Shower Pan Or Shower Base
A shower pan and a shower base are the same thing, at least in my professional opinion. Many shower pans or bases come with the different kinds of shower enclosures that you can buy and install. A shower base or pan can be installed without the rest of the enclosure and just have shower tiles on the wall and a shower curtain keeping the water from getting onto the floor. Some people will call a tiled floor with a shower liner installed a shower pan, in a sense this is a home made shower pan. Most shower bases or pans are made from an acrylic plastic and mainly come in white. The base lays on top of the floor and gets hooked up to the shower drain. Before the tiles or the shower surround gets installed the base or pan should get fastened to the wall to keep it sturdy. Normally I have installed the shower base or shower pan after I have done the drain, shower faucet and shower head rough-in installation. Then the drywall goes on, then I install the base, now if you are a diy tiles kind of person you can install the shower tile, if not, you can hire someone, or I install the surround. The shower plumbing price for something like this is around $900 give or take. Test everything prior to installing the drywall. The worst shower repair job is one that could have been avoided if the water was turned on prior to putting in the drywall. The shower bases and shower pans I have installed come in many different sizes. From 28x28 inches to the largest I have installed is 60x48 inches. I have done the shower plumbing for larger showers, but with a tiled floor base. The largest shower I have installed was a 12 head shower for a power company.
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Good luck with your new shower pan or shower base.