The 5 Best Bath Qualities to Look For in ADA Compliant Showers

ADA compliance standards are important for ensuring  reliable and accessible facilities, but the best bath or shower designs do much more than simply meet compliance standards. Look for an ADA compliant shower that also has the following five qualities of the best bath systems:

1. Strength Beyond ADA Requirements

The ADA sets basic load-bearing capacities for ADA compliant shower units and accessories, but these capacities are far more modest than the best bath materials can actually manage.  For instance, ADA compliant shower seats and grab bars are required to safely withstand up to 250 pounds of weight.  

It’s possible to exceed this limit several times over, as our factory and field installed grab bars do at EverFab.  Carlson Testing Inc (CTI) has verified that our accessories support at least double the ADA weight capacities, and in one test our ADA compliant grab bar was able to support up to 1,500 pounds (tests were performed on shower model S3839A and tub-shower model TS6032A). The best bath systems will have the material integrity to reach well beyond ADA strength requirements and provide tremendous durability.

2. A STRONG SHOWER BASE

Cracking in the shower bottom plate remains a common failure point in fiberglass shower stalls. Standards for ADA compliance do not do enough to challenge this reality in the bath and shower industry. EverFab has designed an improved and more robust version of the bottom plate to make our ADA compliant showers stand out from the crowd. 

We laminate the bottom directly onto the unit and construct it from the same reinforced composite material as the rest of the shower (rather than supporting it with foam, PVC, or wooden legs, as many of our competitors do). This makes for the best bath shower pan in the industry, and it does a much better job of preventing breaks, bending, or sagging than simply meeting compliance standards. 

3. A Wheelchair Accessible Threshold

There are some exceptions within the requirements for ADA shower thresholds, so it pays to know what you’re buying if you want to ensure that the shower unit is wheelchair accessible. By ADA standards, shower thresholds shall not be higher than ½  inch and should be beveled, rounded, or vertical in shape. 

However, if a ½ inch threshold would compromise the structural integrity of the floor slab, it’s allowable for the shower to feature a maximum threshold of up to 2 inches and still be ADA compliant. The best bath showers for fully accessible configurations will meet the ½ inch (or lower) standard. 

4. ADA Compliant Grab Bars and Shower Seat

Not all ADA-compatible showers come factory-equipped with ADA compliant accessories. On the other hand, you may be interested in an ADA compliant model but have no interest in pre-installed grab bars or folding shower seats for the initial bathroom configuration.

At EverFab, we all of our shower models are easy to customize with flexible, ADA compliant designs that arrive the way you want and are fully reinforced to be compatible with future ADA compliant accessory installations.  We can pre-install grab bars and seats at the factory, or you can have ADA compliant grab bars or shower seats installed in the field later on, as preferred.

5. No Wood or Cardboard

Even ADA compliant showers are typically wood and cardboard-backed, due to the labor efficiency and low costs of these reinforcing materials. The best bath manufacturers will not rely on materials that swell, distort, or peel—the way that heavy, cheap plywood backing does over time.

EverFab uses a proprietary core material that is 50% lighter than plywood, but sacrifices no strength and actually soaks into the fiberglass resin, improving bonds between the reinforcing layers in the unit’s structure. Our universal 30-year warranty shows how much confidence we have in the products we manufacture. We only use the best bath materials for fiberglass shower stalls in the industry and provide our customers with durability and reliability far beyond ADA compliance standards.

If you want to learn more about our products or have any questions about our ADA compliant shower units, get in touch with one of our experts today!