new large shower -- walk-in versus enclosed

[someguy]

Another question for the group: those we have "glass block" exterior windows, especially those with them in the shower stall area, any pros or cons? I really don't like the "Miami Vice" type look of glass block but am not sure about the practicalities of a more normal window in the shower?

[Golden sunsets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissMolly We put in heat under our tile also. Love it! It's one of my favorite things we did. But our instructions specifically said it could not go under the shower tile. But like you say, the water warms that tile, so no big deal.

We did this also, re heat in the floor. That is also my favorite feature. Gut remodeled our master bath in 2013. We downsized a previous two person jacuzzi to a one person and upsized the shower considerably. We used a french drain system for the water rather than a normal drain. No need to have any lip to climb over. Tile is laid in such a way that water does not drain out of the shower, so the floor is flush throughout the bathroom. We've never had a problem. We chose to have thick glass and enclosed as much of the shower as possible. If we let the water run for a minute or two by the time you enter the shower, it feels like a steam bath, but a good fan properly mounted is a must to avoid any mold issues. Another thing I would not have thought of that our designer recommended is to locate the turn on valve and heat adjustment valve away from the actual shower head, so that you can reach in to turn on the shower without having to enter the shower, possibly getting wet. In the attached picture, you can't actually see the turn on and adjustment valves as they are located just on the other side of the half shower wall, to the right side of the entry door. One other thing. Our floor is honed marble tile and we have never had a slipping problem.
Master Bath - Copy.jpg

[mpeirce]

We did a master bath remodel this fall. We removed the old bath and used the extra room for a larger, walking shower.

IMG_0057.jpg

A few notes:

Even though it's open, I don't feel cold in it - see comment about heated floors below, they keep the room warmer than it would be otherwise during shower times. It's an outside wall, but it's well insulated.

We added the grab bar for safety. Looks OK to me.

I don't use the extra wand, but apparently it's great for cleaning.

We had a bench across the back in the old shower, but the new one didn't have an obvious place for a built in one, so we have a little teak table in there. Seems to work OK for us so far.

Our tankless water heater was already setup for a recirculation loop, so we had them set that up. Now instead of waiting for the hot water to make it from the basement on the far side of the house (why did they design the house that way!) we just turn it on and get hot water. Sometimes it's the small things in life...

We added heated floors too. We love it this time of year. It's on a timer and warms up before DW gets up in the morning and before we go to bed. It's turned down in between. And it's off when it's not needed. There's also an app for it, so if DW is awake early, she can turn it up before she gets out of bed. I think it's amusing that our bathroom floor is WiFi enabled. Oh, the heat is not in the shower - that's warmed by the water flow.

I"ve been wanting heated floors since I experienced them in a ski lodge. DW was skeptical, even mocked me a bit ;-), but I insisted on it. She loves it now.

We don't miss the old bath one bit. Rarely used it. And the kids' bath still has one so someone buying the place will have place to bath small children.

We had to ask them to add the hook by the entrance of the shower for a towel. For some reason lots of hotel showers don't have a good place to put the tower so you can get it easily without walking - and dripping - all over the bathroom.

Finally, the old tub was in front of the window. It was always a pain to step into the tub to open/close the window. With the tub gone, we upgraded the window and it now has a built in shade that raises FROM THE BOTTOM. Makes it easy to have privacy and still get natural light and see outside.

[Chuckanut]

I have a heated tile floor. While it is very nice, it is not a replacement for a proper bathroom heater on cold mornings, IMHO. My experience is that if you want the heated tiles to heat the bathroom you need to have a lot of square feet heated.

[someguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden sunsets We did this also, re heat in the floor. That is also my favorite feature. Gut remodeled our master bath in 2013. We used a french drain system for the water rather than a normal drain. No need to have any lip to climb over. Tile is laid in such a way that water does not drain out of the shower, so the floor is flush throughout the bathroom. We've never had a problem.

What is your master bath over? In order to get the slope but not have a lip, I imagine they had to cut "down" into the slab or floor joists??

EDIT: based on the pic, maybe it looks like they raised the outside edges furthest away from the door/drain/threshold?

[MissMolly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by someguy Another question for the group: those we have "glass block" exterior windows, especially those with them in the shower stall area, any pros or cons? I really don't like the "Miami Vice" type look of glass block but am not sure about the practicalities of a more normal window in the shower?

We put in glass block on an exterior wall in our bath. I love it. Let's in so much light. I was worried it would feel colder, but it doesn't - and it gets below zero here in the winter.

[RunningBum]

I have a glass block exterior window over my garden tub that looks a lot like Miss Molly's, and you can see from my first post in the thread that I have a lot of glass block in interior walls of the shower too. It brings in more light but gives privacy too. I really like the look. You should be able to do it in the exterior walls of the shower too.

[Golden sunsets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut I have a heated tile floor. While it is very nice, it is not a replacement for a proper bathroom heater on cold mornings, IMHO. My experience is that if you want the heated tiles to heat the bathroom you need to have a lot of square feet heated.

+1. We also have a heater in the room in addition to the floor heat. The purpose of the heated tile floor is not to heat the room but to provide warmth to bare feet. We live in the Northeast, so we have the floor heat turned on from about October through May.

