What is the best Shower Drain?
One of the most common questions when planning a shower project for your house or rental residential property is: What is the best shower drain for my bathroom?
Thanks to our experience in bathroom drainage, obtained from building thousands of showers, we share some ideas below.
Table of Contents
How to choose the best drain for your shower?
Linear shower drain vs center drain
First of all, you must know the different shower drain types to choose the best shower drain. There are a lot more shower drains readily available than you can imagine! But we can simply classify two shower drain types: the point drains and the linear drains.
Point drains or center drains are most common, the one you surely use to find in most showers. They are typically placed in the middle of the shower flooring and the floor is sloped from all directions down to the drain. The shower floor is a sloped channel that guides the water into this drain.
One idea is to compare a square drain with a round one. If your tiles are square, your shower flooring will certainly look better with a square drain. Moreover, the installer won’t have to attempt to make rounded cuts on square tile. The square center drain is your shower drain for tile in this case.
In contrast to the center drain, the linear shower drain, as the name suggests, is long and slim. The direct drain, long shower drain or shower trough drain add great value in the design of your shower and this is why have become far more popular in the past couple of years.
They may be placed in the middle of the flooring but are most generally positioned along one wall of the shower. The positioning of the linear drains means the entire shower floor inclines uniformly towards the drain. Straight drains come in many different sizes, as long as 72″.
It is essential to understand that both shower drain types take the water away with the same effectiveness. Unless you have an unusual big quantity of water in your shower, either type will certainly work. In most cases a point drain will certainly cost less than a linear drain. So the design of your bathroom and shower would be one of the most important factors to choose the best shower drain for you.
Large floor tiles or small floor tiles
To choose the best shower drain, you also have to consider the tile format of your bathroom.
One of the reasons to choose a linear drain is that you have the possibility to use bigger ceramic tiles on the shower flooring. Since the entire flooring is evenly sloped in one instruction, any type of dimension floor tile can be set up on the floor. If you want small tiles that’s great, yet you can additionally use bigger ceramic tiles. Several property owners will choose this option since this allows them to use the same tiles for shower flooring and the rest of the bathroom. From a layout point of view, this creates a much more seamless look and also can help make small spaces seem larger.
From another part, because of the channel needed for a center drain, smaller tiles need to be used on the shower flooring when using this kind of drain. Usually it is not recommended to use anything larger than 4″ x 4″ ceramic tiles with a point shower drain for tile. The tiles need to be set on the flooring and you can’t use a large flat tile across a flooring that has more than one inclination. But lots of people choose to stand out the shower floor with smaller sized tiles and also make it look different than the rest of the restroom, and in this case, the point drain can be the best shower drain.
Design drains vs invisible drain
Whether the decision is to go with a center drain or straight linear drain, the final step is to decide the design and also finishes of the drain. This is the part of the drainpipe that is seen and you surely want it to fit the style of the rest of the bathroom.
It is usually recommended selecting a finish that matches the rest of the components in the shower room. So if your faucets and also shower head are all in chrome, the upper part of the drain needs to be similar to complete the look. As a design fact, that’s an extremely individual choice.
There are lots of options available and at Guru USA, we are particularly concerned about the great design of our shower systems. Check all our Design Drains & Strainers, we’re sure you’ll love them! If you’re looking for the best shower drain to style your shower floor and catch the attention of your guests, you’ll love our shower drains.
Another option for the most discreet drain is the invisible drain. Concretely, the surface of the drain can be tiled with the same tile of the rest of your bathroom. With this option, the tileable grate is perfectly integrated in your bathroom since the exact same tile used on the shower floor is placed on the top of the drain and makes it invisible. The function of the drain is the same: the water drains simply around the edges of the tiled grate. The grate area blends in seamlessly with the rest of the shower flooring, as well as ends up being virtually undetectable. The invisible drain is probably the best shower drain if your top preoccupation is to get a uniform design throughout your whole bathroom.
Discover Guru’s shower drains
We hope all this information related to the different types of shower drains and why they are recommended will help you to choose the best shower drain for your project! In case you need more information or want to know where to find Guru’s waterproofing products and shower systems, do not hesitate to contact our team! We’ll be very pleased to help you!
