[svaic00]

Hello,

Sorry for the long question, but want to get all the info I can to help with my situation.

I am in the process of finishing our basement. Attached is a plan view of the location of my rough in plumbing, along with a proposed floor plan for the new bathroom. Our rough in plumbing was installed when the house was built. It has the appropriate drain/pipe sizes for the toilet, sink, vent, etc. The dap out is plumbed with a 2” pvc line. My question is in regards to the location for the drain if I want to do a shower.

Right now there is an 8" square hole in our concrete floor slab, tub dap out filled with gravel. If I follow the plan shown on the framing plan, this is good for using a standard size tub, with the drain at the front end of the tub. I believe we want to go with a shower though, but the drain location is right next to a wall. I do not want to break up the concrete and move the drain. I was thinking of doing about a 5' long x 3 or so feet wide shower, with the drain towards the front.

Looking on the internet, I found numerous pre-fabbed drain pans, with the floor already sloped for the drain being towards the front.

Just looking at Lowe's for example they had this pre-fabbed, ready to tile shower floor:
Shop Tile Ready 60-in L x 34-in W Redi Base Fiberglass/Plastic Composite Shower Floor (Drain Included) at Lowes.com

Or one like this:
Shop American Standard 59-7/8-in L x 31-1/4-in W Acrylux White Acrylic Shower Floor at Lowes.com

The first one has a web site called https://www.tileredi.com/ and has hundreds of styles shapes etc (like troughs, ADA roll in, with or w/o curbs, etc.). But the cost of these are like $600 and up. The second link I placed in there is just an American Standard Acrylux White Acrylic Shower Floor (it seems like the same material as an American standard acrylic tub, right?), but the cost is only like $225. This is only looking at Lowe's as an example. But is the Acrylic tub good, is it too cheap, can it eventually crack like a tub could? I thought the $600 price tag was a bit much for it just being a prefabbed floor made of pvc I think.

What are your thoughts, anyone else use other products or brands for a shower floor with offset drain?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[mygirlsdad77]

I have had great luck with the acrylic products. Just make sure to follow install instructions, bedding as instructed is key here.

[svaic00]

I have had great luck with the acrylic products. Just make sure to follow install instructions, bedding as instructed is key here.

Why are those redi tile shower pans $600-$900 if all they are made of is pvc, while the acrylic ones are $200-$280? That just seems really expensive for what the product is.

[Handyman2007]

May I ask a question. I have never heard the term "dap". Help.

[Handyman2007]

Also, why not build you own shower floor. You could do anything you wanted with it.

[svaic00]

May I ask a question. I have never heard the term "dap". Help.

See post "Subfloor and P-trap for basement bathroom", both mygirlsdad and speedball refer to it as that. I never heard of that, until I posted that question and got answers from them. I referred to it as a cut out hole in the concrete slab.


For your second question, Have thought about it, seems a lot more expensive though to build your own.

[mygirlsdad77]

A dap out is just the opening in the concrete floor for either a tub/shower, or shower drain. You can make the dap out of two by fours or buy a premade plastic dap out. Just a box you put down before the concrete is poured so you have room to hook up the trap etc. We only make dap outs for tub/showers. For shower only we rough in the trap and standpipe and simply wrap it to leave space for the shower strainer. Im sure one of the other pros here has a better explanation of the term "dap out". Hope they pop in with their experience.

[Handyman2007]

Yup, I have always referred to it as "a hole in the concrete for the drain"! I wonder though,, just what does "dap" mean? What it stands for.

[mygirlsdad77]

You got me there. Just what Ive always heard it called. Couldn't tell you on the origin of the word when pertaining to plumbing. Any info on this, guys?