I am remodeling our bathroom and shower and wondering what you would prefer to do. We currently have a shower floor/pan installed, but am on the fence if I wan to tile the floor or put in a new shower pan. What is everyone’s experience’s with either one?
tiles one is alot more work with putting in a rubber bladder and drain system before actually laying the tile. Just my 2 cents!
I just tore out a tile shower and replaced it with cultured granite one. The tile one was a pain in the 
Funny…I’m doing the same thing and was wondering on the EXACT question. I WAS planning on going the tile route, but the cultured granite is an idea as well. Where did you get that at?
I am leaning toward the shower pan, a little more money but seems a lot easier
For my home, its a Kohler Memoirs receptor with seat, and tile up the walls and ceiling. Chances of a leak or failure is very minimal
I really like those, but my issue is the floor drain is in the center and not a left or right side drain, I haven’t found any with a seat that have a center drain, would those be special order?
I shot an email off to our Kohler rep to see what I could find out for you.
Memoirs® 60″ shower receptor – K-9496
Moving drains is usually pretty simple.
that would require tearing out the concrete to extend the drain though, correct?
So this is in a lower basement level or house on grade slab with no basement? But yes cutting and busting out a little concrete is not a big job to do. The main drain line stays in tack and you add a little pipe. PVC is very simple to glue up.
It’s in my finished basement on a concrete floor, no sub-floor, just don’t know if I want to deal with cutting the floor to just move the drain, not that big of a want I guess to have a left or right hand drain
I’ve just finished the second basement bath remodel I’ve done. Busting up a little floor is not a big deal….
FYI – no response from Kohler yet
I wouldnt let having to move the drain slow you down. Most of these types of jobs can be taken care of with a sledge hammer for the concrete work. If the drain is plastic it should be pretty easy to cut and move.
Preformed shower floors are typically very easy to install. Mustee is a brand that we use often. Stay away from the cheap flimsy bases that the big box stores carry. You don’t want to redoing the job in a few years. You may want to think about setting the bases on some sand mix to hold them tight and prevent any rocking. This is a must if the floor is not level.
Randy. That is a nice looking base. Is it cast iron? I got to tour the Kohler plant last summer and see them making some cast iron tubs and bases. Very impressive how they basically take a large flour sifter and coat the cast iron by hand while it is still red hot. Not a job I would want.
FWIW, I just did a neo angle in my bathroom (small bathroom) and used a glass pan but tiled up the walls. I put a mortar bed under the glass pan, and it is solid as concrete, unlike my last one that had cracked.
I am not contractor, but tiling was easy and kinda fun, but really messy. If you do it get a tile saw, that worked great. My brother had one, so cost was nothing for the saw.
If you tile, make sure to do your best to make the wall as flat as you can. We used 12×16 on walls and 12×12 on the floor and it all matched up nicely, oooks great, and wifey is very happy 
The TileShop is extremely helpful, and I recommend them over the big box stores if tiling. They cna walk a rookie through it, they did for me 
Good luck!
You guys may want to look into all tile with a product like this.
http://www.schluter.com/8_1_kerdi.aspx
Does not require any rubber membrane, or metal pans..
Better discription here
http://www.schluter.com/media/fhb_art_barrier_free_bath_us.pdf
Thank you all for the help and advice, I went with a Kohler shower pan the main one without the seat and plan to put it on a mortar bed as the concrete under it is not level at all and I will be tiling up the walls.
I did the demo work and in the process of re-doing it now. The previous shower pan was not sealed or set on anything and the is no wonder why everything was wet and moldy…ended up removing 2 more walls do get fresh clean rock in there. I told my wife by the time I am done this puppy will not have a chance to leak!
Good for you. No better feeling than when it’s done and you can admire it. Just ignore all the little imperfections you’ll see and nobody else will. 
I hear you frustrating at times but it is or will be a great sense of accomplishment when I am completely done, I will put up some pics when I am done too from start to finish!
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Thank you all for the help and advice, I went with a Kohler shower pan the main one without the seat and plan to put it on a mortar bed as the concrete under it is not level at all and I will be tiling up the walls.
I did the demo work and in the process of re-doing it now. The previous shower pan was not sealed or set on anything and the is no wonder why everything was wet and moldy…ended up removing 2 more walls do get fresh clean rock in there. I told my wife by the time I am done this puppy will not have a chance to leak!
Seat in the shower is not a bad thing. 
I hear you Sandbar, especially since it’s a split level and the block wall for a ledge to hold a cocktail I mean shampoo…anyway…my wife selected a new shower faucet my new question is do I need to replace the rough in kit or just the handle/faucet? I am replacing an old Delta with a new Delta.
Guess it depends on how old the original one was. I always tend to lean towards putting in new. You wouldn’t want to open up those walls any time soon to replace old plumbing.
good point Mike seems fairly easy to install, cut the old one out and get the right fittings and get that one in place, correct. I noticed this one is threaded, would that mean I would not be soldering it together?
So I am at the point in installing my new shower pan and noticed that when seated against the walls the drain is off by about 1 1/2″, meaning the drain in the floor is that far too long to be centered…so I will need to bust up the concrete floor and shorten the pipe correct? If so how deep is the pipe under the concrete? Once the drain is centered do I just use quick-rite to fill in what I busted up?
Its hard to say how deep it will be. Most likely not more than a foot as most plumber apprentices I know didn’t want to dig any deeper than they had to. Patching it in with a bag of sacrete should be just fine.
when I finish moving the pipe and ready to fill it in, do I fill it in up to level with the floor or do I need to make like a mot around the drain, they have that there now…
Thanks for all the tips Mike and everyone else, we are getting closer on this remodel!
Fill it level with concrete. If you did it right, there should be no water there to fil your “moat”.
that’s what I thought but then again didn’t expect to see when after I tore out the old…
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