Whenever a small house is built, the bathroom is usually cut short. And in small bathrooms, walk in showers or shower cubicles although a great addition are not really advised. The walls needed to create a walk in shower or a shower enclosure will eat up a lot of space. In a situation like this, putting in a wet room is highly recommended.

With a wet room, you don’t put in any structures to separate your shower area from the rest of the room. Water proofing for the whole room is important. Here are some tips to consider when planning and designing your wet room.

Advantages

- You can convert a small bathroom entirely into a wet room without the need to install walk in showers or shower enclosures.
- Installing a wet room in your house can increase the overall value of your property.
- You will have more space while taking a bath as the whole bathroom will be your showering area.

Disadvantages

- It may be harder to clean as the whole bathroom now can be wet and splashes of water will be all over the area.
- Instead of increasing the value of your home, it can decrease it if you convert your only bathroom into a wet room. In other words, most real estate properties consider wet rooms as a great addition, not as an only solution.
- Installing a wet rooms is not easy and needs to be done professionally. The plumbing and tiling can make or break your bathroom experience.

As mentioned earlier, you don’t put in any structures to separate your shower area from the rest of the room when you are building a wet room. This results to the water splash not being contained within the immediate area of the shower. This means that adequate drainage should be provided for the whole floor and that the floor should slant towards the drainage to avoid pooling of water.

In an effort to water proof the whole floor of the room, you most probably will use tiles for the whole floor. Try to find an anti slip tile that will minimize the slipperiness of the wet floor. Or, if you already have tiles put in, you could treat your tiles with solutions that make them less slippery. This will minimize the risk of an accident. This is especially advisable for houses with kids.

Another situation typical of wet rooms is that the toilet paper and the other toiletries are reached by the water splash and get wet. So when you are designing your wet room lay out, make sure that the toilet bowl is situated as far as possible from the shower area. To keep your toilet paper dry, I suggest getting a “waterproof” bathroom tissue holder. You can get one for less than seven dollars. You might also consider putting in a cabinet with a door in your wet room. You can store in them your toilet papers and anything else you want to keep dry.

Due to the nature of a wet room, I think it goes without saying that you should be very careful of where you put in your electrical outlets. Ideally, they should be placed as far away as possible from the shower area. And you might also want to consider getting one of those electrical outlets with a cover.

So there you have it. Those tips should be able to help you plan and design a safe and comfortable wet room.