Wet rooms in a narrow boat

[WotEver]

Thanks Stegra. Have used "stone composite" trays for the last 30 plus years (I remember paid £120 for the first one a lot of money then) and in fact have them in my own home. The issue I`ve got is trying to get my head

round the water removal. It may be necessary to install a "Whale Gulper" in the bilge obviously in a sump. I`m still stuck with what to me is a limit vertical height. Incidentally I can`t remember when I last had a bath. At least 20 years -I`ve always showered virtually daily.

No sump required with a Gulper. Plus it will self-prime so no need to have it below the tray either.

[Murflynn]

The point about only being able to leak is the area around the drain, if it's does you have to rip everything up to get to this area, and under it?

The drain fitting should be accessible from the adjacent room/space by reaching under the wet-room floor.

The fitting should be in 2 parts - the top is fixed with a long screw into the under-floor drain, and a rubber gasket is used to prevent leaks.

Ideally the top bit is located in a shallow depression formed in the floor and the vinyl liner so it doesn't project above floor level.

There is no reason why the drain should leak, but if it does it must be accessible from underneath for removing and replacing.

[FadeToScarlet]

I dropped my shower tray down below floor level to gain headroom.

 

I cut the ply floor, removed the brick ballast and used the cut off shape to support the tray on plenty of wooden blocks. The shower enclosure sits on an aluminium upstand I made, sealed to the tray.

 

Best thing I did was seal off the under shower area into a separate bilge in case of leaks.

[Murflynn]

 

Best thing I did was seal off the under shower area into a separate bilge in case of leaks.

that makes a lot of sense.

[cuthound]

Advantages are that a wet room takes much less space than a separate shower, toilet, etc. and still have a decent size shower.

Disadvantage is a soggy toilet roll

[Robbo]

Disadvantage is a soggy toilet roll

 

For the amount of space a decent shower takes up and gets used it does make sense to have a wet room and have the toilet roll protected against water next to toilet.

[ditchcrawler]

We had wet rooms offshore. Get up for a wee during the night and if your room mate had had a shower before he went to bed you ended up with wet feet. Likewise if the first up has a shower then the other one gets wet feet cleaning their teeth.

[Robbo]

We had wet rooms offshore. Get up for a wee during the night and if your room mate had had a shower before he went to bed you ended up with wet feet. Likewise if the first up has a shower then the other one gets wet feet cleaning their teeth.

 

Get some slippers?

[Murflynn]

duckboard

[jddevel]

Professionals going to quote for a fully sealed wetroom floor and upstand on Tuesday. Sort of convinced it`s

the way to go to make full use of the limited space a narrowboat offers inspite of the not insurmountable

problems of wet floors and soggy toilet paper. Thanks for all the sound advice and experience of others.

[WotEver]

Caravans, which are severely limited for space, generally come with either plastic all in one wet rooms like Rachel described, or with a separate shower with glass (well, plastic) door. The ones with separate showers out sell the wet room ones by a very large margin.

[Caprifool]

Interesting, over here anything but a wet room in a house or flat is illegal. Without one you wouldn't get any insurance and would probably have to pay for any water damage done to the neighbouring flats as well as your own.

 

Edit: the floors are slanted and any water left is just scraped to the drain with a squeegee. And if you got a "Stockholm shower" you just wipe the loo off with a towel. Easy.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Caprifool

[Murflynn]

Interesting, over here anything but a wet room in a house or flat is illegal. Without one you wouldn't get any insurance and would probably have to pay for any water damage done to the neighbouring flats as well as your own.

 

Edit: the floors are slanted and any water left is just scraped to the drain with a squeegee. And if you got a "Stockholm shower" you just wipe the loo off with a towel. Easy.

just common sense really.

 

I have suffered all sorts of accommodation on construction sites all over the world, and the very worst arrangement is a typical portakabin with a large shower/toilet room where the floor outside the shower tray has no drainage and the edges just become black with mould from constant dampness. Give me a wetroom every time, with a decent floor slope, the entrance door and the toilet at the high end and the shower draining into a channel at the lower end. No partition or curtain - they are just more things that get in the way and potentially look mouldy and naff.

