Walk-in shower in Sunrise, house or condo.

About a third of Sunrise homes are in buildings of 20 or more units, and a big share of those are Sunrise Lakes: Phase 1's roughly 1,150 condos from 1971 to 1974 in three- and four-story elevator buildings, Phase 2's 900 homes in 25 buildings from 1974, Phases 3 and 4 with their own recreation districts, all 55-plus and all run by independent associations. In those buildings the floor under your bathroom is the building's structural slab, and I don't cut into it. So a condo walk-in is either a low 2-inch curb with the drain where the tub drain was, or a raised bathroom floor that meets the shower flush. I'll show you both; the raised floor is the true zero entry and it costs more.

• The association's approval, a certificate of insurance, elevator time for the tile delivery, and a riser shut-off coordinated with the building all go on the schedule before day one.
• Shared laundry and elevators in the older phases mean the crew hauls debris by the building's rules and hours, every day.

A third of the city's housing dates from that decade and its median home is from 1983 (Census ACS 2024). A single-family bath here sits on a slab I can recess, which makes a real curbless entry with a linear drain at the back wall a normal job rather than a special one. While the wall is open, the licensed plumber replaces the valve and the supply stubs. The city utility flags 1983 to mid-1988 as the years when copper lines were joined with lead solder across South Florida and runs a free testing program with bill credits, so if your house is from those years, that's the moment to look.

• Curbless on a slab: saw-cut and recess the shower footprint, set the linear drain, re-pour, slope, membrane, flood test, tile.
• Low threshold: a 2-inch curb on the existing slab and a center drain, the quickest build.
• Either way, tile floor to ceiling, a bench, a niche and 3/8-inch frameless glass measured after the tile.

Almost one in five Sunrise residents is 65 or older and the city runs its own Senior Center, so a lot of my Sunrise walk-ins are built for staying put: a threshold you don't lift a foot for, a tiled bench built into the pan, grab bars screwed into real blocking behind the tile, a hand-held on a slide bar and a comfort-height toilet beside it. The water matters a little too. East Sunrise gets lime-softened water from the Springtree plant and the west gets membrane-softened water from Sawgrass; the softer the water, the clearer the glass stays, and a squeegee covers the difference. The city's Owner-Occupied Residential Rehabilitation Program, funded by CDBG and SHIP, is a deferred zero-interest loan for health and safety repairs to income-eligible owners, and the city states cosmetic remodeling is not eligible. If a safety-driven shower fits, I'll write the itemized quote.