Walk-in shower in Pompano Beach, low curb.

The 1950s turned farmland into subdivisions here; Harbor Village's canal homes along the Intracoastal date, by the listings, to 1959 and 1962; Leisureville's 928 residences went up from 1968 to 1970; Palm Aire's condo buildings date to 1967 through 1972. The bathroom in those homes is usually an original, and the Census data points to the era's norms: a heavy cast-iron tub, 4-by-4 tile, and a drain line in whatever the builder used that year. Pulling the tub is the first morning. Scoping that drain is the second.

• Low threshold is the Pompano default: a 2-inch tiled curb on the original slab with the drain at the tub's end wall, no concrete cut, the quickest build.
• Curbless in a house: recess the slab for a linear drain at the back wall. In a 1960s slab I check thickness before promising it.
• Both get the same pan: sloped mortar on cement board, sheet membrane up the walls and over the drain flange, a 24-hour flood test, then tile floor to ceiling and glass measured after the grout.

So the licensed plumber sets the drain body and the rough is called, the framing is checked before cement board closes it, the top out follows the valve, and the finals come after the glass. The checklist asks the plans to show the full scope of the plumbing alterations and every fixture scheduled for replacement, so the spec sheets go in with the drawings.

A tower bathroom sits on the building's deck, which is never cut, so curbless means a raised bathroom floor or a low curb.

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Broward's Aging and Disability Resource Center lists a free short-term home-modification program for seniors, grab bars, shower seats and raised toilet seats up to $6,000, with the flyer hosted on the city's own housing site. Broward County's Barrier-Free track goes further, bathroom retrofits and doorway widening up to $60,000 as a forgivable loan. For the shower itself: blocking behind the tile where the bars go, a fold-down or built-in seat, a hand-held on a slide bar, and the city's water, published at 1 to 2 grains of hardness, among the softest in Broward, which keeps the glass and the drain grate clean with a squeegee.