Walk-In and Curbless Showers in Jacksonville
Tiled walk-in showers with low curbs or curbless entries, linear drains, benches, niches and glass panels, built with the waterproofing a humid climate needs.
A walk-in shower is a tiled shower you step straight into, usually behind a fixed glass panel instead of a door. A curbless shower goes one step further: the bathroom floor runs into the shower with no curb at all, and the floor inside slopes to a drain, often a long linear one along the back wall.
Both look simple when finished. Both depend on the slope, the drain and the waterproofing being right, because water that gets past them ends up in the subfloor or the next room.
Ready to redo the bathroom?Call 904-621-2284
Curbless on a slab
Most houses around Jacksonville sit on a concrete slab. A curbless shower on a slab usually means cutting the slab down inside the shower so the pan can slope, or raising the rest of the bathroom floor. On a raised wood floor the framing is lowered instead. The plumbing permit and the plan reviewer decide how the pan is built and tested.
What goes into one
- A sloped pan with a membrane turned up the walls, flood-tested before tile
- A linear or center drain sized for a shower
- Waterproofed walls, with niches and benches built into the membrane, not added after
- A thermostatic or pressure-balancing valve, often with a handheld on a slide bar
- Safety glass for any panel or door within reach of the water
- A fan ducted outdoors; the EPA suggests keeping indoor humidity under 60 percent
Glass and hard water
JEA's published hardness runs from the high teens to over 20 grains in parts of the Southside and Ponte Vedra. Clear glass shows scale quickly in that water; a factory coating, a squeegee, or a softener makes a real difference.