Curbless Showers
3 ways to build your curbless shower
Recessing the Shower Floor Check out the video!
Open concept bathrooms are coveted for their sleek design and consummate functionality. While ideal for all life stages of a growing family, curbless showers are exceptionally optimal for those who wish to age in place. The lack of threshold or curb opens up the shower area to the rest of the bathroom, making the whole room easier to clean and maintain. Flexibility in design is enhanced through the use of tile: choose simple, large-format tile for a clean and streamlined look, or craft a creative combination of field and accent tile on the floor or wall without the obstruction of a shower curb. Curbless showers allow you to create a spa-like retreat, with built-in seats and benches, inset shelves and niches, low-profile linear drains, heated floors, and even steam showers. And now, they are even easier to achieve.
Waterproofing
Waterproofing measures are essential in any bathroom, but especially important in a curbless environment. Schluter®-Systems offers a complete line of products with options that integrate together to form a fully bonded, watertight assembly for tiled curbless showers.
As with any room exposed to water and moisture, waterproofing measures must be put into place. The KERDI offering of products includes waterproofing membranes for shower walls and bases, as well as specialty pieces for all the hard-to-protect areas, such as pipe protrusions, inside and outside corners, and curbs. With KERDI, you can treat all the areas of your bathroom and ensure the entire room is waterproof.
Drains
KERDI-LINE
KERDI-LINE linear drains add a touch of elegance, allowing for single-sloped floors and large-format tiles that carry through from the floor, right in to the shower or wet area of the bath. Shower curbs and shower doors can disappear, offering freedom and security to individuals with limited mobility, or homeowners wanting to age in place.
KERDI-DRAIN
Point drains, such as the KERDI-DRAIN, offer a traditional alternative to linear drains. For point drains, the shower base slopes on all angles towards the drain. Install your drain of choice on top of the mortar bed or shower tray.
Floors
In curbless bathrooms, the area exposed to moisture is not confined to the shower alone, so it’s difficult to separate the “wet area” from the “dry area”. As such, the bathroom must be sufficiently protected against water and moisture as whole.
DITRA and DITRA-HEAT are waterproof, uncoupling membranes that prevent the main cause of cracked tile and grout by absorbing movement stresses from the substrate and ensuring the integrity of tiled surfaces. DITRA-HEAT provides uncoupling and waterproofing and also incorporates electric floor warming to create comfortable tiled floors. With DITRA-HEAT and DITRA, simply treat seams and connections with the KERDI-BAND waterproofing strip to create a completely waterproof bathroom.
