Walk-in shower in Coral Springs, real tile.

Almost a third of Coral Springs' housing was built in the 1980s and 73 percent between 1970 and 1999 (Census ACS 2024), in a planned city laid out on a former bean farm with a strict code to keep it looking the way its founders wanted. Ramblewood and Maplewood are the 1970s and early-80s originals; Eagle Trace and Wyndham Lakes, listings show, run from the late 1980s through the 90s. The bathroom is usually an original 60-inch tub alcove on a slab, which is exactly what a walk-in wants: the plumber ties a new drain into the tub's line at the end wall for a low-threshold shower, or I recess the slab across the alcove for a linear drain and a true curbless entry. I open the wall rather than cover it, because a 40-year-old alcove has a story behind the tile and I'd rather read it than seal it in.

• Low threshold in the alcove: 2-inch tiled curb, center or end drain, the quickest build.
• Curbless in the alcove: saw-cut and recess the slab, linear drain at the back wall, re-pour, slope, membrane.
• Every pan is flood-tested for 24 hours before tile. Then tile to the ceiling, a bench, a niche, blocking for grab bars, and frameless glass measured after the grout.

The city's own plant pumps 18 wells as deep as 145 feet into the Biscayne Aquifer and lime-softens the water, removing iron and hardness; North Springs Improvement District in the north draws on the Biscayne and Floridan aquifers and added reverse osmosis to its nanofiltration plant in 2023; Coral Springs Improvement District and Royal Waterworks serve other addresses. None publish a hardness number. In practice all four are soft enough that a squeegee keeps frameless glass and a linear drain grate clear, and a ducted exhaust fan handles the humidity that would otherwise feed mildew in the grout.

For the parents, and for the grandparent who may move in, I build every walk-in with blocking behind the tile for grab bars, a bench poured into the pan, a hand-held on a slide bar and floor tile with grip. The city's Owner-Occupied Home Repair Program names bathroom retrofitting and interior mobility improvements as eligible barrier-free work for low- and moderate-income owners, up to $65,000 as a deferred loan forgiven over fifteen years, on homes valued under about $679,000; Broward County's Barrier-Free track adds up to $60,000. The city's number is 954-344-1114, and I write the itemized quote either application needs.