new large shower -- walk-in versus enclosed

[MissMolly]

LOL I think we were on separate pages. I didn't see a bench, stool or even a little ledge. Right now we only have a tiny little ledge and it's on the high side, so SomeGal insists on a better solution. Since as a dude I've, uh, never shaved my legs, I have no idea what works best and was soliciting information.

Well, let's just say I have never been the habit of doing that in the shower, so it's just not an issue for me and leave it at that

 

[someguy]

Regarding heated tile: does it warm up fast enough to turn it on as you come in to shower, or does it require more time such that you have to preheat it via a scheduler or some other way?

 

[exnavynuke]

Regarding heated tile: does it warm up fast enough to turn it on as you come in to shower, or does it require more time such that you have to preheat it via a scheduler or some other way?

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.

 

[nwsteve]

+1 on putting grab bars in when you are remodeling--far easier. AND they might actually help prevent a slip and fall injury. DW slipped and crushed a vertebrae. Bars in now but much more complicated since we had to be sure miss electric lines in the outside wall where the bar needed to go.

 

[W2R]

+1 on putting grab bars in when you are remodeling--far easier. AND they might actually help a slip and fall injury. DW slipped and crushed a vertebrae. Bars in now but much more complicated since we had to be sure miss electric lines in the outside wall where the bar needed to go.

This is one of my favorite features of my Dream House. The prior owner was elderly and disabled, and her long time boyfriend is a general contractor, so it has amazing grab bars. They are so sturdy that they must be anchored to the center of the earth, and they have a heavily textured finish so that one's hand cannot slide on them either. There is one vertical grab bar just at the entry, and a horizontal one too on another shower wall. I suppose that I don't really need them yet, but I have been using them always, for balance and fall prevention. Might as well get into that habit since I have them.

Also my shower is moderately large (46"x46"), which I love compared with my tiny, coffin-like shower at the old house (22"x26").

It has one of those shower massagers on a flexible tube, and three shower massager hangers at various heights including one that is low enough for an elderly person to hang it up while seated. That's a cheap but nice feature for any shower, I think.

It does not have a built in bench, so I occasionally use a separate seat if/when desired. If I ever had a built in bench put in, I'd make it at least 20" high due to my knee pain.

 

[MissMolly]

Regarding heated tile: does it warm up fast enough to turn it on as you come in to shower, or does it require more time such that you have to preheat it via a scheduler or some other way?

Ours has a thermostat and is programmable. We have it set at a lower temp throughout the day and then it goes up in the evenings when I take my showers and again in the mornings when DH takes his. During spring, summer and early fall we just turn it off. Cool tile feels nice when it's hot out.

 

[H2ODude]

Regarding heated tile: does it warm up fast enough to turn it on as you come in to shower, or does it require more time such that you have to preheat it via a scheduler or some other way?

As others have said the thermostat is all programmed. It would not be practical to on/off manual IMO because the time it takes to warm up is quite a while. I'm thinking at least half hour or more. For this reason I believe our thermostat "learns" the time it takes to reach temp and therefor starts the power so it reaches set temp by the time you've set. You place the thermostat under the tile.

IIRC you can do under the shower but we were using the Schlueter - Kerdi (?) system of membrane rather than traditional pan or grout membrane. It may vary depending on heater product and application. I highly recommend this system, especially if you are placing benches. I have absolute confidence in it and how it went on; did a traditional one time and it failed after 5-8 years. As have many of my neighbor's. I couldn't figure out how to assure waterproofing around a bench w traditional to my satisfaction so used the Kerdi.

 

[Ronstar]

+1 on putting grab bars in when you are remodeling--far easier. AND they might actually help prevent a slip and fall injury. DW slipped and crushed a vertebrae. Bars in now but much more complicated since we had to be sure miss electric lines in the outside wall where the bar needed to go.

+2 on the grab bars. I'm in the middle of a bath remodel. I took a lot of measurements and photos of stud locations so I anchor grab bars easily when I add them.

 

[Scrapr]

May i suggest more than one showerhead. We sold the big house and i miss the double spray. I'm not a fan of the rain head. But 2 (or more) full power heads hitting me. And we did miss the heated tile floor there. we should have done that.

If you have room a bench is nice. And multiple soap dish holders. Mrs scrapr added that at the last moment. Good call on her part. No curb.

That is my dream shower

 

[Silver]

I agree with having a grab bar. We had one installed when we did our walk-in shower several years ago. The front of the shower is just one large piece of glass. I use the teak bench for shaving.

 

[davebarnes]

Own curbless and doorless shower for last 6.5 years.
Love it.

 

[Scuba]

We built in reinforcement behind the tile when we did the bath for later placement of grab bars if needed.

+1

 

[someguy]

Also my shower is moderately large (46"x46"), which I love compared with my tiny, coffin-like shower at the old house (22"x26").

I've found that once a shower is around 36" or more deep (deep meaning spacing in front of your chest and behind your back when facing the main showerhead), width becomes more important. I'd rather have a 36x36 square than a 24x54 even though they're the same total area.

 

[someguy]

May i suggest more than one showerhead. We sold the big house and i miss the double spray. I'm not a fan of the rain head. But 2 (or more) full power heads hitting me. And we did miss the heated tile floor there. we should have done that.

If you have room a bench is nice. And multiple soap dish holders. Mrs scrapr added that at the last moment. Good call on her part. No curb.

That is my dream shower

Those overhead rain heads are like being waterboarded. And they're fairly useless compared to traditional angled wall heads in terms of getting clean.

 

[Lsbcal]

One vote for using clean flip-flops in the shower for safety.

We turn on a space heater in the bath area for winter warmth.

 

[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]

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.

 

[mpeirce]

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



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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.