"Mastering Curbless Showers: Step-by-Step Guide to Cutting Floor Joists"

Embracing the trend of curbless showers in your home renovation project? You're not alone. This modern, accessible, and sleek design is increasingly popular amo...

Cutting Floor Joists for Curbless Shower: A Comprehensive Guide

Cutting Down Floor Joists for Curbless Entry Shower in Upstairs Bathroom

Embracing the trend of curbless showers in your home renovation project? You're not alone. This modern, accessible, and sleek design is increasingly popular among homeowners. However, cutting floor joists to accommodate a curbless shower can be a daunting task. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process, ensuring you understand each step and its implications.

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Understanding Curbless Showers and Floor Joists

Before we dive into the cutting process, let's ensure we're on the same page. A curbless shower, also known as a barrier-free shower, is a shower without a lip or threshold to step over. It's designed to be wheelchair accessible and creates a seamless, modern look. Floor joists, on the other hand, are horizontal structural members used in framing to span an open space and provide support for the flooring system.

BUILDING a CURBLESS SHOWER (Recess in Floor Joists)

Assessing Your Joist Situation

Before you grab your saw, it's crucial to understand your floor joist layout. Here's what you need to do:

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Locate your joists. They run perpendicular to your floorboards and are typically spaced 16 or 24 inches on center.
Measure the width of your shower area. This will determine how many joists you need to cut.
Check for any plumbing or HVAC obstructions. You'll need to work around these.

Gathering Your Tools and Materials

Safety is paramount when cutting floor joists. Here's what you'll need:

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A reciprocating saw or a handsaw
Tape measure
Pencil
Safety glasses
Work gloves
Ear protection
Support beams or temporary supports

Marking and Cutting the Joists

Now that you're prepared, let's start cutting:

Mark the center of each joist you need to cut. This will ensure an even cut and help maintain the structural integrity of your floor.
Using your reciprocating saw or handsaw, cut along your mark. Be sure to cut only as deep as the width of your shower pan. Do not cut all the way through the joist.
Once you've made your cuts, it's time to install temporary supports to maintain the structural integrity of your floor. These can be made from 2x4s or 2x6s and should be installed on either side of your cut joists.

Installing the Shower Base and Finishing Up

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86K views · 1.1K reactions | Curbless Shower BUILD Highlights | Why step over a curb if you don't have to ? 😄 ❤ I love curbless showers ❤ Hydro-Blok has made barrier-free showers easy to BUILD 👊 Here's a list of all... | By Bathroom Remodeling Teacher | Alright, so let me give you the highlights of the construction of a curbless shower. Lot of people are confused about this and I can understand why, I mean, when you see the finished product, all you see is a nice flush surface into the shower and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense how that was done. Majority of the systems out there including the hydro block system is created so that you can recess the plywood within the shower area. So, you can see my existing floor joist here and here. I have the plywood built in between it. So, it's at at the same level as a joist. So this is where it's nice not having the riser pipe glued. Just take it out. Put your plywood down and then cut out where that needs to be. Now, when you put new subflooring or if you have existing subflooring, most of the time you're three quarters of an inch. I So, you have a three-quarter-inch drop down into the shower and the shower pans are made an inch thick. So, this one's set in the place. You basically have a quarter-inch difference in height between the outside floor and the inside and there's a bunch of different ways you can go about addressing that. One, which is the one that we're going to be doing in this particular bathroom is to use an uncoupling membrane. This is a quarter-inch uncoupling membrane made by Hydro Block. It's waterproof and it makes a nice seamless entrance into the shower. So, this is going to build it up the outside floor that quarter inch. The uncoupling membrane is also used to separate the plywood layer from the tile layer and you know, preventing cracks and you know, basically, it's a crack isolation membrane. So, this is a great way to go about it. Another alternative is to use their quarter-inch foam board. So, this is one-quarter-inch thick. You can thin set this down and screw it into place and that would also make a nice transition into the shower. Now, one reason that you really might want to go with this is that if you're doing some small mosaic tiles. If you're doing penny tiles, if you're doing something less than two inch by two-inch tiles, this would be a great way to go because it's a nice, smooth surface that's going to be easy to tile over. So, this is a great way this would be also be 100% waterproof on the outside floor and the third way would be to simply floor level the entire outside floor area and just floor level up to the shower pan in some ways that could be the most foolproof way if you had an unlevel floor on the outside floor or if you had a little bit more of a raise on the pan from one side or the other you can make everything perfectly transitioned so just adding floor level now the one thing you would want to do on top of the floor leveler is to actually do a liquid water proofing so that you have everything 100% waterproof. That's the one big difference between a tiled shower and a curveless shower is waterproofing. You really want to have at the very minimum three feet of waterproofing outside of the shower but I would really highly recommend you just do the entire bathroom floor so you have it. Don't have any issues with water migration through the thin set layer and getting out into that plywood layer.

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With your joists cut and supported, you're ready to install your shower base. Here's a quick rundown of the process:

Install your shower pan, ensuring it's level and properly supported.
Install your shower walls and any necessary plumbing.
Once your shower is installed, you can remove the temporary supports and fill in the gaps with sister joists. These are new joists installed alongside the cut ones to restore the original support.

Final Thoughts

Cutting floor joists for a curbless shower is a complex task that requires careful planning and execution. If you're unsure about any aspect of the process, it's always best to consult with a professional. However, with the right knowledge and tools, you can successfully transform your bathroom into a modern, accessible space.