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Tiling in Shower Recesses

The minimum standard required for wet areas in residential buildings is contained in the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and AS3740 – Waterproofing of wet areas in residential buildings. This includes tiling and gradients of bathroom floors including shower recesses.

The recommended ratio of fall within showers is between 1:60 and 1:80. However, the ratios may not be achieved due to:

(a) The size of the tiles used – falls become more difficult to achieve with larger tiles.

(b) The area of the flool to be drained.

In these cases, the effectiveness of the floor drainage should be measured by the performance of the floor. If water does not remain on the finished floor in a manner that can adversely affect the health or amenity of the building occupants or deteriorate building elements it may be deemed adequate.

Discuss your concerns with your builder with these factors in mind.

14 responses to “Shower Floors – Slope”

  1. Hammersley says:
    January 28, 2016 at 9:01 am

    Please can you let us know if shower floors have spaces where water can get trapped under the tiles?

    we are wondering this based on my husbands idea that there may be a space under the tiles for some design reason.

  2. Chris Greenall says:
    May 3, 2016 at 4:08 pm

    Hi I have a question…we have just had a bathroom reno completed _ open shower, walk in with no hob and small floor waste which the waste water fails to completely empty and flows to door and vanity areas – which we thought would remain dry. Waste water eventually drains away. The only way we have found to avoid this is to roll up a towel to dam the water from its course. Other than redoing this job and fitting a 600 to 800mm floor grate waste insitu. Any other options/suggestions out there please?

  3. Peter O'Dea says:
    May 12, 2016 at 10:40 am

    I suggest the updating the AS reference and gradients to reflect the current AS3740-2010

    AS3740-2004 includes the gradients range however AS3740-2010 only references a requirement for a minimum fall of 1:80 for showers

    • mbawa says:
      May 30, 2016 at 11:39 am

      Hi Peter,

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our Technical Advisor is reviewing the information.

      Kind regards,
      Master Builders

  4. SamBelle says:
    June 12, 2016 at 11:07 am

    We have a walk in shower no hob 1m wide by 1.5m in depth. We had it tiled and when we’ve tested the shower on minimal flow the water fills up and flows out onto the bathroom floor without most going down the shower drain. It also pools terribly in one corner. The overflowing water heads out towards the bathroom door on the other side of the room and some goes down the floor drain. The tiler at no point told us there was any issues. I’m concerned if we had a full length shower the water will flow out the bathroom into our laundry!! Is the tiler at fault or us? We told exactly what we wanted and we haven’t got anything near it??

  5. Jeremy Summers says:
    July 12, 2016 at 8:43 am

    Hi. We have a shower in newly completed house that does not drain. The fall to the drain appears minimal and the shower drain itself sits slightly proud of the floor. Water sits for over 24 hrs or longer until it eventually evaporates. During our recent 6 month post completion maintenance inspection the builder stated that, as the shower was not leaking, they would not fix the fall or drain. Is this legitimate?

  6. Lauren Thompson says:
    August 23, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    The water puddles in the bottom of our shower and does not flow towards the drain. The only way to get rid of the water from the bottom of the shower is to manually dry it, otherwise it will sit there dripping slowly for days. Our home is only 2 ys old. How do we measure the slant ratio to determine if it is within regulated parameters? Also, is this something we should bring up with our builder?

  7. Kim says:
    November 28, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Mid bathroom Reno and not happy with shower grading towards grate. It seems very minimal now tikes have been layed. We have install 800mm grate. Width 900mm length 1200mm walk in no hob. How should we approach this with builder? It seems that he has to pull it up and make it deeper! Eek