Blog What is a wet room

There are many benefits with this approach, the main one being that the showering area is level with the existing bathroom floor. There is no step up into the shower. The standard ‘non-wetroom approach’ is for a shower tray and enclosure to be raised off the bathroom floor initiating a step onto the shower tray. Having said this, a wet room can also be made into more of a feature in your bathroom by raising the shower area. There are a few ways of achieving this. This sometimes has to be done due to gully restrictions underneath the former.

 

 

A wet room/level access shower can be fitted into any floor build. It does not make any difference whether it is on the ground floor, first floor or 25th floor. Timber joist, block and beam, concrete slab, floating floor, king span floors are a few example floors into which wet rooms can be installed.

A wet room will not leak if the installation procedures are followed carefully from the instructions supplied with the purchased goods. It is also advisable that you purchase from a specialist that understands the installation process of fitting. We would also recommend purchasing all the products including trapped gully-drain, grating, former and tanking system from the same supplier. If the necessary products are purchased from different suppliers they may not be compatible with each other. This is where problems can occur and this makes it difficult to ensure a watertight seal.

There are some products that are more improved than others. These products are normally designed and available from the specialist wet room suppliers. There are different tanking systems formed from different materials and installed in different ways. The formers are available by a few manufacturers, also manufactured from different materials such as GRP, timber, high density rigid foam to name a few.

There are different floor finishes that can be used within a wet room. The most popular options are tiling the floor or laying a non slip vinyl sheet flooring over the entire floor which involves a specialist floor installer laying the vinyl and hot seam welding all of the joins to make it water tight. There are many different options in colour for vinyl sheet. Altro code Vinyl NON-Slip Marine 20 is the product that is normally used in wet areas due to its high grip surface.

When tiling your wet room floor you need to be aware of the slip resistance of the tile. Nowadays porcelain tiles are becoming more popular in wet areas. Some porcelain has a textured surface, which helps prevent a slip hazard when the tile becomes wet. Also ceramic tiles and natural stones like travertine and limestone are used frequently on a wet floor. Larger tiles also keep grout lines to a minimum reducing maintenance.

Do not choose floor tiles that have a high gloss finish or tiles that are smooth surfaced. These tiles are deadly when covered with water and will not provide an anti slip surface.