How Do You Install a Walk-In Shower Base and Walls?

Installing a walk-in shower from an Ella kit is a sequence of five jobs: preparing a sound, level floor and framing pocket, dry fitting the base and setting the drain, bedding the base on silicone adhesive, hanging the wall panels, and cutting the valve openings and connecting the plumbing. Ella ships the base, walls, grab bars and drain, and a local licensed plumber or contractor does the installation with Ella's technical support available for questions along the way. The floor work is laid out in How Do I Install an Ella Shower Base on a Wood Subfloor?, and this page puts the whole project in order from the carton to the first shower.

Step 1: Know What Arrives and What You Still Need

A basic Ella walk-in shower kit includes the shower stall itself, the set of grab bars listed for that kit, and the drain. The grab bars are packed loose rather than pre-installed, and the stall arrives as one piece or several pieces depending on the model. The kit does not include a shower head, a hand shower, a mixing valve or valve trim, and the wall arrives solid with no valve cutout. The rough-in piping and fittings behind the wall come from your installer, and if your project starts from a shower base rather than a full stall, confirm whether the walls are included, because Ella sells bases, walls and filler pieces as separate items. What is included in a basic DIY walk-in shower kit? turns the carton list into a shopping checklist.

Choose the shower valve with your plumber before the carton arrives, and if you want a hand shower on a slide bar, choose that hardware at the same time so the wall openings can be planned together and cut once. The installation manual for your kit is published with the product listing and is also available from the team at (800) 480-6850, so the whole procedure can be read before anything is unpacked. Two material notes affect the crew you need: the AcrylX three-piece kits have a self-supporting, pre-leveled base that needs no mud set, while the cultured marble shower bases are heavy and require at least two people to install.

Step 2: Prepare the Floor and the Framing

Ella shower bases install on either a concrete or a wooden subfloor, so a wood floor needs no special base. What matters is that the subfloor is sound and that the surface is flat and level within 1/8 inch. Soft or water-stained wood is repaired first, because the base bears directly on the floor and cannot bridge a weak spot. Dips are corrected with leveling compound, allowed to harden fully, rather than with a mortar bed. The acrylic base's high-density foam reinforcement is designed to bear on a hard, level surface, and a mud bed defeats that design.

Check the framing pocket at the same time. The barrier-free roll-in gel coat manual calls for a pocket 1/4 inch larger than the shower, with the framing square, plumb and level, and its framing table gives the width, drain offset and depth for each unit. Have your plumber locate the supply lines and the drain before the base is positioned. On an acrylic base the drain position is molded in and cannot be moved afterward, so the floor drain has to be where the base expects it.

Step 3: Dry Fit the Base and Set the Drain

1. Dry fit the base in the framing pocket and level it. On a multi-piece gel coat unit, dry assemble the whole shower in an open space first to confirm the panels, the drain location and the alignment before moving it into the bathroom.
2. Mark the front of the threshold on the floor so the base can go back exactly where it was leveled.
3. Pull the base back out and set the 2 inch drain body according to the drain manufacturer's instructions.
4. On a barrier-free roll-in gel coat unit, follow the manual's drain detail: a 6 inch drain core with a 10 by 10 by 1/2 inch recess.

Step 4: Set the Base for Good

Where your model has wood shims or a support leg under the back edge, they must make solid contact with the subfloor. On the low-threshold gel coat units the wood support wedges are mandatory, not optional. The base is then bedded on beads of 100 percent silicone adhesive rather than mortar and set back onto the marks made during the dry fit. Level it again before the adhesive sets. A base that rocks or sits out of level will not drain correctly, because every Ella base relies on the slope molded into its floor to carry water to the drain.

Step 5: Hang the Walls and Cut the Openings

Ella's standard wall panels are acrylic, manufactured at a consistent 98 inch height. In the three-piece kit the two side panels measure 40 inches wide and the back wall panel measures 60 inches wide, and larger panels are offered so a kit can be matched to the width of the base and the height of the room. The panels come in plain white, a CNC routed design with light gray grout lines, and a digital print option. The kits use acrylic and fiberglass construction that meets or exceeds the UPC, IPC, ANSI Z124.1, NAHB, HUD and FHA requirements and carry a lifetime limited residential warranty, as explained in What is an acrylic shower and how durable is it?.

The second wall family is the cultured marble travertine surround, a natural quartz and granite composite with a gel coat surface. These panels come as multi-piece surrounds of eight, six or four panels, each light enough to be carried and installed by one person, and they are glued directly over drywall, plaster, painted walls, Durock cement board or even existing tile, so a remodel does not always have to start with demolition. What Are Ella Shower Wall Panels Made Of, and Do They Off-Gas? compares the two families.

Whichever walls you choose, the valve and shower head openings are marked and cut during installation, not at the factory. The correct location depends on the valve you selected, the rough-in behind the wall and the needs of the person using the shower, which is why the wall ships without a preset height or offset. Your plumber connects the drain that came in the box to the house waste line, sets the valve, fits the trim, shower head and any hand shower, and the grab bars from the kit go on last.

Who Does the Work and Where to Get Help

Ella manufactures and ships the shower but does not install it. A local licensed plumber or contractor does the work, and Ella's technical support answers their questions along the way, with the manual as the reference. If a step in your manual differs from the general sequence here, the manual for your specific kit wins. Keep your order details handy so the team can identify the exact base and wall set when you call (800) 480-6850 or open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support.

Related Guides

• What the Ella Acrylic Shower Base Is Made Of and How It Is Installed
• How do you install a shower wall panel kit from Ella's Bubbles?
• Choosing a Shower Valve and Cutting the Valve and Shower-Head Openings

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