General Tile Discussion

I'm finally getting to the last bathroom remodel in the house with the Master Bathroom. The contractor that I'm working with (I have him do the plumbing changes, glass, vanity tops) made a couple recommendations that I'm debating the value of given the pain submitting the revisions to the city building office to update my permits.

The first is to move the back wall of the shower 6" to increase the interior space of the shower from 36" (with glass barely 31") to 42". This seems like a good change. By sacrificing 6" of the MB closet the shower will become better balanced. The wall from initial examination doesn't appear structural beyond making up one side of the closet and holding up the 2" x 6"s that form the ceiling of the closet and an overhanging soffit above the shower. Building the replacement wall in place and migrating the shower's drain venting before removing the original wall seems viable and I believe I can update the plans to convince the city of the safety of that change.

The second is to change the shower to barrier-free. This poses a bit of a problem given this is a second story bathroom and the floor joists are I-joists. The city's building office got quite excited with that in my initial updated plans. I called out the use of the Rapid Recess kit for lowering the floor without disturbing the I-joists, but the city would like the plans updated with "engineering" to prove the effectiveness of support for the Rapid Recess kit or a "Listing" agency certification. Also the I-joists are perpendicular to the back wall of the shower (the wall getting moved) so putting a linear drain there isn't possible, the only functional location for a linear drain would be on the left side from the entrance which is also barrier-free.

So the question is: Is it worth going to all the trouble to go barrier-free or should I just go for a minimalist curb of 2"? If it's worth going barrier-free should I just use a center-point drain and forget the linear drain since having the drain on the barrier free side is risky and creates a lip at the entrance due to the slope?