Need some advice/thoughts on loweing a shower

[matmushroom]

Hi All!

Wondering is anyone can offer some advice.

My mother in law (not a joke) is 80+ years, and super bad legs and is 50% of the time in a wheel chair. She has a very hard time getting in and out of the shower because the shower is raised, her husband (also in to his 80s) helps her in and out.

As you can see from the image the shower floor is about 8 inches higher than the base floor, we have build some steps to help her along, but even those are very hard for her to use. She really need a walk in shower.

Untitled

• matmushroom
• 30 Jun 2012
• 1

Its my understanding that lowering the floor would be problematic due to the the plumbing needing to be below a certain depth...and this is the reason why the shower was probably raised in the first place.

Our current thinking is - we lower the floor, cap the pipes and install a pump to pump the water outside (that's an outside wall at the back of the shower). Does anyone think that's a good or bad idea, or does anyone have any other suggestions.

We have thought about ramps - but because of the size of the room, and placement of a bed (the shower btw is in a bedroom!) we simply cannot do that. It has to be lowered.

I really appreciate any thoughts you guys might have!

cheers.

 

[denso13]

Is the shower on the ground floor? Concrete or timber floor?

 

[matmushroom]

its ground floor and its Concrete

 

[denso13]

A bit of work removing what is there already and repositioning the door. But you should be able to fit a low shower tray, or a wet room floor and take the waste pipe out to the outside where, I presume, you could connect into existing drainage. Again, a bit of work digging out the concrete for the trap and pipework but should be well worth it.

 

[stardanny]

You could use a low level shower tray which is only a inch thick and has a gulper pump if it's difficult to dig up concrete for waste, but it depend of how wide the shower space is.

Or use wetroom tray ( it got a slope in it ) and dig up for waste and lay wetroom vinyl.

Is it a bungalow or a shelter accom?

Dan.