Shower layout / joist interference

I'm redoing a bathroom and replacing a clawfoot tub with a shower.

My designer has spec'd a 36" W x 50" L shower area along one wall with a 1-foot neo-angle corner.

However, the floor joist runs lengthwise under the proposed shower area at 18" from the wall (right where I would want to put the drain).

How do you normally deal with this sort of problem?

- mount the drain off-center? (say, 20" from the one side wall and 16" from the other)

- make the shower area skinnier so that the mid-point no longer falls on the joist?

- move the shower area out from the wall a bit (say with an extra 2x4 ledge along the long wall) so that the newly-centered drain now misses the joist?

- something else??

I was hoping to use a Schluter kit for the base, but any non-standard drain placement is going to make that impossible.

Advice?

Thanks!
.../john

It's easier if you keep thoughts on one project in one thread. You could build a header and box out the joist area enough to allow the drain where you want it. A shower does look better if the drain is centered, but it doesn't have to be. I'd probably just buy the Kerdi and drain, then make a mudbed and put it slightly off-center and clear the joists. Deck mud is intimidating, but not all that bad. It's sort of like working with wet beach sand if mixed right.

It's easier if you keep thoughts on one project in one thread.

Click to expand...

Ooops! I thought this might be a general knowledge type question that others could use in the future....

You could build a header and box out the joist area enough to allow the drain where you want it.

Click to expand...

Interesting--for some reason I hadn't thought of doing that. This is a reno'd attic, so the floor joists are the original 2x4's sistered with new 2x10's. In that area, there's a 2" gap between them (due to staggered overlapping) so I'd have to think about how I'd actually get a header in there (the sistered 2x4 and 2x10 are not touching in the area where a header would go).

Thanks for the suggestion.