Forum Topic

Wet room v. bathroom.

Is a wetroom preferable to a bathroom? What's the difference betweem them? What are the advantages of both please? Which one should prove best for a family with two young'ish children? Thanks.

Gerry Tan ● 4414d27 Comments

Here’s a few from Awwstraylia Dunny, Reading room, Thunder room, outhouse, taking the kids to the pool, bush shed.By the way Gerry you can have a steam room.

Tony Maxey ● 4408d

"...A steam room is far more appealing."I love the way that the English language has so many expressions for bathrooms...the wetroom, the loo, the John, the karsi, the bog, the steamroom, the toilet, the WC, the shower room, etc etc.  Any more please?

Gerry Tan ● 4408d

:-)

Nigel Brooks ● 4408d

NigelI think Handel’s water music or Robert Plants big log would be more appropriate.I have installed a few wet rooms to be honest I don’t like them. A steam room is far more appealing.

Tony Maxey ● 4408d

The success of wet rooms in the middle east has a great deal to do with the prevailing climate.The houses are more open and built to promote airflow which, combined with the generally higher temperatures, serves to keep the wet room dry (IYSWIM!)

Tony Colliver ● 4408d

Nigel, you're incorrigible!

Gerry Tan ● 4409d

Surely it plays selections from 'The Go-Go's ' or the 'The Mikapoo' - sorry it's the first day without chocolate and alcohol - only 39 to go.

Nigel Brooks ● 4409d

Thanks Tony. Did it play Japanese pop too? Not sure about that - will have to think about it !! We did have one of those in a hotel in Shanghai which we thought was good.

Penny Crocker ● 4409d

Penny I installed a Japanese washlet similar to a Bidet but all the workings are installed in the seat itself. They have water temperate control with water flow control and a heated seat with his and her functions this is the basic model. Higher up the range they actually play music while you do whatever one does while sitting on the loo. I was lucky with mine as the wife picked it up from Japan costing only £100 I purchased the transformer it needed from the Japanese 2nd hand shop in West Acton for £85. I know they are now sold in the UK my plumbing suppliers in Park Royal are the main suppliers for Toto the main manufacturers.

Tony Maxey ● 4409d

I don't think any house I went to in Iran was without one Gerry

Tracey Mehdizadeh ● 4411d

"...in the Middle East all the ones I've used are great."I ddn't know much about wetrooms - didn't know they're quite usual in The Middle East. I had thought they were commonplace in Scandinavia. Shows how little I know.

Gerry Tan ● 4412d

My mum had one installed and it was awful, arranged by Ealing council and social services, the pump was forever blocking, when they first installed it they had drilled a screw into a cable under the door bar, fortunately her toilet was seperate so no problems there, I haven't heard of 1 successful wet room here in the uk, yet in the Middle East all the ones I've used are great

Tracey Mehdizadeh ● 4412d

I had my downstairs bathroom ripped out and replaced with an easy access shower. The tray is only 22mm high and easy for me even with severely impaired mobility. Proper (huge) shower cubicle and a 'comfort height' basin and toilet.Could have easily had a wetroom but hate them TBH for all the reasons given.

Nigel Brooks ● 4412d

I am told that wet-rooms are the 'gold standard' in particular for when you are less able.  In the new care homes and hospitals I have recently visited they had these with a shower curtain to keep the shower water off the loo.  One hospital also had those modern lights that turn off if you don't move.  So you can't go to sleep/sit and think/read on the loo or the light goes off.  We never discovered if you had to wave your arms around to stop it going off or if it was sufficient to wave your arms around to make it go back on as when the howls when the light went off started we went to the rescue.  And what if you'd broken your arms and had them in plaster?Someone who put a wet-room into their house complained that it was irritating when you just wanted to go to the loo that  the floor and loo were wet because of the shower.You can get a non-slip padded vinyl type flooring - softer if you slip than marble!It is good to be able to have a shower area that is big enough to wheel a chair into it or to have a seat to sit down. Cubicles so often have a high step to get in and nothing to hold onto.  It can be more dangerous though climbing into and out of the bath - providing you can and don't get stuck in it.  Drainage can be easier on the ground floor because our old houses with wooden floors move and there can be difficulty with getting the right amount of fall in the drainage pipe in the floor/ceiling space (or so I'm told).We're still arguing on the bath -v- shower issue!

Philippa Bond ● 4412d

A pleasure, my sister-in law has one in her (smallish) bathroom.

Nigel Brooks ● 4412d

Well, I didn't know that ! Thanks Nigel

Penny Crocker ● 4412d

That's exactly it, Nigel. Not only did I once have to use very towel I could find to cover the sopping floor in an Italian hotel wetroom, but one of our party slipped over on the wet floor in her room and ended up in A&E.

Susan Kelly ● 4413d

That's exactly it, Nigel. Not only did I once have to use every towel I could find to cover the sopping floor in an Italian hotel wetroom, but one of our party slipped over on the wet floor in her room and ended up in A&E.

Susan Kelly ● 4413d

You have room Penny.Combined bidet/toilets have been available for a few years now to cater for bathroom with limited space.Simply replaces the existing 'pan' but does need a minor bit of jigging around with the plumbing.One of the many suppliers is here:http://plumbonline.net/store/suites/combined-bidet-toilets/combined-close-coupled-toilets.html

Nigel Brooks ● 4413d

LOL !!! I've always fancied the idea of a wet room but they aren't especially practical. On a bathroom note though, I've always wanted a bidet but only ever had one abroad. No room to install one in our bathroom either but so useful.

Penny Crocker ● 4413d

There is nothing worse than a 'continental' wet room Susan I agree. Whoever thought that putting a 'monsoon' shower in the same room as a toilet which then stays wet for  seemingly hours with the overspray was clearly the devil's disciple.

Nigel Brooks ● 4413d

I've occasionally been lumbered with a wet room in continental hotels, Gerry, and the water just goes everywhere. I hate them and would never give one house room.

Susan Kelly ● 4413d

Please tell me more - the doings of the devil are usually more interesting than the works of good folk. But not alwauys.

Gerry Tan ● 4413d

Wetrooms are the work of the Devil!!!!

Susan Kelly ● 4413d

They can be on any floor Gerry

Jack Ryan ● 4413d

Thanks Jack. Are wetrooms usually on groundfloor level and bathrooms upstairs?

Gerry Tan ● 4413d

With young children its got to be a bathroom.A wet room is more designed for elderly or disabled people it only has a shower facility maybe a toilet and wash hand basin.The floor is fully tiled and is sloped to the center to where the water drains away to a waste pipe

Jack Ryan ● 4413d