[Golden sunsets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by someguy What is your master bath over? In order to get the slope but not have a lip, I imagine they had to cut "down" into the slab or floor joists?? EDIT: based on the pic, maybe it looks like they raised the outside edges furthest away from the door/drain/threshold?

No; The bath is on the second floor. In gutting the bath, everything was removed including the plywood subfloor exposing the joists. Same with the walls. Then the new plumbing and electrical were installed. The slope that you speak of is extremely subtle. It is only a matter of a fraction of an inch that was created with the cement that was applied before the tile are installed. As I mentioned, we have never had any water whatsoever drain out of the shower into the room. It is all caught by the french drain.

[Golden sunsets]

Quote:

Originally Posted by exnavynuke Most are not rated for use in the shower (as mentioned above, just run the water for a couple minutes and it'll be fine), but are great for heating the tile under the rest of the bathroom. Mine are on timers that "turn up" during my normal use hours (when I typically get in/out of the shower in the morning) and set on a minimum setting the rest of the time. That way it's "nice and warm" when I'm likely to be on the tile barefoot, but never cold anyway.

My floor heat is on 100% of the time in the fall/winter/spring and has its own thermostat. It could be programmed to be on only part of the time if wanted, but I especially appreciate it during the middle of the night when I get up and enter the room. I didn't notice any increase in our electric bill once completed. I'm sure there is some cost, but we also made sure that every light in the room was led, (and there are a whole lot of lights in that bathroom) so our electric bill actually decreased over our prior averages.

[devans0]

We did our walk-in in the basement. It adjoins an exterior wall and is chilly when leaving the shower while wet.

Grabbing a towel and drying before leaving the shower is comfortable. We installed thick marine grade plywood behind the shower walls to have a solid anchor for any eventual grab bars.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden sunsets My floor heat is on 100% of the time in the fall/winter/spring and has its own thermostat. It could be programmed to be on only part of the time if wanted, but I especially appreciate it during the middle of the night when I get up and enter the room. I didn't notice any increase in our electric bill once completed. I'm sure there is some cost, but we also made sure that every light in the room was led, (and there are a whole lot of lights in that bathroom) so our electric bill actually decreased over our prior averages.

Mine are on full time when it's cold too. My system is hot water tubes under the tiles, fed by a gas boiler. What I've been told and read is to just set and forget.. My cat spends much of her day up there during the winter, so it's not like its wasted heat! It works pretty well because I've got zoned heat, and the main floor heat rises and keeps my upstairs master BR fairly warm, but the bathroom is tucked back beyond the closets and doesn't get much of that, so this keeps it warm. My programmable thermostat only kicks up the upstairs heat for about an hour in the morning, and an hour, if needed, in the evening.

I've got the same under my finished basement floor but not turned up very high. It's just to take the chill off.

[kgtest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by someguy We're planning to remodel our master bath. I read the old threads about tub vs. bigger shower and for us, it's a no brainer for bigger shower. We have plenty of space, so I'm looking for input on walk-in versus a large traditional enclosed. In either one, the main shower space will be roughly 5'x5'. I'm especially interested in input on two considerations for walk-ins: 1) Does it feel cold? With a smaller enclosed shower now, I've noticed the heat and steam build up in the enclosure and it can be a little chilly when first opening the door and stepping out. I'm concerned a large open walk-in might be an issue there? 2) Slippery/fall risk -- how big of an issue is this? I love the visual look and no chance of toe stubbing on the "one floor" design the accompanies walk-ins. Plus obviously the future proofing. But what about issues with slipperiness? A lot of porcelain and ceramic tiles can be dangerously slippery under the right amount of moisture whereas an enclosure can/often uses a shower pan engineered to be non-slip. Plus any other pros or cons to either shower option and then shower design in general. Any surprises in terms of ability to clean in both the short and long term? What about considerations for a DW and shaving legs? Is a fixed bench or a movable seat/stool better?

I have a walk-in...its great, no need to open or close a door , or even step over anything. Its no colder than a regular shower. I have a large shower head that dumps a lot of hot water so that helps.

As for slippery, I haven't had issues but my little kid seems to. He falls walking tho.

My wife at one point wanted me to replace the head with one with a line so we could wash the baby in the shower, but we just use the other bath for that.

Some extra nice to haves in the bath are heat lamps in the shower and outside it, and a heated towel rack.

[CRLLS]

Some very nice showers here. It almost makes me want to renovate mine again. As for flooring, when we did our master bath some years back, we put in a cork tile floor on concrete slab. It is glued to the concrete and then varnished with 4 coats of poly. It has to be about the warmest floor, short of carpeting that I have felt. It is naturally mold resistant. It is a lot warmer than tile (duh) and noticeably warmer than Pergo-type flooring. We do have radiant in floor heating set for a room temp of 70 deg.

[someguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRLLS Some very nice showers here. It almost makes me want to renovate mine again. As for flooring, when we did our master bath some years back, we put in a cork tile floor on concrete slab. It is glued to the concrete and then varnished with 4 coats of poly. It has to be about the warmest floor, short of carpeting that I have felt. It is naturally mold resistant. It is a lot warmer than tile (duh) and noticeably warmer than Pergo-type flooring. We do have radiant in floor heating set for a room temp of 70 deg.

I would love to do cork outside of the wet shower area because it would always be warm and is easier on the knees. Plus it would be good for sound absorption and it looks really cool in smaller areas. But tile is so tried and true and it's virtually maintenance free.