"x20" entrance made by Onyxcollection.com. While it wasn't cheap ($850.00) it is also built substantially to support my 300lbs. I'm using white Kemlite panels for the walls for lightness.  Onyxcollection will make the shinny walls out of the same material (like Corian) as the base-but it would have turned it into a heavy weight and expensive ($2,500.00) shower stall.  Give them a look.  Good Luck, TomC

[mike802]

Wow Gumpy, that's not a shower, that's a work of art!  How long did it take you to build that?  Totally amazing.  Just when I thought I had my mind made up.  I am beginning to believe it takes more time to decide just what and how to do things on a conversion than actually doing them.