Here are 13 decisions you have to make, just to design your shower:
- LOCATION
- WINDOW
- WATER PRESSURE
- WATER HEATER
- SIZE
- FLOORS
- WALLS
- ENTRANCE (stepless, door, no door)
- BENCH
- NICHE
- GRAP BARS, HOOKS, TOWEL RACKS
- ELECTRIAL – FANS, LIGHTS, SWITCHES
Not easy.. Each decision is made with some degree of conflict and compromise.
So take your time, do your best.
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2. WINDOW IN SHOWER
Here is a simple shower, with 2 windows that open with a view, rectified tiles, linear drain and a rain shower above. The fresh air and a view is everything!
A bathroom is utilitarian, structural area, not soft, or shadowy.
Its glory comes from natural light, cleanliness, fresh air from windows that open.
To convince yourself of this, look at these houses, built without natural light.
There is an institutional look… no matter how much money you put into tile, and fixtures.
What do these bad houses look line from outside?
See the blank windowless walls on the side?
This is where the showers are!!!
This is an insane waste of a valuable corner with potential light on 2 sides!
3. WATER PRESSURE
Here is a great article to get you started….
You don’t think about this till it is too late.
So, I am telling you now.
The water pressure near the street, is stronger than it is 100 feet down the hall, and up 2 flights of stairs…
By the time ¼ “ PEX tub is threaded thru the house that far, the flow becomes limp, weak, sad.
Discuss seriously with your plumber on how to split off the fat pipes from the street, so they remain a large diameter to the upper farthest reaches of your house…then split down to the smaller diameter PEX tubing.
The house will be nearly finished when you turn on your faucet for the first time… and be so disappointed…it will destroy you!
The walls painted, the trim done… the pipes cannot be changed at this point… Done is done. Regrets begin.
This plumbing will not change for generations… IT MATTERS… so really work on it!!!
4. HOT WATER HEATER
Every time you need warm/hot water.. you drain all the pipes, till it gets there… such a waste!
So, locate your hot water heater as near to your demand location.
This might mean putting in 2 or 3 hot water tanks, whatever it takes…
You need at least 1 hot water heater per 2,000sf.
Just do NOT put them side by side, far down in the basement somewhere…
That is both lazy, and thoughtless, and a terrific waste of water for the next 30 years.
5. SIZE
OK… in a fake world you would have a massive shower 12’ by 6’ for huge groups of people to flounder around…
If shower too big, you cannot reach the grab bars…. walls too far away…one slip, and you are down.
Finally, a large room stays cold too long.
The length would be long enough to put a stack of towels on the bench and not get wet, and on the other end, a place to stand IN the shower, and stay dry, waiting for the water to warm up.
This is about 9 feet long and 4.5 to 5 feet wide is tight enough to reach grab bars if you slip, or get disoriented with soap in your eyes… 🙂
PS The window in your shower, will make a small shower feel large.
PPS Also, the bigger the shower, the more expensive the tile gets…and the tile guy will just get worn out… it can take him a week or two for a job this big…..he will get worn down and depressed.
6. Floor
THIS IS NOT GOOD…
Shower floor: The easiest thing to do is get penny tile, with lots of grout lines, and the drain in the center of the floor. Easy is cheaper too…but is that what you want?
90% showers funnel water down toward a center drain.
BUT THIS IS WHERE YOU STAND!!!
Penny tile is used, because it is easy to drape over the concentric curves to the low part,…see?
Solution: RECTIFIED TILE…the tile is so perfectly made, the grout lines are 1/32 inch wide…When the tile is on the walls, it looks like one piece…each tile is huge…usually 12”x24” or 24×24”
Rectified tile is expensive, but a small area like a bathroom, makes it more affordable.
Here are a couple of articles.
The ideal shower has
- a linear drain,
- stepless entrance,
- room on one side of shower for dry towels, and
- room on the other side of shower for you to stand while water warms up.
- a window!
7. walls
All glass? or Tile?
The cheapest, fastest is all glass.. What do you think a contractor likes?
More interesting is a mix of walls with beautiful rectified tiles, and glass windows.
8. entrance
To accommodate the shower pan depression, and slope, you have to involve the FRAMER! He has to cut down his supporting wood, exactly where the weight is the most..
If you do have a step in shower, realize inside of the shower will be built up an inch or so, with tile and cement… so stepping out will be an invisible inch lower… so have a grab bar here as you stumble out…. or make the tile guy match inside height to outside height.
Sound Insulation
While you worry about a bathroom right next door, thru the dry wall over there.
But think! What about a bathroom right above your head? right above your kitchen.! …
You will hear every sound .. like a big hollow drum..
Make sure your floor & walls are sound insulated …
After you sound control your floor…
PIPES… CAST IRON OR PVC?
Think of the water flushing down black cast iron pipes hide the sound of Niagara Falls dropping from the toilet every time you flush.
Pay the extra $$ for big black pipes and have it done correctly!
The plumber if lazy, he’ll prefer light and east and cheep PVC.. so he will NOT tell you these things..
YOU have to get on him…
9. BENCH
BENCH HEIGHT.
