Walk-in shower in Plantation, my town.

In Country Club Estates and Plantation Isles, listings show houses from the 1950s and early 60s, and those slabs are thinner and the drain lines older. A zero-entry shower on a slab means one of three things, and I price all three on the first visit.

• Recess: saw-cut the shower footprint, chip the slab down a couple of inches, set the linear drain body in mortar at the back wall and re-pour. The cleanest result, the most labor.
• Raise: build the rest of the bathroom floor up so the shower floor meets it flush. Good when the slab shouldn't be touched or the drain can't move.
• Low threshold: a 2-inch tiled curb on the existing slab. Easy to step over, keeps water in, the most common choice in a Plantation ranch.
• In a pre-1970 house the licensed plumber scopes the drain line before any cutting, because a failing line found after tile is the expensive version.

Plex interiors are covered by HO-6 insurance with the association named as an additional interest, and nobody is allowed on a plex roof, so I route the fan duct accordingly. For the people who live there, the shower itself is simple: tub out, zero or low threshold in, a bench, grab bars set in real blocking behind the tile, a hand-held on a slide bar, and tile with some grip underfoot.

• Grab-bar blocking goes in on every walk-in I build, whether or not the bars go on now. It costs almost nothing while the wall is open and a lot later.
• The bench is tiled and built into the pan, not a bolted-on seat, and I set its height with you standing in the room.
• Plantation's Minor Home Repair program funds barrier-free installations for income-qualified owner-occupants, condos for interior work only. It is not for cosmetic remodeling. If that may be you, call 954-414-7871 and I'll write the itemized quote.

Plantation's water comes from 16 city wells about 110 feet into the Biscayne Aquifer and is softened by nanofiltration membranes that reject most of the calcium and magnesium, a process the city has used since the 1990s. That's why a frameless 3/8-inch panel stays clear here with little more than a squeegee. The city's own water report also explains the pink film some people see on shower tile and stalls: a bacterium that likes a damp room, not a plumbing problem. A ducted exhaust fan sized for the bathroom is on every quote, and a chlorine-based cleaner handles the rest. Glass is measured after the tile is grouted and hung about a week later, so its line on the quote is a measurement, not a guess.