Advice: Shower Re-Do - Doors or Curtain

mathmom
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 20:29:31 +0000

@CountingDown, generally speaking a bedroom floor will be sized to carry 30 pounds per square foot. A tile floor in a full mortar bed is 20 pounds per square foot. So a 3’x3’ shower can have a 250 pound person standing in it and the floor will be fine. The issue is that some shower pans are too flexible for heavy people. You would probably be better off with one that is set in mortar, especially since you have an older house. See this article: https://www.thespruce.com/fixing-a-flexing-shower-pan-1822559

More of a concern is that many soaking tubs are more than 40 psf when full, that’s when you need to worry. Many floor joists in older houses aren’t sized for that kind of load. This can especially be a problem if you use big tiles that don’t flex instead of smaller mosaic types that are typical in older houses.