What Is a Shower Pan?

A shower pan is a very small dish-shaped object that forms the floor of your shower unit. Because this pre-cast piece of plastic often resembles something you might find in the kitchen, the name of "shower pan" is usually applied to the plastic unit that will form the floor of your shower installation. The shower pan always has a drain opening in the center and a gentle slope on the bottom, so water will flow toward the drain. Installing a shower pan is usually the first step in building a shower stall.

Significance

The most important thing to know about the shower pan is that it is the beginning stage of creating a shower stall in your bathroom or any place that a small shower stall might come in handy. If your workplace has need for an emergency shower, then putting in a shower pan and building a shower stall around the floor of the shower pan can be an efficient and economic way to put in a simple shower.

Features

The most important feature of the shower pan is the drain because wherever you place the shower, the drain will have to be tied in with the rest of the plumbing that is in the building. Therefore before setting the shower pan in place, you must know where the nearest drain pipe is located and how difficult it will be to reach the existing drain. For this reason it is probably a good idea to contact a plumber and have a professional install the drain, especially if you live in an old house that contains lead or cast iron drains.

Considerations

The other important plumbing consideration besides the drainage is the hot and cold lines that will feed the shower stall after it is completely built. Running and moving hot and cold water lines is secondary in difficulty compared with installing the drain, for the water lines are much more flexible and easier to install. Still, knowing how far you have to go to tap into a cold or hot water line is something that needs to be known before the construction process begins. The best-case scenario is that you will have a room that already has plumbing so that you can easily add the shower stall to that room.

Expert Insight

After the drain is hooked up, a shower pan is going to need three walls built around the pan and then a shower curtain or even a door will need to be installed to complete the structure. You can use one or even two existing walls, but most likely you will have to construct at least one wall to form the shower stall. This wall is almost always built with conventional 2-by-4 framing methods and it is usually extended to the ceiling to form a more complete enclosure. If the room has high ceilings, a roof to the shower stall can be built to prevent the shower from steaming up the entire room. All walls need to be covered with waterproof materials to prevent moisture damage.

Warning

A shower stall placed around a shower pan is usually built to save money and though this is quite possible, one still has to adhere to certain basic principles of shower construction. Not only does the immediate surface of the shower stall have to be waterproof, but the backing or wall sheathing should be waterproof as well. Green (water resistant) Sheetrock is the most common backing and if you are building parts of the shower stall against an old wall, then you may have to remove the old wall covering and install new water-resistant Sheetrock to ensure a long lasting shower stall.