The bathroom next to the master bedroom in my house has a shower stall only. I do not like taking showers. I prefer baths (I grew up taking baths, we didn’t have a shower).
Until recently, this shower has had a major mildew problem. Seriously major. Like in “alien invasion” serious. If Janet Leigh had been bathing in this shower, Norman wouldn’t have come within a mile of her with that knife.
We recently discovered Tilex Mildew Root Remover. Man, talk about your miracle products! (No, I don’t work for Clorox)
Anyway, it’s beginning to look more like a shower you wouldn’t be afraid to get into without a haz-mat suit. Still, I don’t like showers. The front edge of the shower is about four inches high and covered with tiles.
The question:
How difficult would it be to build up the front edge of the shower stall to make it into a bath/shower? Replacing the whole thing with one of those fiberglass units is financially out of the question right now.
It also has a plastic accordion door which rides on a rail. This could be easily removed and replaced with a shower curtain.
I figure it would have to be about 18" high. The tough part would be to make sure it’s watertight.
We do have another full bath with a bathtub, but it’s in the hallway and is mainly used by the kids (and the kitties!).
Well, since you asked, it sounds like a home improvement disaster waiting to happen. If I were you, I’d wait until I could replace the whole thing with a tub/shower combination.
Funny thing is, here I am wanting to replace the tub/shower combination in the guest bathroom with a walk in shower. I have a garden tub and a shower in my master bath, but I wish the shower was a big walk in one. Think Joan Crawford shower in “Mommie Dearest.”
IANAC(arpenter), but I am imagining something like this:
Remove the channel the accordion door rides in.
Remove the tiles along the bottom and sides.
Construct a frame work to fill in the gap.
Cover structure with blueboard.
Cover blueboard with tiles.
Caulk all around.
Hop in and have a good soak.
I need to replace the showerhead anyway. I’m sure there’s some sort of pipe configuration that will allow me to keep the showerhead at the regular level and have a faucet at “bathtub level”. The bathtub in the hall bathroom had a valve that allows you to switch from shower to faucet. This one would just be exposed (I’m sure I could find one that’s chromed).
