Curbless shower - no threshold Design Help!

[scotsman2]

Hi,

I am designing a new bathroom and am trying to do without any threshold - chiefly for the minimalist look and ease of cleaning. I am attaching my design so far - you can see the trench drain on the left hand side. The shower is only 35 inches wide.

How can I get away with not doing a threshold? Move the trench drain under the shower glass and slope the shower pan the other way? 2 trench drains for good measure, one under the shower glass and one at the edge as shown? Or is this an impossible task??

There is a floor mounted HVAC vent in the room too (which I don't want water running into).

Thanks!

[Davy]

Well, it looks to me like the shower area under the tile will need to be lower to accommodate a pan liner. Something else folks don't think of is there really needs to be a slight hump across the doorway so the rubber flap on the bottom of the door seals when the door is shut but won't drag the floor when opening it. You may not have that problem with the trench drain along the wall like in the drawing but you might keep it in mind.

[grymes56]

another point to consider is the shower door swing. it must be able to open out by code (for safety). by default all frameless glass hinges that I have seen (CRL mostly) swing both ways - so you can have your door swing both in and out if you use the proper vinyl sweeps. Instead of using the L-shaped vinyl door stop on the wall or glass panel that adjoins the door - simply use 'bulb seals' that allow the door to seal AND swing past.

[e3]

Move the drain to the door/threshold and slope up from there.

[scotsman2]

Thanks for the advice guys - very helpful. I like the idea of a door that swings both ways. I didn't want it swinging outwards because it would mess up a bath towel on the floor - but that depends on how close to the ground the shower door goes to.

I had also thought about putting the drain in the shower doorway and sloping up, but thought that it might interfere with the shower door swing - but again, depends on how close to the ground we go with the door.

Details details...

[grymes56]

I am currently working on a curbless shower bathroom, and have already ordered received the glass for the shower. I went with the U-channel installation method for the frameless glass - but with a variation. I installed the U channel before I started tiling so that it will be buried and almost invisible when I am done tiling. The glass will sort of appear to flow into the tile. I decided to go with a door that swings both ways and will be using CR Laurence brand vinyl bulb seals on the edges and a large bulb seal on the bottom as a sweep. So that the sweep wouldnt hit the floor I came up with a detail that may work for you. Instead of creating a hump in the mudbed I am using matching pencil liner molding on the floor under the door. It will create a 3/16" tall by 3/4" wide hump that should stop water from flowing under the bulb seal and simultaneously allow it to be 3/16" above the rest of the floor at all times. Having it high enough to allow a bath mat probably isn't feasible though. You need a good 3/4" from the bottom of the sweep for a bath mat. That means a 3/4" hump theshold - which kind of defeats the purpose of curbless IMO. It would also be a tripping hazard, since it would be small enough to not see to step over, but big enough to catch your toe on. In my case - I dont want a bathmat covering up my $20 a sq foot marble floor - so the will be none of the sort to worry about

In any case you need to be careful about the deductions done when measuring for the frameless glass. If you go with a glass company that does the measuring and deductions for you just make sure to spell out to the guy that more needs to be deducted off the bottom of the door to accomodate the threshold.

Below is a pic of my pencil molding detail. I should be done in a few weeks so I'll let you know how it works out.



Here is what the U-channel looked like attached directly over the Kerdi.