Shower drain in condo with no slab penetration.

[td234]

Hi,

I am about to start a condo remodel in Colorado on a building built in 1981. I have not remodeled a bath in 10 years so I have done a fair amount of research and have decided to use a Kerdi shower system. Had a friend just use it and was super easy.

I have three baths being remodeled. Two baths are replacing tub/showers with walk-in showers. I was looking at using the Kerdi Shower Kit because it sounds as if the Kerdi drain will fit right over the existing drain. That was until I spoke with the building maintenance man who informed me there was no slab penetration and the original tub drains over to the wall. Sounds like the trap is in the wall and not below the tub. Also found out the toilet has a wall discharge, so my toilet budget went up a bit too.

So, I am trying to research how to build my new shower and how this drain will work. I'm pretty sure the Kerdi Shower pan with the offset drain shower will not work cause it needs floor penetration. I like the look of the Kerdi Line linear shower drain, but looks like it needs a trough under it. Also see that http://www.tileredi.com has a linear drain, but looks like it may go out through he floor too.

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thom

 

[Jadnashua]

All of the linear drains I've seen (by no means all of them out there) have their outlet on the bottom, going down, not an edge going out horizontally. It would not be hard to have your pan thick enough so the body of the drain wouldn't have to go below the floor. Some of the drain manufacturers offer custom sizes, and might be able to make one with the outlet to the side verses down. IOW, it is technically possible, but I've not seen one off the shelf like that. It would be really hard to keep that drain arm to the trap clean, though. When vertical, you'd get some swirling of the water as it goes down into the trap. If it were horizontal, while it may not get much up higher, anything that did, would likely stay there for awhile.

While the preformed pans that come in the Kerdi kits can work, the same materials do work just as well if you make your pan out of deckmud, and at least in materials, is a lot less expensive and more adjustable. Same is true for any of the surface membranes out there - if the preformed pan doesn't work out, deckmud would.

If you don't get any answers here, you might try www.johnbridge.com

 

[Sponsor]

 

[td234]

Thanks for the reply. After reading your reply, I have been looking for other linear drains with a side outlet. I found this one.

http://infinitydrain.com/products-fted-65#.VQZMhEKgIng

Seems like this might be a good solution and then make my own decked sloped floor. Any other ideas?

 

[Jadnashua]

I have no experience with that company, but you may have a good chance if you try that other website I linked. There are a few professionals that post here, but there are hundreds at that other site, if anyone has used one, you'd have a better chance of someone there giving feedback.

Deckmud will almost always be your less expensive choice for pan material and it is ultimately customizable. The preformed ones do work, and can work well IF they meet your available area and drain location and, either the floor is flat and level (not all that common!) or you can make it that way before installation. Some of the manufacturers of those also do custom sized ones, if it comes to that. Depends on your labor costs, or your comfort levels and time available if you decide to do it yourself. Where I live, in a condo, you must be a licensed plumber to do any of the plumbing, and the shower pan is considered plumbing. Yes, I know the best ones are typically done by a tiling pro, but it can get messy in a condo.

 

[ShowerDude]

we have answered the Condo tub to shower conversion on this site many times!

drain imstalls
over suspended concrete etc.

search the site and youll find the answers.

the infinity drains not my favorite.

and likely you wont need a side
outlet if
you already have a tub drain.?

 

[Jadnashua]

If I understand the OP question...the tub p-trap is not in a conventional space...the tub outlet goes horizontally into the wall, then down to the p-trap and there is NO hole in the slab in the space where the shower is intended to go, and the condo will not allow him to make a new one. Unless he could move the walls around to allow a conventional drain with a bottom outlet, there is no other choice but to use a side-outlet drain. Well, if you could accept the kludge of having the shower floor up 8" or more from the room, yes, you could put a p-trap underneath it and run the trap arm out from there, but that's never going to look great or be very usable. In that case, you'd have to remove the existing trap, as you cannot have two in series.

Was in one small, cozy hotel room in London once that had that arrangement, and nearly killed myself when stepping out of the shower.