wet room - how to?

[freepo]

It's a downstairs (ground floor) loo with a concrete floor, tiled walls. Currently there is a loo in the corner, which may or may not be moved depending on the design of the wet room and whether it is necessary or not. The loo has an outflow which goes vertically down into the concrete.

Actually I just remembered I have bought a new bathroom suite and the new loo has a horizontal outflow, I had decided to move the loo and have the outflow going out through the wall.

There is also a sink in the other corner.

But anyhoo, the point is, how do you design and construct a wetroom from this starting position because the drain for the wetroom will have to be embedded into the concrete floor.

Same goes if I have a posh stone shower tray installed, I don't want a shower tray on legs, I want a shower tray that sits directly onto the concrete floor. So I have to dig out a channel into the concrete?

How do you do this without damaging the DPM? And what do you do if you do damage the DPM?

cheers

[dennis]

has some info. as do decided that a nice 900 x 1200 low access tray was the easiest, only 35 mm high. You could finish the floor flush and then have level access to the tray.

it was one of these

and very nice.

[Phil]

Isn't the whole point of a wetroom that you don't have a tray?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Might want to consider how wet you want the room to be. If the whole floor is generally wet, and it's a frequently used WC, you'll find walking through wet to get to the WC and then leaving the room results in mud trails around the house.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes, and have sufficient fall to drain it from that position

Ok one solution is to build the floor UP and use the existing drainage: otherwise you are in for some substantial groundwork.

The DPM is no big deal. Lay a new one under the new lowered part of the floor where the drain is, and use foam or something to seal pipes punching through it.

DPMs are not there to make things utterly watertight, just to slow the rate of moisture ingress to the level where normal internal heating and ventilation can reduce humidity below teh fungal growth pont.

I.e. the name of the game is no mould on walls and no rotten wood or plaster

In essence to do what you want, you ne to jack hammer up a large section of the floor, and install a shower or room drain with a trap and a decent fall to the drainage system.

Then you make good teh ground with gravel/sand and tack down new DPM around the drain, and if fussy, use foam to make a good seal. Then cast a concrete subfloor and put foam insulation on that and screed.

I have to say if I were to do this to an old solid floor property I would strip the room and remove ALL the floor down to soil, and remove that as well, and start again with new pipework.

It is only a day or two to do the removal, although its very messy barrowing rubble out of the house.

BUT once you have done it, its very easy to get the pipework right, and lay a new concrete subfloor, then DPM that, tanking upwards to above the DPC layers and maybe higher yet. Then insulate and screed and form your slopes in that.

[The Natural Philosopher]

You need good heating insulation and ventilation in a wet room.

And some kind of shower screen between the shower and the bog/basin.

[dennis]

I did that last week.. I was using a pumped waste so I only needed 35 mm of clearance for the trap so I put in two sheets of 18 mm WBP. Made a small ramp to the rest of the room and it looks good. I could then have tanked the WBP and tiled it but I decide a tray was much easier and if he ever needed a wheel chair being on his own at home wasn't going to be a good thing so it didn't matter.

The screed is probably deep enough without having to touch the DPM/sub floor if a pump is used.

The only problem with a pump (apart from power cuts) is the noise, you get glugging from the waste, there are systems that "avoid" this but they cost more cash, it didn't matter last week as the user is deaf anyway.

[Man at B&Q]

What is the point of a wet room? Other than following the latest fashion trend?

MBQ

[sm_jamieson]

Exactly, where do you get dry ? Simon.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its very good for hosing down muddy dogs.

It saves tripping over the shower tray edge as well.

And sometimes there's room for two (or more) in the shower.

In our case,it means that the place the cat trays are, gets a good sluice when they miss.

[Mike Dodd]

Try one.

I have to admit to sharing your skepticism until we spent a night in a hotel with a wet-room. Absolutely fantastic. Showering without a shower screen or curtain, complete freedom between facilities, not worrying about wet feet marks, etc. The whole experience was quite liberating.

[robgraham]

Certainly isn't a 'fashion trend' in this house that has had one for

25 years - or perhaps for once we are fashion leaders; interesting thought.

I think the answer to the question of 'why' is just how many visitors we've had who've said 'what a great shower'. If you like damp and soggy shower curtains or screens/shower doors that don't shut properly and are damp and cold, then carry on, but having a shower in a space where nothing constricts you is just so much more comfortable.

[Ragnar Bartuska]

Entirely depends on the size and layout of the room... we have one installed by the previous owner of the place and hate it - the first thing we did was putting up a shower curtain to avoid the WC getting hosed down during every shower, including the paper roll on the far wall behind the WC, away from the shower... never again!

Ranger

[Man at B&Q]

=46rom what I've seen on "makeover shows" I suspect there are quite a few like this.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

Why do you need "freedon between facilities"? You can always piss in the shower instead of showering in the pisspot.

I don't understand the comment about not worrying about wet feet marks. The whole bloody floor is wet!There has to be aboundary between wet & dry somewhere, all you do is move the problem further from the shower.

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

I (just about) take the point about washing the dogs but hosing down the cat's litter tray whilst you have a shower? No thanks!

MBQ

[Man at B&Q]

I have a great shower (pumped thermostatic mixer) and don't suffer any of the alleged propblems of a non wet room.

Why would a wet room be any less damp & cold, given comparable levels of heating & ventilation?

Depends what you do in the shower, I suppose.

MBQ

[Andy Hall]

If you use makeover shows as an indication of anything, you will be disappointed in one direction or another. It's perfectly possible to design a wet room in a small space and have it work effectively. The appropriate fitments and design are required - nothing more.

[Andy Hall]

That is achieved by the slope in the floor and appropriate drain position.

In virtually every other country, bathroom construction easily permits wet room use because it is taken into account in the building construction. There can be a bath in there (or not) and a shower (or not).

The shower cubicle and curtain idea has only arisen in the UK because of bad design and the revolting habit that many people have of having carpet in the bathroom. There is only one thing worse than that - carpet in the kitchen.

[Steve Firth]

The hell it is. They're a really stupid idea, possibly designed for/by those who miss the days of the communal cold shower at public school. Every one I have used results in towels being unusable because they are "pre-damped" by humidity and drying one's feet turns into some bloody silly hopping around the room game.

A far better solution is to have a large glass shower screen and a shallow tray installed at floor level. If an architect proposes a wet room to me, I reach for a pen and start drafting a letter of dismissal.