Shower rough in diagram

[DanM]

Good afternoon,

Now that the hall bath is 90% done, my wife is itching to redo the master bath as well. The hardest part for me to explain to her is the plumbing of the shower and the components we need to buy. The shower will have body sprays and possibly a separate hand spray. I'm not sure if she wants a single handle valve or hot and cold with a volume control.

Does anyone have an easy to understand diagram I can show her?

Bonus question. From a plumbers perspective. What is preferred, a rolled shower floor or a drop in shower base?

Thanks!

 

[Jadnashua]

First off, plumbing codes somewhat dictate what can be used for shower valves...long gone are the old, simple, hot and cold faucets to control the temperature...if you insist on that, it requires additional, behind-the-scenes valves to meet the anti-scald requirements.

As a result, the most common shower control valve (because it is the least expensive, not necessarily the 'best') is a single-handle one where you have no control over the volume, only the temperature. There are two types of two-handle valves that are approved out of the box: a volume/temperature one and a volume/thermostatic one. Which is somewhat unique in the industry, Delta sells a rough-in valve (the part in the wall) that can support any of those three versions by changing the cartridge and trim package (big box stores sell the rough-in/trim-cartridge as a package; plumbing supply houses, sell them separately).

As to the pan, some like the ease of maintenance of a manufactured one, some much prefer the flexibility (in install, not in structure!) of a custom one. With the manufactured ones, you must ensure that the pan is perfectly flat and level during installation (lots of areas require sometimes a lot of work to make that happen); putting in a custom tiled one, you can easily take care of that during installation. Another big issue is getting the drain exactly where it needs to be with a manufactured one - there's no flexibility...with 'rolling your own', you can make whatever tweaks are required.

A huge number of showers are not built per one of the accepted industry standards. ANy of those will work IF DONE RIGHT, but IMHO, some methods are better than others. I prefer a surface applied membrane that makes the whole shower enclosure entirely waterproof verses water resistant, which is what a conventional shower really is. I've put some threads in the tutorial section you might want to read before asking more questions.

I prefer www.johnbridge.com for tiling questions, but this is the right place for plumbing issues.

 

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[DanM]

First off, plumbing codes somewhat dictate what can be used for shower valves...long gone are the old, simple, hot and cold faucets to control the temperature...if you insist on that, it requires additional, behind-the-scenes valves to meet the anti-scald requirements.

As a result, the most common shower control valve (because it is the least expensive, not necessarily the 'best') is a single-handle one where you have no control over the volume, only the temperature. There are two types of two-handle valves that are approved out of the box: a volume/temperature one and a volume/thermostatic one. Which is somewhat unique in the industry, Delta sells a rough-in valve (the part in the wall) that can support any of those three versions by changing the cartridge and trim package (big box stores sell the rough-in/trim-cartridge as a package; plumbing supply houses, sell them separately).

As to the pan, some like the ease of maintenance of a manufactured one, some much prefer the flexibility (in install, not in structure!) of a custom one. With the manufactured ones, you must ensure that the pan is perfectly flat and level during installation (lots of areas require sometimes a lot of work to make that happen); putting in a custom tiled one, you can easily take care of that during installation. Another big issue is getting the drain exactly where it needs to be with a manufactured one - there's no flexibility...with 'rolling your own', you can make whatever tweaks are required.

A huge number of showers are not built per one of the accepted industry standards. ANy of those will work IF DONE RIGHT, but IMHO, some methods are better than others. I prefer a surface applied membrane that makes the whole shower enclosure entirely waterproof verses water resistant, which is what a conventional shower really is. I've put some threads in the tutorial section you might want to read before asking more questions.

I prefer www.johnbridge.com for tiling questions, but this is the right place for plumbing issues.

I looked at Delta's shower options and like what they offer. The combination of temperature and volume control in one valve is great, especially at the price point vs Kohler and Delta. The question I guess is quality...

Dan

 

[Jadnashua]

I gave my mother the option, and she chose the Delta with volume/temperature. Personally, I'd have gone with a volume/thermostatically controlled valve (I have a Grohe in my home), but that's what she wanted. It works well. To keep things from becoming too hot to handle, and with the low-lead mandates, pretty much all companies are using more plastic in their trims. As long as you do not use any abrasive cleaners, they can look good for a number of years. The nice thing about Delta (and many of them) is that they warrantee the parts, so if it ever leaks, you can get replacement parts for free.