Tell me about wet rooms/walk in shower

[middleagedspread]

Big renovation.
Thinking about family bathroom.
DH thinks wet room area is the way forward. Out current shower is one of those curved ones, tricky to clean where the glass overlaps IYKWIM.
I do think wet rooms look great but ££ to tank, tricky to clean & doesn't water get everywhere?
I'm thinking of a large walk in shower with a single glass screen & a floor level tray.
If you have any pros & cons I'd love to hear.
thanks

[AmandaPayntedEgg]

I think wet rooms are a fad, best suited to tiny areas that otherwise cannot fit a shower. I have heard terrible stories of leaks.

I had one in an old rented flat and water puddled in annoying patches. Plus you got wet feet every time you went to the loo until about 4pm, resulting in muddy footprints if you didn't take off your shoes and socks.

[Gigondas]

We have a walk in shower at one of end of bath room- it's great , easy to clean and can get kids in with you if necessary.

We also have heated floor so when done, wipe down excess water and let floor dry it out.

It is also set off at one end of bathroom so you don't have to walk past wet area to get to toilet etc so don't have a problem getting wet.

[middleagedspread]

Thanks for the responses.
APE, thats rather what I thought. We're not a careful family & DSs would never dry their feet before leaving the room.
Gigondas, that sounds more what I'm thinking of. Do you have a low level shower tray?

[Gigondas]

Sort of- the floor at that end is tiled over a sloping tray down to a drain so water naturally drains back.

[middleagedspread]

Great thanks, I'll do a google search.

[noddyholder]

I have used a tileable tray which gives the look

[Kiriwawa]

My wet room also has underfloor heating and we have a giant squeegee to do the floor afterwards.

It dries pretty quickly.

There's no screen or floor level tray, the floor just slopes down around the drain.

I use limescale prevention spray and anti-mould spray on it (from lakeland) - we have very hard water and it's really easy to clean.

[middleagedspread]

Thanks very much. Underfloor heating is not an option, sadly.
I tileable tray sounds promising.

[Gigondas]

Underfloor heating is brill but not essential- I spend most of my life turning it back on again after dd2 (14months) has turned it down. It just makes it quicker to dry.

Also as shower is in effect just open version of previous one with a screen it makes the Bathroom look loads bigger/

[middleagedspread]

Silly question, where do you put the towels?
I presume a heated towel rail by the opening would get wet.
All the pics I've been goggling don't have towels!

[fussychica]

We have a large walk in shower - 1600 tray, 1000 screen. It's great, the tray is very low level and the glass just needs squeegeeing after a shower and you're done.
We had the same in our last house. Looks good too and makes the room look spacious and no leak worries.
We have a hook for towels on the back of the door just next to the end of the tray though I bung mine on the shower mat.

[middleagedspread]

Sounds great. Is it a flat screen or curved?
I'm struggling to understand how the water doesn't go everywhere. But I suppose with a 1600 it's big enough to contain it all.

[Happiestinwellybobs]

We have a large walk in shower. Tiled floor that slopes down to drain so no tray involved. We squeegee the shower screen and floor after and also have underfloor heating - although not on all the time. Towel rail is on all at open end of shower and doesn't get wet. The screen is a tall flat screen.

Great for us as I can bath DD while DH has a shower.

[middleagedspread]

This is so useful, thank you.
Am I right in thinking that if you have a tiled over sloping tray you do away with the need to tank everything?

[DeepRedBetty]

Just to say thanks for saving me the bother of starting this as sorting out the other bathroom is my current wish-list project!

[middleagedspread]

Hah, it's a mine field isn't it. Thank goodness for MN

[xlatia]

we have a ginormous walk in shower - i hate it. splashes everywhere even though the screen is equally ginormous. a bitch to clean too, takes bloody ages.

[JuliaScurr]

must have sloping floor to drain water away or it WILL leak out under door
check and check again before builders leave

[haggisaggis]

WE have just had our (large) en-suite done and it now has a "wet room" type shower (as well as a corner Jacuzzi bath..another mumsnet pet hate)! Anyway - originally the shower was to be a proper wet room - so you would walk in the door and room would be tiled with shower in back corner (and screen separating shower from bath). However the plumber discovered it was not possible to sink the shower drain to make the floor flush - so we now have a platform for the shower - and it's fab!. The shower area is tiled in such a way to allow the water to drain - and water never reaches the end of the platform so no chance of wet feet if you go to use the loo. The heated towel rail is on the wall beside the door - which is also where the bath mat goes. So you step off shower platform, stand on bathmat and grab towel. No wet feet. I really love it!

[haggisaggis]

Yes - should have added - we asked for a wet room expecting the plumber to need to tank whole room. However what they have instead is a shallow, sloping tray that they then tile on top of. Tray can be quite large to stop leaks.

[middleagedspread]

Sounds gorgeous, any chance of a website link?
I secretly fancy a jacuzzi bath too!

[Growlithe]

We have a wetroom type shower. Ours has a great big tileable tray. The fitters put this down first then tanked it and the surrounding floor with three coats of waterproof membrane.

They then used mosaic floor tiles in the shower area, creating a drop to the drain of the tray. We have a big shower screen and a heated towel rail close to the opening and this doesn't get wet.

The only bit of the floor which does get a bit wet is just by the opening, and we solve this by using hotel style bath mats.

The whole thing is mopped out really easily. The only thing I hate cleaning is the shower screen, but you have these to clean no matter what shower style you have. That daily shower spray stuff is quite good I find.

I love ours because its a lovely large shower and is a touch of luxury in the morning.

[haggisaggis]

Sorry - don't have any photos. the bath is a Bronte one if you want to google. The bathroom looks huge now - it was worth doing. (Took ages though). Note - we saved a bit of space by going for a smaller sink. We worked out that we only use a sink for handwashing / teeth cleaning - so don't need a massive deep sink. That way we have more floor room in front of the sink at end of the bath. Still have units round the sink though - being able to hide my makeup in a drawer is great.

[SellingInMyBlood]

The term, "walk-in shower", has always amused me - I know of no other efficient and effective way of entering into a shower other than walking in, no matter what type of shower it is.

I just get this vision of the latest bathroom design idea being a "shuffle-in-on your-arse shower".