Disabled Wet Room, Best Solution In Case Of Mobility Issues
Whether we like it or not ageing is a natural part of our lives. Over time our bodies become less capable and our health is
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When you begin to think about remodelling your bathroom there is always this one question that comes along. Should I have a shower or a bath? Or both if space allows.
In recent years wet rooms have expanded a list of valuable options. Of course, you could argue that it’s just a type of a shower, but let’s leave it aside for the moment.
Wet rooms are definitely in demand these days.
Which should come as no surprise. They are modern, elegant and often clean bathroom solutions. Wet rooms have the power to transform almost every bathroom. Big or small.
Everything seems so… smooth and complete. There is no step and interruption in design like in case of shower trays. Also, exactly the same makes the room feel bigger.
So what’s the catch here?
Well, it’s the floor. Wet rooms have their challenges too. First is the showering area that needs to be appropriately leveled and prepared. Second is tanking of the entire room.
And third is the selection of right tiles for the job. Altogether is a bit of a task. Alright, it’s not rocket science, but the floor is probably the most important part in the whole wet room project.
It’s definitely worth it to make it right.
As you probably already know, a wet room does not have a shower tray as the regular showers do. At least not in a traditional sense. With a wet room the whole floor can seem like a showering area.
Which is of course the beautiful thing about the wet room. However, there is in fact a shower tray, but it’s not visible. The showering area must be formed in a way that will encourage water to flow.
There’s nothing groundbreaking about it, everyone seems to know that.
But the question is how to make it work. In the past it had to be done solely with handmade solutions, so to speak. The “shower tray” had to be planned and formed by a tradesman.
Currently there are much easier ways to achieve required slope for seamless water flow. These are so called wet room floor formers and they simplify and speed up the whole process immensely.
In some cases it might be even done without cutting tiles in envelope fashion.
Although, it greatly depends on the selected former. Or to put it other way around if you don’t like the tiles cut in envelope fashion you can choose a former that allows to lay tiles in one clean fall of tiles.
What makes it even better is the fact that some wet room floor formers manufacturers are additionally pre sealing their formers in places where it’s a bit tricky to do it on your own.
Everyone knows how important that is.
Tanking your wet room is the most crucial step of all and I mean it. What is tanking? It’s just (not so) fancy to say that it should be waterproofed. Don’t worry, no one’s going to actually fill your bathroom with water.
However, the purpose of tanking is to make sure that even in such unfortunate misadventures your house will not get damaged. In case of wet rooms there is much more water spill than in case of showers or baths so it really needs to be properly waterproofed.
There is a legend that wet rooms leak.
And as a matter of fact they do. But only if they were not properly waterproofed in the first place. I cannot stress it enough. Otherwise the costs of repairs can be really high.
Even if the leak is not great, over time it can cause quite a lot of damage. So how to make sure your bathroom is secured to water exposure? By applying the right materials and following a simple process.
It’s really not that hard, but it will save you a lot of hassle in the future. Another good news is that you can buy everything you need in the form of a complete tanking kit or system.
The last, but not least part of the wet room floor is tiling. But before that happens you need to select which tiles you love the most. And although how they look is also important, they are not just a finishing touch.
Yes, they also have to be durable and pass the test of time, but perhaps the most important thing is that they have to be… anti slippery. After all, there will be at least some water on the floor.
And the last thing you want is an unplanned backflip attempt.
Trust me on that…
As we all know bathroom tiles come in different forms, shapes and colours. And probably a few more things. But for the purpose of this article the material they are made of is more significant.
You can have tiles made of ceramic, porcelain, natural stone or vinyl. The least recommended is the first one. Ceramic tiles are much better for the walls since they are not very durable.
Porcelain tiles are much harder and less porous.
Natural stone tiles can be a very good and elegant solution, but in most cases they require additional sealing. Vinyl are not that graceful, but very much slip resistant.
Also porcelain tiles can come in high slip resistant options, just as natural stone does. And they can be very good looking too. For a wet room we would recommend to look for tiles with a minimum CoF (Coefficient of Friction) value of 0.35 and more.
Luckily, living in the 21st century we don’t have to compromise safety and appearance.
Tanking your #wetRoom is the most crucial step of all and I mean it. What is #tanking? It’s just (not so) fancy to say that it should be waterproofed. The purpose of it is to make sure that even in some unfortunate misadventures your house will not get damaged.
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