I would do a fiberglass shower base, a good quality Kohler or a National Fiberglass products base. Look at their online catalogs, both of these products are a full color gel coat which means they are buffable and refinishable.
A few years ago I specialized in Roman style lead pan construction. The Romans had perfected bathing tubs and vessels in 200 BC. They had large public saunas in full tile with hot and cold running waters. Many examples of Roman Spas are still in existence today.
OK, so Why the F can't we get a decent product in the year 2011, are we not smarter.
Yes we are but we are cheap as well. The Roman lead pan had some critical materials and techniques that we simply omit because we are cheap. We actually have several systems that while not quite as high quality as the Roman system will endure better than the average junk.
So what is this Roman technique?
The Roman technique starts on a good foundation, a base of high grade volcanic low acid concrete is poured and cured, it is coated in pure wax to water proof it. A series of jute fibre drainage and weapage lines are run so that any moisture will wick it's way out of the sub base. The lead sheet is worked into the space, all acids fluxes etc are carefully neutralized. A second set of wickage ropes of jute are installed to drain water or vapor from this layer. A layer of volcanic mortar base in formed into the space and sculpted to shape, it is also low acid Neutral PH mortar. A tile is mortared into the space and allowed to cure for several days. Grout is added and cured.
Our systems fail primarily due to acidic mortar reaction upon the water proofing layer.
Insufficient drying time between processes.
Poor craftsmanship.
Skipped steps within the system.
Poor material drain choice.
It put a $17,000 lead pan into a spa in a Chicago suburb, my lead work encompassed 9 days of crafting, wicking and testing. The home owners tile man walked into the job site with 20 sheets of durock and began screwing the durock into the lead bitching the entire time the the A hole plumber should have put plywood under the surface because now his screws could not catch.
Under the lead was a properly cured and sealed concrete sub base which he decided tap cons would over come.
Fortunately the GC saw what he had done, stopped him and removed him from the site.
He did around $6,000 in damage in about 5 hours.
They contacted a fountain tiler from Italy, flew him in and together we finished the job, I spent 6 days there rebuilding the sub base and renewing the pans.
The installation is now 20 years old and still looks fantastic.
