Many people are choosing to put barrier free showers into their homes. Not only do barrier free showers offer beautiful design options for your bathroom remodel project, but it also creates a wheelchair accessible shower that can help increase the value of your home should you decide to sell it at some time in the future. An ADA shower that utilizes a linear drain not only turns your shower into a wheelchair accessible shower, but installation costs are also reduced over typical costs for a traditional floor drain installation, making a roll in shower even more affordable.

The traditional floor drain in a shower is round, and placed in the center of the shower pan. The floor in the shower must be sloped on multiple planes to accommodate the round drain, so that the water flows into the drain properly.

This is where the linear drain and the round drain part company. A linear drain used in an ADA shower is a long and narrow rectangular-shaped floor drain. What this means, because the drain is in a single line, it requires a slope to be constructed in only one direction so that gravity moves the water to the linear drain. Your construction labor costs are greatly reduced when putting in the ADA shower drain, because a linear drain can be installed in under two hours, but it takes much longer with a round floor drain.

What makes the linear drain work well in the creation of accessible showers is that the drain is flush with the surrounding floor in the shower stall and outside the stall. With a round floor drain, an edge is required around the shower pan to keep the water inside the shower area, and that edge makes it unusable for people in wheelchairs to gain access. In contrast, the linear drain is placed inside a trench that goes below the finished floor level, and a waterproof flange is placed around the opening. Spacers are then used to position the linear drain just right so that it is flush with the finished floor. This is what makes a roll in shower possible, most especially when the linear drain is placed at the doorway to the ADA shower.

Accessible showers also offer homeowners the hottest look in bathroom design, namely the wet room shower. This type of roll in shower can be made with glass doors down to the floor, or you can skip the doors entirely, and let the drains keep the water in the shower area.

The beauty of a spacious bathroom combined with the function of the linear drain is what helps to create beautiful accessible showers.