Make the height of the bend of YOUR knee…the easiest to leverage yourself up. See? You pop right up.
Lower than your knee, you must PULL yourself up with a grab bar.
HEATED BENCH.This may seem an insane luxury, but a tile seat is REALLY COLD…if you think you will be having need for a seat in a shower (hip replacement, arthritis, weakness or unsteadiness etc.. ) wouldn’t it be welcome to have the tile heated up before taking a shower?
Trades that commonly heat bathroom floors, can handle this job for minimal extra cost… but, would make a huge difference, when you are weak or tired.
Do you build the bench with wood or cement cinder blocks?
WEIGHT OF BENCH & TILE
This one was made with 50 stacked cinderblocks @35lb each, or almost a ton!. (1,750lbs) ..the weight was astonishing…, plus the weight of 6 bags of cement, the piles of tile….this shower weighted more than 2 tons… Think of this when you build.. houses weigh sooo soo much!
I wonder how the framing would hold 2 tons… but just gave up and deferred to their assurances… but still… !
10. NICHE
I don’t share my niches.
Put 2 in each shower.
The best trick is to have a niche with 2 levels. One for tall bottles and one for small soaps etc.
A niche fits between 16” studs, so that determined the width.
Get a template from Amazon and hand it to the tile guy… or he will invent what he likes.. and it will not have a second shelf!
Some people have one very long niche…
Just don’t have one niche, with one shelf… it will drive you crazy!!!
11. GRAB BARS & HOOKS
Remember, this is FUN…. these things cost almost nothing, but greatly add to your bathroom for decades later…but NOT adding them will HAUNT YOU, with such regret….
During the rough in stage, visualize and mark where you want:
- grab bars,
- towel racks,
- hooks,
- TP rolls, and
- shower niches.
- where you want your shower heads to be on your walls.
Luckily, most towel racks come in lengths of conventional stud spread (16 on center), so most come in 16 or 32 long. Bath towels need wide towel racks….
The idea is…. once $10,000 worth of tile goes on the wall… you are fearful of drilling holes in the wrong place…there is very little room for error at this point…
Imagine having a bum knee and needing to sit or stand in the shower or toilet….and where you would like support… we all get sick or lame at some point…. make it easier!
You cannot have too many hooks and grab bars.
Consider a floating shelf (above your head banging on it) for stacks of towels too…
And you can never have enough hooks …but at least have 1 hook somewhere, for some reason…maybe for a towel to dry etc..to keep it off the floor, or out of a laundry basket getting pre moldy.
Also, you just do not want your towel racks, and grab bars coming loose…it looks tacky if nothing else.
Look up the word BLOCKING…this lets the framer add extra 2×4 or 2×6 where you want wall strength to hold your grab bars, and hooks.
12. ELECTRICAL - FANS, LIGHTS
ON/Off switches…
Make sure you can reach your shower lights and fans from INSIDE the shower in case you forget… To do this, you have to know which side of your shower opens, and locate the lights and fan switches near here…
Add a fan in shower area, and with a sash window that opens horizontally, a draft of fresh air flows nicely.
Add a second fan in the main bathroom area…then pick which ever one you want.
You cannot add fans later on…. add all the ones you might need ever. (Don’t forget a fan in the laundry room too…)
Fans are the domain of the HVAC guys, who thread vent tubing thru the walls and ceiling, and out to the roof or side of the house.
If you are venting to the side of the house, watch for a conflict of your fan exit hole, and your gutter… both are in the same location…(These are installed by 2 different trades at 2 different times… ) a small battle will happen here… especially punch list time…beware, be forewarned.
13. FLOODS
Add a water drain hole to each utility room.
It is a minor expense during construction, but worth a fortune later. The tile floor might have a slight depression in this area to funnel water down the drain.
Add water shut off valves to each appliance separately (toilet, sink, washing machines)
Remember to add water to the U-traps, below the floor, so bad septic air does not rise up thru here.
conclusion
After a long hard day, you wash the nightmare away, to have a nice quiet evening.
THIS is why, you want this time to be magical transition.
But how can magic happen in an ISOLATION tank, large walls, dirty grout floors, a hair clogged drain, with scum water rising, rising, rising over your feet… and shower heads pelting your face? Really?
Some people go overboard, and add 4 or 6 shower heads from the walls like a more like a circular shooting range…. like in the Silkwood shower…
No, an evening shower is not a Russian radiation moment…
Add a few windows, look at the view of stars or the moon in the evening, open the windows to let in fresh air, sounds & views of Nature.
Think back to a beach vacation house, and the late-night shower outdoors under the stars… Ah, that’s better.
Then add large, rectified tiles to the floor and walls, with a linear drain… way over there, with hooks and grab bars in all the right places.
Remember….this can and will happen EVERYDAY….so take it seriously….a decade or more of indulgence EACH DAY.!!!
what's wrong with these $$$ showers?
What’s wrong with this shower?
- no grab bars
- penny tile on floor
- should be a rain shower from ceiling
- one shower niche, one level, and too small.
- no place for a towel
- no fan above shower
- step in shower, trip area
- no hooks
- no natural light,
- no bench
- boring, frustrating, cold.