So you've just remodeled your bathroom and you need to add the finishing touches to the perfect, well-coordinated standard shower curtain sizes!
Even without a renovation, your old shower curtains might just need a simple replacement. What are the standard shower curtain sizes to fit the standard tub or freestanding shower enclosure?
What is the standard shower curtain size?
To start, let's go with the standard tub and shower stall sizes. A typical tub is 60 inches (five feet) wall-to-wall. There are other non-typical sizes, however, once you know the formula, the actual size of the wall-to-wall tub will not matter.
A typical freestanding shower stall will be about 50 inches to about 54 inches wide and about 78 inches high, so now we'll look at standard shower curtain sizes based on these numbers.
Standard shower curtains for bathtubs
The basic idea is to have a shower curtain about 10 to 12 inches wider than your tub.
This allows for a nice collapsible look with not too many wrinkles and allows the curtain to expand when closed taking care of any splashes of water during the well deserved shower "meant to relax and clean up".
Also, you don't want the shower to be much wider than the tub by more than 12 inches, because the extra creases are breeding grounds over time for retained moisture and mold buildup. We'll so we stick to the standard goal of no more than 12 inches longer than the width of the tub.
If you are unsure of the width of your tub, simply measure the length of the curtain rod or wall to wall and add 10 to 12 inches to the measurement.
Here are the standard shower curtain sizes:
70 x 70 inches70 x 72 inches72 x 72 inchesFor tub width, any of these curtains will work just fine. We suggest the widest at 72 inches just to keep water in the tub area during your "wow, that's so relaxing" shower .
How about height? Well, that's a great question and we're glad you asked it.
Now, when it comes to the height of the shower curtains, the main objective is not to let the shower curtains drag on the floor and roll up in the bathtub.
This would create another place for moisture and mold to grow.
They can also just get in the way of the shower, causing a trip and maybe even dislodging the whole curtain and rod. This is not good and can spoil the mood of a relaxing shower.
So a typical bathtub is about 12-14 inches deep on the inside, so a good rule of thumb would be to have the curtains about 10 inches from the bottom of the tub. So how do you do that?
Well, remember that standard shower curtain sizes listed above?
Height is 70 to 72 inches. It's 6 feet tall. So this discussion is for standard human sizes. If you happen to be part of the "grown up" species and not an alien in disguise, you you may need to specially order your shower curtains to fit your superhuman height.
So, for the vast majority of mankind, the height of the curtain rod should be around 75 inches from the floor. It's not rocket science here and there's no need to argue this point. Simply install your curtain rods at about 75 to 78 inches from the floor. This will put your shower curtains inside the tub but above the bottom of the tub.
The width formula for standard shower curtains is therefore:
The width of the shower + 12 inches = width of the shower curtain.The height formula for the installation location of the curtain rod is:
The height of the shower curtain + 2 inches (if using hooks) + 5 to 10 inches = placement of the shower rod from the floor.Well, that should do it for standard shower curtains for bathtubs.
Standard shower curtains for a freestanding shower enclosure
What about the shower cubicle? We all know that the depth of the shower cubicle is less than the 12 inches of a bathtub.
Some have a very low height just enough to catch water and keep it in the shower enclosure. In addition, shower enclosures are available in different length/width combinations.
If you want to know the standard dimensions of the shower enclosures, they are as follows:
There are shower stalls as long as 60 inches because they replaced the area where a bathtub was once built or by design on a new home.
So basically one would like to have the shower curtain about 10-12 inches wider than the shower base again.
So for a 50-54 inch shower stall base, the shower curtains would be about 60-66 inches wide.
The height of the shower rod should be such that the shower curtain is 2 inches above the floor.
This will give you just enough room for the curtain to not drag on the shower stall floor while still keeping water inside the shower stall while showering. So here are the simple formulas for stalls shower curtains.
The shower curtain installed in a shower enclosure has a width of:
Shower enclosure width + 10 to 12 inches = shower curtain width.The height of the shower curtain enclosure rod is:
Shower curtain height + 2 inches + (2 inches if using hooks) = Shower curtain rod heightSo now that you know the basic ideas and formulas for installing shower curtains in your tub or shower stalls or both if you have them, all you need to do is measure as shown here.
Don't make it more complicated than it is.
If you are using the type of rod that requires the rod to be screwed into place on the walls, rod placement measurements are critical. If you make a mistake, then of course you must move the rod to the correct location and fix it. the holes you got wrong.
Repairing holes in ceramic tile or fiberglass material or even drywall requires additional instructions that are beyond the scope of this article.
So maybe a better bet would be to buy the self-tightening telescopic rod which is easy to move around and can support shower curtains.
There are many beautiful self-closing shower curtain rods that will accentuate your choice of beautiful shower curtains.
Here is a video with some more tips and tricks for choosing the right shower curtain. Hope this helps you a lot too.
What about shower curtain weights
So to do the job well you will need to add weights to keep the shower curtains straight and to overcome the Bernoulli effect.
It's that annoying little problem of the shower curtain sticking to you when you shower.
The reason this happens in the context of shower curtains is that fast moving water lowers the surrounding air pressure in the enclosed shower area due to the shower curtains encompassing that area.
However, the air pressure in the rest of the bathroom is constant. The result of reduced air pressure in the shower area causes the shower curtains to fold towards the person taking the shower and the they stick to his body.
So how do you solve this annoying little problem? Of course, the changing atmospheric pressure of flowing water is physical and cannot be changed.
But applying another force to the shower curtain can be a valid solution. This solution would be more mass at the bottom of the shower curtain known as weight.
Some curtains already come with weights as part of the shower curtain. Additionally, you can also purchase spare weights used for shower curtains that you tie at the bottom.
Another idea is to use a curved shower rod which will technically increase the space in the shower area and reduce the space in the bathroom area, relative to the change in pressure of flowing water.
This idea will minimize the time the shower curtain sticks to you.
Another idea would be to simply have a shower curtain made of a heavier material. So going cheap when it comes to shower curtains and shower liners isn't always the best bet.
Taking the time to get a good quality shower liner along with a nice shower curtain, properly weighted will help combat the Bernoulli Effect as noted above.
These are just a few of the ideas to help you enjoy your bathroom, your shower and your showering experience.
As with most things in life, it's paying attention to the little things that make a big difference to enjoying a better quality of life.
We hope this article has been of great help to you in understanding and knowing the correct way to install shower curtain rods in your bathroom.
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