A Complete Guide To Walk-in Showers

Do you ever feel stressed when walking into your bathroom? Space planning inside your bathroom must be handled carefully to allow that lighter feeling to breeze through the room each time you walk in. A bathroom is supposed to be the place where one gets in to refresh after a long day and get exactly that.

In today’s world, walk-in showers are becoming a popular home improvement feature. Gone are the days when you had to open and close a couple of doors before finally having access to your shower. Walk-in showers are built to give your bathroom a great visual and can maximize your space by making it feel light and larger. To do this properly, you need to hire an experienced fitter. Some people will insist on DIY services, which will be OK only if you know exactly what you are doing and get the best DIY supplies for the job. You might also want to make sure that you have something like these shower filters for hard water, as these can really help you with your showering experience.

Walk-in shower good for you?

1. It requires minimum maintenance.

Walk-in showers are built to allow maximum use of space, which means fewer items to maintain and replace in the future. The usage of tiles for the finishing allows you the freedom to choose from bright colors to dull ones, which can still give your room a unique feel but drastically reduce maintenance costs. Bright colors show worn-out signs faster than dull ones.

2. No doors or curbs

The absence of the door comes with three advantages. It saves you money from buying the extra glass, it reduces more cleaning work from the absent extra glass portion, and these shower glass panels give you easy access to the shower. Couples could have a nice chat whilst one is in the tub without having to shout at the top of their voices to break through the glass walls. Curbs are also a thing of the past. No more borders between your shower and the rest of your bathroom. A linear drainage system also helps in providing easy access to the water that needs to be flashed out of the entire walk-in shower or your wet room. Linear shower drain reviews can provide even more info.

3. Freedom to make your bathroom look beautiful

A walk-in shower allows you to have a giant bathroom where at a single glance, you are able to see the whole room, including the shower space, toilet seat, and tub. This offers an opportunity to unify the whole room with a beautiful blend of colors. It is a good thing that you can also see the walls in the shower through the glass walls of the walk-in shower.

4. Easy to clean

Walk-in showers are easy to clean. The absent door reduces cleaning space and allows for fresh air to breeze through the shower all the time, eliminating long wet spells which attract stains and dirt spots. However, the glass walls can be a nightmare to clean out all the stains. It is always wise to apply a special coating to the glass walls and reduce stains and thus minimizing the cleaning effort that might be required with no coat on the glass.

5. Freedom to choose your preferred design

With walk-in showers, you can choose to use the wet room-style shower or the common walk-in shower. More so, with the common walk-in shower, you have the freedom to choose between the level entry design and no or low-level entry designs. This should entirely be based on your taste, but it is also good to consider how you would want your glass walls to the shower to be installed before deciding on the entry design.

How does a Wet Room differ from a Walk-in shower?

Builders install a walk-in shower in the same room as the bathroom and on the shower cubicle, whereas a wet room is an open shower area set behind a standing wall. Both the wet room and a walk-in shower have a separate drying area which allows you to comfortably dry yourself without having to step out of the shower, wetting the whole floor area on your way to the towels! We would recommend having a look at the Ynet Centre to get some more inspiration and help to decide the right shower for you.

The mention of the wet room brings into mind how important it is to consider proper waterproofing and drainage system when putting in place and shower area.

Waterproofing

Waterproofing ensures that no water drops filter through into unwanted areas, such as the inner walls and the underneath of the floor itself. This is a very important aspect when putting in place a wet room or walk-in shower. It is important for installation to be done by a professional because if it is not done properly and there is poor waterproofing, the part of the house where the shower is could be damaged, hence affecting the entire house structure. More so, when making the shower space, try to use the overhead shower head to minimize splashing. This will ensure prolonged use of your shower without having to repair most parts of the wall and floor for waterproofing.

To ensure tight waterproofing in your walk-in shower, ensure that the joints between the tiles do not leak by rightfully applying proper adhesives when joining the tiles. Follow proper guidelines as well during construction, for example, allowing adhesives to dry within the stipulated time. When installing a wet room shower, you must ensure that the surface is flat and that you seal the joints between the floor and the walls with the correct adhesives… Always apply two layers of special floor cement to the floor before finishing off with the tiles; this eliminates the risk of water leaking through to the floor.

Drainage system

When installing a wet room shower, you should centralize the drain on the floor to prevent waterlogging. Waterlogging is dangerous to the health of the user and the shower room itself as this attracts disease-causing germs and weakens the structure of the floor tiles. When making your walk-in shower or wet room, make sure to follow proper drainage guidelines and leave no room for back-flow, which could result in the ruining of the whole building structure.

Always make sure to use slippery tiles on the floor because they are efficient in allowing the water to run smoothly down the drainage hole. You must always keep the bathroom dry, clean, and free of disease.

Remember,…..

You might also want to keep your drainage system stylish by applying Designer Drains using stainless steel matched to your wall and tiles. Also, make sure your shower drain has filters to avoid hair and other blocking substances from causing water logging.