Can shower pans be cut to size or ordered custom?

Ella's Bubbles shower pans are built to size at the factory, so the answer to an odd space is a custom order rather than a saw. When none of the three standard sizes fits, Ella makes a rectangular acrylic base to your length and width, up to 44 inches wide by 80 inches long, with a left, right or center drain. Who Makes Custom Shower Pans and Bases for Accessible Showers? covers who builds these bases and how they are sold. This page focuses on cutting versus ordering, the biggest pan you can buy, and where to get one for a bathroom remodel.

Why the Pan Is Ordered to Size Instead of Cut

An Ella shower base, standard or custom, is finished acrylic. It is ready to use once it is installed, it does not need to be tiled over, and your contractor's part of the job is to set the base, connect the drain and finish the walls around it. The length, the width and the drain position are all fixed when the pan is made, which is why Ella's route to a fit is a base made to your dimensions. A custom base exists precisely for the space a standard size will not fit. Requests the team has handled include pans shorter than 60 inches, pans longer and wider than the standard sizes, and other footprints with a center drain. A 58 by 30 inch base with a center drain has been produced, and a 38 by 80 inch base with a left drain sits comfortably within the limits.

The Ella shower component that is trimmed on site is the wall surround, not the pan. Ella's cultured marble travertine wall panels have factory finished edges for seamless joining, and those edges can be trimmed and cut for a custom fit. The wall surround video on this page shows the multi-piece panels, which can be carried and installed by one person and glued over drywall, plaster, painted walls, cement board or even existing tile. Ella's acrylic wall panels come 98 inches high in a plain white finish. The practical rule for a remodel is simple: measure the finished opening, not the framing, order the pan in that size, and let any on-site fitting happen in the walls above the pan.

Standard Sizes, Custom Limits and the Biggest Pan

What the table means for your bathroom: all three standard pans share the 60 inch length, so the width of your alcove usually decides which one fits, and anything that is not 60 inches long is a custom request. The largest pan Ella makes is the 44 by 80 inch custom rectangle, with the threshold on the longer side, and corner bases top out at 42 by 60 inches. A request larger than the maximum, such as 53 by 76 inches, cannot be produced. The cultured marble bases in the second video are a different construction: molded solid cultured marble with a glossy gel coat finish and an ADA compliant slip resistant textured floor, heavy enough that they need at least two people to install. The sizes and limits for a custom pan are laid out in What Is the Largest Custom Shower Base Ella's Bubbles Can Make?.

Limits Every Custom Order Has to Respect

• Only rectangular sizes are made. Bases with angled or curved edges are not offered, so a neo-angle corner or a curved front is not a fit for an Ella base. The layouts a custom rectangle can and cannot solve are walked through in Who makes custom shower pans for odd bathroom layouts?.
• The drain can be placed left, right or center, but it must sit at least 9 inches from each wall. A drain only 7 inches from the threshold edge is not possible, even on a custom base.
• Custom bases are made for three-wall alcoves and for corner installations, and the team asks which layout you have so the drain and edges are placed correctly.
• A custom base typically has a threshold of about 3 inches. For a barrier free entry, zero threshold bases sit flush with the surrounding floor instead.
• Roll-in and barrier-free bases ship with a self-adhesive collapsible rubber dam that keeps water in while a wheelchair rolls over it.

Where to Buy a Shower Base for a Bathroom Remodel

Ella shower bases, wall systems and accessories are sold through your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850. Shower products are sold per item rather than as a bundle, so a complete shower is put together from the base in your size and drain position, a wall system sized to the base, and accessories such as grab bars or a shower door. What ships with the roll-in base and what is separate is listed in Wheelchair Accessible Shower Base Sizes, Drain Positions, and What Is Sold Separately.

For a custom size, open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support with a simple drawing of the space showing the walls, the size you want and where the existing drain is, and note whether the installation is on a concrete slab with no access from below. The team confirms whether a base can be made to match and what drain hardware ships with it. Custom sizes have not always been offered, and the maximum size has been corrected in the past, so confirm the current limits with the team before your contractor cuts the floor. Contractors and remodelers who expect to buy regularly can apply for the dealer program. The whole range from smallest to largest is summarized in What sizes do shower pans come in, from smallest to largest?.

Watch: Cultured Marble Reversible Shower Base with Low Threshold for Safer Bathing | Ella’s Bubbles with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Custom-Size Shower Bases: Size Ranges, Threshold Options, Drain Placement Rules, Construction, and How to Request One
• How Do I Measure for a New or Replacement Shower Pan or Base?
• What the Ella Acrylic Shower Base Is Made Of and How It Is Installed

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