No Step Shower Subfloor

[Dennis Putnam]

I'm not sure where to post this so I'll try here. I'm remodeling the master bath and I want to install a no-step shower (seniorizing). I am looking for ideas as to how to create the necessary slope for the shower area. I really don't want to build up the rest of the floor as that will create a step at the entrance to the bath. So the only alternative is to lower the shower area itself which means somehow cutting down the floor joists. Is there a safe way to remove about 1 1/2" from the top of the joists and reinforce them so that they will be stable in spite of the cuts?

Bolting steel plates across the area that is cut might be one way but I'm not sure this would be adequate, how far to overlap the cut area and if it will meet code.

Assuming I can come up with a way to do that, how do I lay the subfloor to properly slope it toward the drain? I am thinking cut 4 triangles with their apexes meeting at the drain. What I don't know is how to run diagonals to support the seams so that they will not interfere with the drain hole.

TIA.

[Bob Vavricka]

Dennis,
I can point you to another forum that I found helpful when I was doing some tile work last year. It is at johnbridge.com and you will find the people there just as friendly and helpful as the people in this forum, they just work with tile, thinset and grout. I remember seeing several threads dealing with this issue.

[Dennis Putnam]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[Larry Fox]

I am by no-means an expert and am only contributing a reply because I went through this exercise recently myself. The research I did seems to indicate that the floor is laid flat like normal and the slope is created with the wetbed that is put down. We decided to NOT do this because our tile guy said that it has the real potential to introduce problems because the membrane (sp) that goes under the wetbed would need to have a seam which introduces a point of failure pretty close to the shower. In addition, doing it pretty much also forces you to do a wetbed over the entire floor as opposed to just the shower area. I have no practical experience on how it performs because I got voted down by SWMBO and ended up putting in a curb.

[Bob Rufener]

Dennis,

I don't know if this would be of help. We had a former neighbor who was a paraplegic. He had a shower stall in his house where he could put a wheel chair right into the shower. It had a very low lip. I don't believe it was recessed. You might check out what might be available for handicap accessible units. Just a suggestion.

[Ben Grunow]

You should not cut the joists if you done have to. If so, sister with LVL (laminated, engineered joists- full span for baths).

Have a plumber put a vinyl pan down after the tile man has laid 1 1/2" pitched layer of drypacked concrete to the drain (thick at the edges and about 3/8" at the drain). The vinyl pan will get clamped into a drain assembly that has a lip with bolts to hold the vinyl (aliitle caulk seals it up nicely). After that the tile man comes to lay more dry pack (might use some plastic expanded metal lath) to adhere the tile to. THis is the way to go and it means that any water that passes the tile layer gets trapped by the vinyl and makes its way to the drain.

TRy to live with a step at the door if you can.