basement shower drain

Our shower was put in in 1978 by my grandfather who was a plumber by trade. He installed a 36x36 durastall shower. We HAVE to replace this shower after 34 years. My question, the shower drain is 18" center, I want to replace the shower with a 36x48 tile shower but my husband says there is no way we can move the drain. Is there a way to do this without moving the drain?

You sure can. Your drain will not be centered as you know but it will work fine.

bdbieck said:

Our shower was put in in 1978 by my grandfather who was a plumber by trade. He installed a 36x36 durastall shower. We HAVE to replace this shower after 34 years. My question, the shower drain is 18" center, I want to replace the shower with a 36x48 tile shower but my husband says there is no way we can move the drain. Is there a way to do this without moving the drain?

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We often install a custom linear drain that can be installed over any plumbing location. I have them made up to 60" with all code approvals.

Some of the other suppliers of linear drains sell "Off Set" drains.

Many of the shower kits from Schluter, Noble Company and AKW can be added to or have product removed to work.

There are a lot of ways of upgrading the style and look of your shower without busting up to much concrete.

JW

You should also consider that moving a drain a couple of feet should be no harder that building a proper tile shower. If you can do the shower, you can do the drain.

cacher_chick said:

You should also consider that moving a drain a couple of feet should be no harder that building a proper tile shower. If you can do the shower, you can do the drain.

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A couple feet???? Its only 6" off now. If the owners do not care about it being 6" off,thats all that matters.

Hackney plumbing said:

A couple feet???? Its only 6" off now. If the owners do not care about it being 6" off,thats all that matters.

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I think you missed the point.

A mud pan with tile can have the drain most anywhere. You just slope the pan to the drain.
If you need to move a drain in concrete, it just takes a sledge hammer to break out a bit of concrete and the drain can be relocated.

Depending on the type of shower you want to install (not the size, but referring to the type of construction), you'd probably have to change the type of drain that is there as well. This might require you to break up some concrete. Then, depending on the type of drain lines, if they are metal, sometimes it's a good idea to replace them anyway. While CI can last a very long time, it might not, and while what you have lasted over 30-years, I'm guessing you'd like the new one to last at least as long...so, depending on what's there, you want to make sure the 'infrastructure' is good to last as well as the new stuff.

Most pre-cast/pre-made pans don't offer the option of placing the drain where ever you want it...you move the drain to where it's needed. A custom, tiled shower pan can have it anywhere, but centered (or end) works best. Yours isn't all that far off, so would still function fine, if (and that's a big if) done right. Lots of ways to build a shower, lots of ways to mess up. It's good you're trying to do some research...keep going.