How to Design an Angled Attic Shower

Size and Placement

• Even in unusual spaces like attics, bathrooms must conform to specific building codes. Whenever possible, the space should also conform to recommendations set by the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association for the comfort of the bathroom's users. To pass code, make sure your new bathroom shower is a minimum of 30 inches square, into which a 30-inch-diameter circle could be placed. The NKBA recommends that your shower be a minimum of 36 inches square. If one wall of the shower is angled or sloped in any way, this definition changes to mean a minimum of 30 or 36 inches of standing room where the user will not encounter any walls. To ensure your new shower passes code, make the ceiling size -- not the floor -- a minimum of 30 inches square.

Height

• Sloping walls in a shower directly impact the overall height of your shower, the height of your shower surround and potentially the height of your shower head. To pass code, bathroom ceilings must be a minimum of 80 inches off the finished floor in front of any fixture. For a shower, this means the height of the shower must be 80 inches in the area where you stand -- in front of the shower head. The shower head itself must be installed between 66 and 81 inches off the finished floor, while the shower surround must come to a height of 72 inches off the finished floor. If your shower wall angles in to less than this height, enlarge the width of the shower accordingly, and plan to tile the sloped or slanted wall to the ceiling.

Tile

• Plan to tile your new attic shower stall from floor to ceiling. While many shower surrounds stop at the 72-inch height, attic showers with a sloping wall need additional protection. Unless your sloping wall is sufficiently far away from the water to avoid the spray, or the ceiling of the shower is above 80 inches, plan to install tile across the ceiling itself, as well as on the entire sloped wall.

Style

• Your new attic shower should match the rest of the bathroom design in color and style. Because attic bathrooms are often small by necessity, consider running the tile from the shower walls right around the rest of the bathroom. This will help to make the bathroom appear larger than it actually is. If possible, extend the flooring from the shower through the rest of the bathroom as well, and install a glass shower door or splash guard in the shower to create the appearance of an unbroken line in the space. To keep the shower stall from appearing too dark, consider installing glass tiles on the sloping wall to help reflect light. Otherwise, use light, cool colors whenever possible in the space.