What shower curtain do you need for a walk-in shower?

The sizes, and which one your shower needs

Measure two things before you buy. Rail height to the floor, then subtract about 2 inches so the hem does not sit in the standing water — that is your curtain length. And the full width of the opening, then add 12 inches minimum, so the curtain gathers and still overlaps each edge by half a foot.

In a walk-in you want a liner, not a decorative curtain

A tub shower can run a fabric curtain on the outside and a liner on the inside, because the tub catches anything that gets past them. A walk-in has no catchment, so the waterproof layer has to do the whole job, and hanging a fabric curtain over it mostly adds a thing that stays wet.

Buy a heavyweight PEVA or EVA liner with magnets or weights in the hem, in the correct stall size, and skip the decorative outer curtain entirely. If you want the look, hang the fabric curtain outside on a second rail and keep it clear of the water. The material argument in full is in fabric versus plastic shower curtain liners.

Weighted hems are not optional here. In a tub, a curtain blowing inward is annoying. In a walk-in, a curtain that lifts off the floor lets water out onto a tiled bathroom floor, and that is the leak everyone blames on the curtain being too small when it is actually the hem being too light.

Rails, and the renter-safe options

A tub alcove gives you two walls to put a tension rod between. A walk-in often does not, which is where this gets awkward in a rental.

• Two facing walls, 60 in or less apart — a tension rod works, and it is the only option here that needs no drilling at all. Buy one rated well above the span you need; tension rods fail by slipping, and they slip when they are at the end of their range.
• One wall and an open side — you need a fixed rail, and that means anchors in tile or drywall. In a rental, ask first. A ceiling-mounted rail is often the only place there is anything solid to fix to.
• An L-shaped or corner walk-in — a curved or L-shaped rail plus one extra-wide curtain. Two overlapping curtains at the corner leak at exactly the corner.
• A curbless wet room — a floor-length liner and a squeegee, and accept that some water reaches the floor by design.

If drilling is not allowed and there is no tension-rod span, a freestanding shower screen or a long adhesive-mounted rail are the only remaining options, and neither is reliable enough that we would recommend it over asking the landlord. More renter-safe approaches in renter-safe bathroom upgrades with no drilling.

Four mistakes that cause a wet floor

1. Using a 72-inch-long curtain. It is sized for a tub rim. In a walk-in it ends six to twelve inches above the floor and water runs straight out of the gap.
2. Buying the exact width of the opening. A curtain gathers. You need at least a foot more width than the gap, or it pulls taut and the edges lift.
3. A liner with no weights. Warm air rising inside the shower pulls the curtain in and up. Magnets or a weighted hem hold the bottom edge down and against the tile.
4. Tucking the liner outside the shower. The liner goes inside, every time, with the hem resting against the tile. If it is outside, it is a funnel pointed at your bathroom floor.