Will Ella Measure My Bathroom for a Custom Shower Pan?

No. Ella's Bubbles does not send anyone to your home to measure, because Ella does not send technicians for any part of an installation. The measurement for a custom shower base is taken by a local licensed plumber or contractor, and Ella can suggest one from its national network if you need a name. The base is then built exactly to the dimensions submitted with the order, so the fit rests on those figures, and How Do You Measure a Shower Base, Including a Corner Base? lists what to record before anything is ordered.

Who Measures, and Who Stands Behind the Figures

Ella's Bubbles manufactures the base. It does not perform installation, it does not visit the site, and it has never seen your bathroom, so it cannot promise that a base fits a room it knows only from the numbers you send. The person who should measure is the contractor who will set the base. That contractor measures the finished opening, not the framing, and locates the existing drain against your actual walls and plumbing before the base is ordered. Those are the two things a factory cannot do from a distance, and they are the two things that decide whether the base drops into place.

Once a custom order is submitted and paid, the dimensions are final and the base is built exactly to them. Custom orders are also final sales, with no returns or refunds, which is the practical reason to be careful about who measures. If the figures are right, the base fits, because it was made to those figures. If the figures are wrong, there is no return path. So the guarantee of fit sits with whoever took the measurements, and it is worth agreeing with that contractor, before the order goes in, that they stand behind the numbers they give you.

If you do not have a contractor yet, send your full installation address through ellasbubbles.com/support or call (800) 480-6850 and the team can suggest a partner installer near you. You are not required to use that referral. Any licensed local plumber or contractor can measure and set an Ella base, because no special certification is needed.

What the Contractor Should Measure

The measuring guide linked above walks through the figures in order. In short, the contractor records five things:

1. Width. Across the opening the base will fill, between the finished wall surfaces. On a standard Ella base the width is the figure that changes, 30, 32 or 36 inches, so the width of the alcove usually decides whether a standard size fits.
2. Length. Along the back wall. All three standard bases are 60 inches long, and on a custom base the threshold goes on the longer side.
3. Drain position. From the center of the existing drain line to each wall. A custom base can place the drain left, right or center, but it must sit at least 9 inches from the back or side wall, so a drain only 7 inches from a wall cannot be matched even on a custom pan.
4. Layout. Whether the base is enclosed by three walls or sits in a corner against two, because the drain and the finished edges are placed differently for each.
5. Entry and threshold. Which side is the entry, and whether a raised threshold of about 3 inches, a zero threshold flush with the floor or a curb-less roll-in edge is wanted.

Those five notes are what the team needs to confirm that a base can be made and to place the drain where your plumbing already is.

The Limits the Measurements Must Fall Inside

Every Ella shower base is a rectangle, and a custom base is a custom rectangle. Can You Get a Custom Size Shower Tray or Shower Base? covers the full range. The limits that matter when you are checking a contractor's figures are these:

• A three-wall alcove base runs from 30 by 30 inches up to 44 inches wide by 80 inches long, entered in 0.25-inch increments.
• A two-wall corner base runs from 30 by 30 inches up to 42 by 60 inches.
• A 38 by 80 inch base with a left drain is within the limits. A 53 by 76 inch request is not, and cannot be produced.
• Pans shorter than 60 inches are made. A 58 by 30 inch base with a center drain has been produced.
• The drain sits left, right, center or at a custom position, never closer than 9 inches to the back or side wall.

Before a custom size is drawn up, check whether one of the standard sizes, 30 by 60, 32 by 60 or 36 by 60 inches with a left or right drain, fits the opening. A standard base is the simplest choice because its drain sits in a set position for that size. Who makes custom shower pans for odd bathroom layouts? shows the kinds of rooms a custom rectangle solves.

Measuring for a Neo-Angle Corner

Many people asking for a home measurement have a neo-angle corner in mind, the kind with a clipped front edge and an angled door. Ella does not make that pan. Every base comes out of a factory mold as a finished acrylic rectangle, and bases with angled or curved edges are not offered, as Does Ella Make a Neo-Angle Shower Pan With a Curb for Corners? explains. So measuring a neo-angle corner for an Ella base means measuring the rectangle that fits inside it:

• Measure along each of the two walls from the corner to the point where the base must stop.
• The custom corner base runs up to 42 by 60 inches, with the threshold on the longer side, so the entry faces out from the long edge of the rectangle.
• Measure the drain from each wall. The 9 inch rule still applies.
• Decide on the edge. A raised threshold of about 3 inches is what most people mean by a curb, and a zero threshold sits flush with the floor.

If the room only works with an angled pan, that is the point at which an Ella base is not the right fit, and Can Ella Make L-Shaped, Neo-Angle, or Other Non-Rectangular Shower Bases? sets out the shapes that are and are not made.

What to Send Before You Order

Send the contractor's figures through ellasbubbles.com/support: the width, the length, the drain distance from each wall, the layout and the entry side, plus a simple drawing showing the walls and where the existing drain is. The team checks the request against the limits above and confirms whether a base can be made to match. That check is about whether the factory can build what you asked for. It is not a guarantee that the figures match your room, which is why the measuring itself belongs to the contractor who will set the base and who can stand in the room with a tape.

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