John,
Thank you for your time! We break ground in a couple months, so we've got a clean slate. The shower is part of plans drawn by an architect, so the shower structure should get built properly for a no-threshold shower -- although looking at the plans, I don't see a specific drawing with details for the shower. It does say, "Provide floor joists at 12" o.c. under tiled floor areas. Cut down 3" into shower joists for tile slope down and into shower with no raised threshold." The drawing shows a "regular" centralized round drain because I hadn't heard of a linear drain at that time. The plan doesn't include any "structural" detail specifically for the shower. I can take a snapshot of just the shower floor plan right off of the pdf, but don't know how to get it small enough to attach it here.
As you noted, the closest installer is in Atlanta. I've done more checking and the builder may have one tiler who has worked on showers in gyms and workout places -- builder believes this includes the type of drains I'm asking for. But my experience so far in planning this house is that I have to stay one step ahead of everyone and not leave anything to chance. I'm going to scrutinize the proposed tiler for real experience on this shower and drain or I'll default to a regular drain. I don't want the shower pan and waterproofing messed up. We're in a rural area and people are ...rather set in their ways about how they prefer to do things. Nothing "newfangled" is welcome. I have yet to bring up words like "Kerdi membrane" and don't know how welcome that will be. I did raise the matter of expoxy grout and the reply was less than encouraging. A little research shows me why. Now that I've done some reading, I'll ask about SpectraLock Pro (expoxy-lite) and see how the builder feels, but I'm prepared to apply the SpectraLock myself at this point, if for no other reason than the price tag they quoted for anything resembling epoxy grout.
The bottom line is that, so far, I'm being presented with "the usual" methods and options that are cost-effective for the builder (and for me, I suppose), but aren't quite the standard I'm looking for. I'm being pro-active in looking for a tiler with this specific skill. But maybe, as I noted in my post, I have nothing to fear about any competent tiler being able to handle this kind of shower pan, even if it's his first of this drain type. We're on a tight budget, but I'm willing to put money into certain long-term, fixed items and postpone other things that we can add after the occupancy permit. But I have another question about the location of the drain. I haven't checked local code, maybe it's stated in there, but does the linear drain have to be a certain distance from the wall in the shower? I've seen pictures of it placed right against the wall. I'm making this up entirely, but wouldn't it be better to be at least 3 inches away from the wall for purposes of cleaning or opening up the drain cover or something? I just "feel" that it needs to be slightly away from the wall, but that's not based on anything technical. Perhaps just aesthetics. I've seen photos of the drain located away from the wall and it seems right to me. Dee