Hi. If you have an existing drain via your shower, this can be converted to take care of a bath shower combination, even if you also need it to be a wet floor drain. A bath waste is normally a 40mm pipe, so if your existing pipe is a 32, you might need to do some conversion

we have an overhead rain shower and a separate hand shower (with adjustable water flow) one lever with diverter as we didn't want an exposed rail shower.... good quality Methven about $750? installed and we're quite happy with results

I think it depends on whether there is a young family in the home or not. And for resale purposes, it’s not a big deal as the buyer will determine their own personal need/priority accordingly at time of purchase. Stand-alone shower is much better though. The room looks much bigger. The use of tiles is great. And a huge standout for me is that the mirror frame sets off the tiles. It needed that something extra to bring it all together - you’ve hit the mark fabulously. Just needs a plant (real or faux) in there now :)

Jeff Leake - they are used for different purposes, one is to seal awkward gaps and the other is a overall put it on and leave. Silicone is messier and more expensive and to use it the way you suggested would most likely take four times as long to place not including clean up. This in turn bumps the bill up four times. This along with other reasons i.e discolouration, cleaning, longevity, ease of use the cost of silicon vs grout, masking tape is why tilers don't do it this way. The more time they spend on one job means the less jobs they can do in a week which loses profits. Add on to this with the more costs involved upfront for a tiler versus what the client pays (sometimes clients hold out on payment) means they go into debt and cant pay there suppliers and workers. Hopefully this answers your question. Macy-jean - Builders know a bit more than you might think and because a product says it does something does not mean it actually does it well or better than something else. They also know if it can be best used somewhere else with a better result. They always take time if something can cut down on time and money and can outlast another product in durability. 7 year warranty on builds means the less time they have to go back and fix something the more they save. Believe me they are always looking for something that cuts down on costs and time. They are also approached by different companies willing to give out freebies or competitive prices to try there product too and encouraged to endorse and switch other tradies to them also. This could be a longer conversation as there is more that goes into it but the short of it is Time and Costs.