Fiberglass Shower Stall

LESLIE: Now we’re going to go to Kansas where Tom is looking to change a shower floor.

Tom, what are you looking to put in there?

TOM IN KANSAS: What I’m doing is I’ve got right now like a fiberglass one in there; an insert.

TOM: OK.

TOM IN KANSAS: And it’s real small, so what I want to do is make my own because at Lowe’s I just don’t see anything big enough. And so what I was thinking was building my own and tiling the walls. But the problem I see that I’m going to have is how do you put the base in. You know, some people say cement or is there like an insert I can get to do the floor where – you know, to make it easier for me?

TOM: Well, there are a lot of options. You say that you can’t find one that’s big enough. You could special order a fiberglass shower stall all different sizes. I mean there’s just a gazillion of them out there. If that’s what you want to do, you just need to special order it.

You asked do you have to make your base yourself or can you order one. Yes, you can order just the base and run the walls up from there as well – and again, that’s something that you would order – or you can build one but that’s a bit tricky because now you have to frame out the actual basin and then you have to line it with – probably with fiberglass would be the best material to use. And then on top of that you would lay your tile.

LESLIE: Directly on top of the fiberglass?

TOM: Yep. You can go right on top of the fiberglass. Glue it down and then you would grout it and you’re done.

LESLIE: Can you tile a prefabricated basin if you get one that fits?

TOM: You know, I don’t think so because the gel coat on that – you know, when I’m talking about the fiberglass, it’s pretty rough at that point. But I wouldn’t tile on top of the gel coat of finished fiberglass.

LESLIE: Because it’s too smooth. It won’t stick.

TOM: Yeah, I think it would be too smooth. Yeah, exactly. So there’s a lot of options. I think you’ve just got to – you know, if you go to a home center or you go to a kitchen-and-bathroom dealer, they can find all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors of shower stalls, Tom, and shower pans. You’ve just got to look a little deeper. It’s not going to be on the shelf at a local home center, you know what I mean?