ᐅ Shower Trench Drains and Sanitary Fixtures – Selection and Installation

Hello everyone,

Soon, the sanitary fixtures will be installed in our new build.
Among other things, we have two walk-in showers that are designed to be flush with the floor.
We already have a tiler who will install the sloped screed.
However, he says that, due to warranty reasons, he will not install the shower channels nor connect them to the drain.

We are still considering whether to have our construction company handle this, depending on your feedback, as the following questions have come up for us:

- Difficulty level? I’m not inexperienced with DIY, but I don’t want any leaks that would require retiling the entire area.

- Shower channel: Our construction company prefers to sell us a very expensive channel, but we found options online costing about one-tenth of that with very good reviews. Has anyone had experience with this? What should we pay attention to?

- Installation height of the shower channel: Adjustable heights are available.
We have a floor build-up of 17cm (7 inches) next to the shower area (screed, underfloor heating, etc.). Would an adjustable channel with a height range of 10.5–14.5cm (4–5.7 inches) be suitable for this?

- Fixing the channels: From what I’ve seen, some are fastened to the floor slab while others are secured with the screed. Is that correct? Does anyone have experience with this?

- Do you have any general comments, ideas, or tips?

Thank you in advance for your replies!

Best regards,
Fabian

It is of no use to you if the construction company installs a cheaper gutter that you purchased but cannot provide a warranty for (which will be the case 99.99% of the time).

Therefore, you basically have no other option but to have the gutter preferred by the site manager installed, for the price they demand.

Hello,

I fully agree with what mycraft wrote.
On the other hand, I would not place the channel on the concrete floor.
It does not flex, but the floating screed does settle.
Leaks at the transition are not uncommon.

Olli

Ok, thanks in advance for the answers.
I will remove the sentence "have it done by the house building company"...

The point about the gutter possibly being under tension is a good and logical one.
What can I do about that?
Apply a layer of screed beforehand? If so, how much/thick?

So, I have selected two shower drains:

One, a bit pricier from the hardware store:
- more expensive
- not tileable
- can be mounted on the floor (123mm - 160mm installation height*)

And one online:
- cheaper
- tileable
- can also be placed on the floor (104mm - 145mm height*)

*=(16cm/17cm floor structure - 2cm slope = at least 140mm)

I prefer the latter. However, I don’t see how I can fasten or fix it to the floor. I’ve attached a close-up of the feet; maybe you recognize this?

I also included a picture of my shower.

Thanks!

If you want to do it properly, use a Wedi shower board. It is tileable and, when applied correctly, 100% waterproof. This way, you also don’t need a slope in the screed.