Modern bathroom-shower-designs that fit your budgetIt's fun to see some shower designs in new construction. Modern bathroom-shower-designs come in many styles and colors. Freestanding showers being the most popular. The problem with freestanding showers is that they have a tendency to leak. There are many different kinds of shower stalls. Most of them rest on top of a pan that connects to the wastewater plumbing lines underneath. If the pan isn’t adequately secured, the plumbing connection will leak over time because of the weight shifting around every time someone uses the shower. That’s bad news particularly if it’s an upstairs shower.
There are a few ways to make these showers leak proof. The pictures below show cutaway diagrams of the shower pan and the drain fittings. It also shows the drain cover, rubber gasket, and drain tailpipe. The tailpipe fits into the p-trap and the gasket around the drain keeps the pan leak proof.
Now let’s lay the mortar to show how it needs to be done. The shower pan should be ready to put in place. Make sure you have the drain cover, rubber gasket, and tailpipe installed and it is tightened down with a drain collar nut. 
Pour about a 1-inch thick layer of dry-set mortar. Make it even and then rest the shower pan on it making sure that the tailpipe is in the p-trap. Sometimes it helps to put some dish soap around the drainpipe in the floor and on the rubber gasket on the drain tailpiece. Push down on the shower pan especially hard immediately around the drain so the rubber gasket makes a good seal around the drainpipe.
Let it sit for about ten hours before you put on the surround. The surround goes on easy, but you may want to put up a template so you know where to cut out the handle hole. You can use adhesive to attach the surround to the backer board on the wall.
You can probably work on the plumbing through the shower surround regulator hole, but it’s easier if you do it before the surround goes on. You will need to install the anti-scald valves on the shower control stem, but most bathroom-shower-designs and shower assemblies come already put together with the device in place. Anti-scald valves are now a mandatory code in all fifty states.
Every building center has the right parts for shower and bath anti-scald valves so don’t worry about getting the wrong parts. It would be difficult to find shower pipes without anti-scald valves these days. The shower handle assembly comes with a cover that fits into the cut out hole in the surround. The top of the handle comes off and under it is a screw for tightening the handle. You just pop the top back on when it’s done.
These will have anti-scald valves already. There are many different bathroom-shower-designs and most of them fit a standard pattern of plumbing.
Installing bathroom-shower-designs top of page
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You can usually find shower pipe kits at most hardware stores that you just need to install by connecting the waterlines and adjusting the height of the shower head.