Quadrant shower issues

CW2901

Hi DIY'ers.
We have a quadrant shower that has been in the house about 15 years. The shower tray is raised about half a foot on a plymth but we now want it flat to the floor. Has anyone any experience with this? Why would the bathroom crowd have raised it? Can it be lowered. We have a friend doing the work and don't want to call him out and say its not possible! We have already ruled out the hopes of a walk in rectangular shower due to measurement issues lol.

karlitob

CW2901 wrote: »

Hi DIY'ers.
We have a quadrant shower that has been in the house about 15 years. The shower tray is raised about half a foot on a plymth but we now want it flat to the floor. Has anyone any experience with this? Why would the bathroom crowd have raised it? Can it be lowered. We have a friend doing the work and don't want to call him out and say its not possible! We have already ruled out the hopes of a walk in rectangular shower due to measurement issues lol.

We had a similar problem when we renovated. I *think* the issue was that - because this bathroom was on the ground floor in a renovated shed - there was some issue with getting sufficient depth with the u bend on the waste pipe.

We got a low profile one in the end but not as flat as we’d like. Whether that can be remedied I don’t know.

Sleeper12

In fairness he is going to have to go look to see if it can be done. It was raised either because it was easier to do or because they needed the extra height to get enough of a fall on the waste pipe. Not enough of a fall & it will drain very slowly or not at all.

I'm assuming the shower isn't on an external wall?

Dr_Colossus

Here's a quadrant shower in an en-suite I had. Drain was close to an external wall but yet the tray was raised on a 100mm platform as it was obviously easier for the builders than lower the drain and have the trap between the joists of the floor below.


Ensuite was refurbished with large format porcelain tiles not long prior to my purchase but tiler did such a terrible job they were effectively dot/dabbed with tile adhesive to plasterboard. End result is shower was leaking and with no tanking behind the water was causing damage to substrate so gutted everything.

There was a lot of wasted space with the quadrant shower which is a fairly confined space to shower in so put in a larger rectangular shower with seat.

What measurement issues are preventing you with going with a rectangular shower?

CW2901

Sleeper12 wrote: »

In fairness he is going to have to go look to see if it can be done. It was raised either because it was easier to do or because they needed the extra height to get enough of a fall on the waste pipe. Not enough of a fall & it will drain very slowly or not at all.

I'm assuming the shower isn't on an external wall?

No not on an external wall, hoping it was because it was easier because it drains very slowly as is.

CW2901

Thanks for response.Ours looks identical actually. The issue with the rectangular shower option is that if I put it on opposite wall to where the quadrant is now (external wall where bath drain was 20odd years ago) I only have 600mm between wall and window. If I put it where quadrant is now then I need to know that it can definitely be lowered and even then the toilet is somewhat obstructive to the entrance of shower and I'm trying to avoid if possible re plumbing everything.

CW2901

karlitob wrote: »

We had a similar problem when we renovated. I *think* the issue was that - because this bathroom was on the ground floor in a renovated shed - there was some issue with getting sufficient depth with the u bend on the waste pipe.

We got a low profile one in the end but not as flat as we’d like. Whether that can be remedied I don’t know.

Somewhat flatter than the pic posted below would be acceptable, just as is with elderly mother and children etc its a trip hazard.

Dr_Colossus

CW2901 wrote: »

Thanks for response.Ours looks identical actually. The issue with the rectangular shower option is that if I put it on opposite wall to where the quadrant is now (external wall where bath drain was 20odd years ago) I only have 600mm between wall and window. If I put it where quadrant is now then I need to know that it can definitely be lowered and even then the toilet is somewhat obstructive to the entrance of shower and I'm trying to avoid if possible re plumbing everything.

Is it a wide window or could you incorporate it's full size into the shower.

Is your shower on ground or first floor. If upstairs do you know which direction the joists run versus the external wall you're looking to extract the water to. If you're running the waste pipe parallel with the joists then very easy lower everything but even perpendicular should be possible depending on the depth of your joists and length of run required.

CW2901 wrote: »

Somewhat flatter than the pic posted below would be acceptable, just as is with elderly mother and children etc its a trip hazard.

Any tray even the low profile ones will be a trip hazard unless you go with a full wet room style and lower the floor appropriately to accommodate the sloped shower pan towards the drain.

Can you post a few pictures of your existing bathroom and people might have better suggestions.