 Though many showers are made from prefabricated modules, a custom shower is built on the spot to whatever specifications you want. It can be a small tile enclosure built into an unusual corner, a conventional tiled shower, or something that’s really unusual, such as a stoned-lined area that’s open to the master bedroom. Basically, a custom shower needs a shower fixture, a drain, and surfaces that can handle the very wet conditions. In most cases, it also includes a curtain or a door.
The typical custom shower starts with a shower pan that serves as a waterproof base with an integral connection to the drain. This can be purchased as a pre-made polymer, poured-masonry, or composite unit to save time and expense, or it can be can be built in place. The latter should be done by a professional tile contractor or waterproofing contractor.  This job requires constructing a completely waterproof, sloped membrane to protect the subfloor from water and serve as a base for tile or the like. It may be made of plywood and multiple layers like hot-mop built-up roofing, or it may consist of a soldered copper pan, built up with a cement mixture and sloped to drain.
A shower's adjoining walls must be waterproof, too. They typically consist of wall studs covered by 15-pound builder’s felt, panels of cement backerboard screwed to the studs, and a final layer of ceramic tile, slate, granite, marble, or solid surface.
Showers can be equipped with such luxuries as seats, multiple spa showerheads that can give full-body massages, or steam-shower generators. Those that serve as steam showers must be specially designed to contain the steam (see Steam Showers).
Though building codes may allow a shower size as small as 32 inches square, allow at least 36 inches in each direction for comfortable movement in the enclosure.
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