A primary part of any free-standing shower is the shower base. In many homes this structure consists of a prefabricated fiberglass pan. This is an inexpensive option, but it limits the owner to several prefabricated sizes. In addition, a fiberglass base isn’t very aesthetically pleasing.

A hand poured based offers the ultimate in flexibility. It can be any size, and you can choose any drain and tile style. This type of base is what I’m choosing for the townhouse that I’m renovating. See the photos below for more information.

Here you can see the open area that we left when we poured the basement concrete floor. It is large enough to allow adjustment of the P-trap to a proper position.
The P-trap is glued in, and the drain is now at the center of the new shower.
Stone backfill is added.
Here Durock (a cement base for tile) is added to the walls and curb; my tile man is pitching the concrete base from the highest point at the shower’s edges to the lowest point at the drain.
The finished shower base. Once cured, the base can be finished with any appropriate tile making it a one-of-a-kind base.