Wet rooms

[Big Steve]

You folks who have made wet rooms, how did you organise access to the drain pump? I've tried a search but can find nowt.

[ThePiglet]

The easiest thing to do is to locate the pump outside of the wetroom.

[CaptAWOL]

You folks who have made wet rooms, how did you organise access to the drain pump? I've tried a search but can find nowt.

I have recently converted to wet room, I have used a hard wearing none slip vinyl for the floor and a pvc cladding for the walls. I planned the layout so as to have the pump located in an access through the floor located below the porta potti, the access is simple enough I cut out an area the size of the base of the toilet, then used 'L' shaped 27mm wood beading around the opening and made a cover to sit over this and to support the toilet, the drains are also easily accessibly

Edited June 21, 2009 by CaptAWOL

[FadeToScarlet]

Our bathroom is arranged as a wetroom. We have a bulkhead that's about 6 inches from the hull side, and a triangular cupboard in the corner. The waterproof base of the room therefore ends about 6 inches from the hull side, so you can reach through the cupboard and get at the pump, which is in the gap between the bulkhead and the side of the hull.

 

If that makes any sense!

[Naughty Cal]

Ours has an access panel in the bedroom. You still need to have long arms to reach it though!!

[Big Steve]

Thanks for the advice, sounds like it might be too much of a pain in the a&$e.

[ChrisPy]

my wetroom shares a bulkhead with the galley.

all the plumbing is fixed to the bulkhead, including calorifier, washing machine, H & C water and drains.

all the piping is accessible in the under-sink cabinet where I have removed the floor.

I have good access to everyting, including to the shower drain and pump box.

[Miracle]

I'm not 100% sure if resurrecting this dead post is better than starting a new one or not.. 

 

Anyhow. I have at new to me 1996 Peter Nichols which is all original and which i love - except the bathroom. It's not my first boat and I have the advantage of working for Dan Cluett - at Cluett Carpentry whom are a boat and home re-fitters. I've been asking about wetrooms - we don't do a lot of them at work, mostly because they clients find them too expensive. So on my prompting Dan wrote a blog post about how one would DIY a wetroom.

 

I've put the link below and was hoping some of the more experienced of you might do me the favour of reading it over and offering me your opinion? Has we covered the basics or missed anything critical that deserves a mention?  Our goal for the blog and this post is to offer a starting point or thinking points for those who want to DIY their boats - not a" step by step how to" - because You Tube already has it all!

 

Please let me know what you think!

 

DIY wet room - thoughts and tips about the whys and why nots..

[Jess--]

might want to add a note to say don't use one of those stupid white plastic shower sump-pump units, they WILL fail and by design will mean you have to get under the shower to fix / replace

 

far better to have a length of pipe to a pump (whale gulper / diaphragm pump with filter) in an accessible location, just fit a switch for on/off (let's face it... pumps are noisy enough that you're not going to forget to turn them off)

[Miracle]

39 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

might want to add a note to say don't use one of those stupid white plastic shower sump-pump units, they WILL fail and by design will mean you have to get under the shower to fix / replace

 

far better to have a length of pipe to a pump (whale gulper / diaphragm pump with filter) in an accessible location, just fit a switch for on/off (let's face it... pumps are noisy enough that you're not going to forget to turn them off)

hmmm i totally agree - i was sure that he'd recommended the whale! and spoke about it being accessible  must re-read.

 

[rusty69]

Our whale gulper is 20 years old next year. Daily useage.Fantastic pump (well it was when we bought it.Hope they haven't changed anything).

[Boater Sam]

My Jabsco impeller pump has emptied the shower for 30 years with 1 new impeller and I believe it was an old one even then off a fresh water cooled engine!

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

My Jabsco impeller pump has emptied the shower for 30 years with 1 new impeller and I believe it was an old one even then off a fresh water cooled engine!

Everyday? 

[Boater Sam]

Yes at least. Except in winter, not here.

[jddevel]

Completed my self build last year and used my experience in the building trade to complete what is basically a wetroom. Used a Aquaseal preformed tray 1200 x 800mm. on some tanalized  CLS 95mm "joists" Edged the 1200mm width across the boat with a 20mm x150mm upstand in ply. Installed a normal wetroom "vinyl" through out the bathroom having caped the upstand actually using part of some plastic electric cable  ducting. Shallow shower outlet led outside piped between the joists of bathroom  into a cupboard in the bedroom containing the Whale Gulper.

I actually decided to leave the toilet /vanity unit area at a lower level than that in the shower area and installed two sets of bi-fold doors enclosing the shower area. This was simply as grand children tend to cover toilet/vanity unit towels toilet rolls etc with water. Little sweet things!! For us it works very well. Shower area is panelled in interlocking water proof panels which would have been installed through out if it wasn`t for the bi-fold doors. Tiles and oak veneered panelling was used instead. Biggest mistake I made was that due to assuming bi-fol doors were readily available in varying heights discovered I was 20mm to high with the shower area base ( this could have been reduced early on) and had to have the doors specially made, although I must admit I got them from Spain- expensive but superb.

[blackrose]

Personally I wouldn't want a wetroom on a boat but each to their own.

 

I've got a quadrant shower. Much easier to install and keep clean.

[blackrose]

On 25/10/2018 at 20:16, jddevel said:

. Biggest mistake I made was that due to assuming bi-fol doors were readily available in varying heights discovered I was 20mm to high with the shower area base ( this could have been reduced early on) and had to have the doors specially made, although I must admit I got them from Spain- expensive but superb.

 

Can't help thinking the bggest mistake you made was paying for expensive doors to be made. Why didn't you just cut down the bottom of some standard bi- fold doors by 20mm?

 

I cut down both the bathroom and bedroom bi-folds doors to get them in. Actually had to rebuild the bottom of the bedroom doors as so much had to be cut off. But it's so much cheaper to modify things than commission bespoke items unnecessarily.

 

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by blackrose

[MtB]

26 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Can't help thinking the bggest mistake you made was paying for expensive doors to be made. Why didn't you just cut down the bottom of some standard bi- fold doors by 20mm?

 

I cut down both the bathroom and bedroom bi-folds doors to get them in. Actually had to rebuild the bottom of the bedroom doors as so much had to be cut off. But it's so much cheaper to modify things than commission bespoke items unnecessarily.

 

 

I think he meant the toughened glass bifold shower enclosure doors. 

 

 

[blackrose]

23 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I think he meant the toughened glass bifold shower enclosure doors. 

 

 

Ok, I misunderstood. I'm not sure why you'd want shower enclosure doors inside a wetroom? Unless it's because you don't really want the wetroom to get wet, in which case it just reinforces my view that wetrooms aren't such a great idea on boats.

[WotEver]

9 hours ago, blackrose said:

Ok, I misunderstood. I'm not sure why you'd want shower enclosure doors inside a wetroom? Unless it's because you don't really want the wetroom to get wet, in which case it just reinforces my view that wetrooms aren't such a great idea on boats.

Agreed. We’re planning on ripping out the en-suite at home and converting it to a wet room specifically so that we can do away with a shower door. To my mind that is their biggest attraction. 

[jddevel]

As stated in earlier posting it was as a preventative measure. When I shower all my change of clothes and towels are in the bathroom area. I also like a reasonably high water output -not a dribble. The result is whilst the shower area is quite large water can get every where - especially with youngsters, So doors (and yes toughened glass not plastic which we do not like) were decided on but the total floor area being "waterproof" with a wall hung vanity unit means that it is so easy to clean. It certainly works well for us and having experienced numerous bathrooms on hire vessels over 40 plus years I wouldn`t change it but each to their own needs and budget.