Does a shower flor drain need to be in the center?

Whether a Shower Floor Drain is installed in a basement floor, sink, tub or shower, it has to be at the lowest point to be effective. To properly locate a shower drain, a stall manufacturer or tiler molds the base so that it has a continuous downward slope from the edges toward the drain. This doesn't mean the Bathroom Floor Drain has to be in the center, however, and offset drains are common in prefabricated and custom stalls alike.

When you are fabricating your own shower stall, you can place the square Floor Drain at any location on the base as long as you slope the floor toward it. Some builders bend plywood to form a sloping base by making a series of cuts in the back and screwing it to shims, while others use mortar. They lay the plywood after installing the drain and form it carefully toward the drain, using a level to measure the slope as they work. The latter is the more reliable method to produce a substrate for tile or stone.

Prefabricated shower stalls have molded bases that slope toward the drain, and the drains are not always located in the middle. The stall will only drain correctly, however, if you install it level and it can't move. Many stalls come with supports that allow for installation on nothing more than a level subfloor, but others require the installation of extra support, usually in the form of wooden shims nailed to the subfloor. Supports must be secure or the base may shift and water will collect instead of going down the drain.

A standard tiled shower has a layered floor consisting of a liner, called the "pan," holding a sloped cement substrate supporting the ceramic tiles. The typical shower pan liner is a rubber or vinyl sheet installed as a waterproof membrane for the shower floor, and the basic procedure for installing a shower pan insures a watertight base beneath the mortar bed and tile floor.