Wet Rooms – The Bathroom of the Future

Posted on April 24, 2010 | Category: Bathroom Trivia

If there is a bathroom renovation in your immediate future, you are in for a few nice surprises. The wet room has been popular in Europe for years. This concept is now making its way across the pond to many satisfied American customers. Standard bathroom appliances – sinks, toilets, and walk in shower enclosures have come a long way since your bathroom was installed. The newest styles and colors and the flexibility of bathroom fixtures are all planned to occupy the space of a bathroom so that the room appears more spacious with the appliances blended in.

Take the shower, for example. In a wet room, the enclosure is eliminated in favor of a dedicated area of the bathroom. There is minimal shielding, which means minimal maintenance (think of cleaning the glass walls of your shower stall with a squeegee; or replacing curtain liners to eliminate mildew; or scrubbing tiles and caulking). Wet rooms are built with the floors waterproofed and sloped to catch water and funnel it to the drain. There is minimal to no structural containment of the shower area. Often fixtures are designed so that two can shower at the same time and still have enough space not to interfere with the other.

The bathroom with an open shower area will have some splashing. Tile walls can handle that. However, some care must be given to placing cabinets or closets containing linens, or toilet tissue dispensers so that they are spared from dampness as a result of steam and splatter.

If the notion of a spacious shower area combined with fewer hard-to-clean, tight surfaces with angles and corners strikes your fancy, here is more good news. Prices are coming down, as are building materials. It will soon be possible to think of such add-on luxuries as skylights, ventilation (this is not designed to be a sauna), and heated floors without spending a fortune.

Wet rooms are the future of bathing. They are popular because of their functionality, but given the times we live in, a special place to start and end your day, and considering that this contemporary addition adds to the value of your home, wouldn’t it be smart to look into it, and search for just the type of wet room that fits your needs and budget?

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