[stegra]

Interesting, over here anything but a wet room in a house or flat is illegal. Without one you wouldn't get any insurance and would probably have to pay for any water damage done to the neighbouring flats as well as your own.

 

Edit: the floors are slanted and any water left is just scraped to the drain with a squeegee. And if you got a "Stockholm shower" you just wipe the loo off with a towel. Easy.

 

My first experience of a wet-room was just over the border in Finland about 15 years ago. The shower was essentially in the corner of a large utility room next to the sauna; there was no screen or curtain. I was well aware that there was a more relaxed attitude to nudity over there but it was still a little surprised when, mid way through showering, my friend's mum wandered in and casually started to sort out the washing.

[Bunny]

I know of one fit out by Reading Marine that had a wet room . N.B Chough. Try having a look on line . Bunny

[blackrose]

Advantages are that a wet room takes much less space than a separate shower, toilet, etc. and still have a decent size shower.

Yes I suppose so, as long as that outweighs the disadvantages.

[blackrose]

Best thing I did was seal off the under shower area into a separate bilge in case of leaks.

that makes a lot of sense.

Only if a bilge pump is installed too, which I assume it is. No point at all having sealed bilge area under the shower unless there's a pump or at least a water level alarm and a means of emptying it.

 

My first experience of a wet-room was just over the border in Finland about 15 years ago. The shower was essentially in the corner of a large utility room next to the sauna; there was no screen or curtain. I was well aware that there was a more relaxed attitude to nudity over there but it was still a little surprised when, mid way through showering, my friend's mum wandered in and casually started to sort out the washing.

So are you going to tell us the rest of the story?

[Robbo]

Yes I suppose so, as long as that outweighs the disadvantages.

I'm guessing that depends on how big your boat is, the lay out and how much room you want to use for the shower/toilet area. For me, I like the feeling of space and I could fit a separate shower and toilet area, however these will feel small where the wet room will give the feeling of much more space even tho it's actually using less.

 

For me the area I have to play with is around 4ft by 5ft, the 4ft length is along the gunnel (which is a wide gunnel at 1ft and higher up than a narrowboat at around 4.5ft from floor level) and you would enter the room from the opposite end (boat is 12ft wide), I could widen the from room from 5ft to around 7.5ft, but this will eat up into the corridor/bedroom (opposite the bathroom on the other tunnel is going to be a wardrobe, washing machine area). As the room is only 4ft wide having the shower as you enter the room, would make a small shower and small entrance so it would have to go next to the gunnel which would work if the room was 7.5ft long.

[Murflynn]

Only if a bilge pump is installed too, which I assume it is. No point at all having sealed bilge area under the shower unless there's a pump or at least a water level alarm and a means of emptying it.

 

 

Logical conclusion would be to have a welded steel tray (part of the boat structure) under the shower and dispense with the piping from the drain hole. The bilge pump serves to remove the shower water. In fact the floor of the shower need be no more than a grating, ensuring good ventilation of the sealed tray. Food for thought.

[FadeToScarlet]

Logical conclusion would be to have a welded steel tray (part of the boat structure) under the shower and dispense with the piping from the drain hole. The bilge pump serves to remove the shower water. In fact the floor of the shower need be no more than a grating, ensuring good ventilation of the sealed tray. Food for thought.

Exactly how Fox Boats of March built their hire boats.

[Robbo]

Yes I suppose so, as long as that outweighs the disadvantages.

The only disadvantage I see is a wet floor after showering? What others do you see?

[FadeToScarlet]

 

Only if a bilge pump is installed too, which I assume it is. No point at all having sealed bilge area under the shower unless there's a pump or at least a water level alarm and a means of emptying it

Wet vac. The area above it is a cupboard for storing spare loo cassettes, so I have a look every month or so to check there's no water.

 

It already helped me stop a drip from a pipe onto the Gulper, spotting it much earlier than otherwise.

[blackrose]

Wet vac. The area above it is a cupboard for storing spare loo cassettes, so I have a look every month or so to check there's no water.

 

It already helped me stop a drip from a pipe onto the Gulper, spotting it much earlier than otherwise.

 

Get yourself one of these - you'd probably still want to check every so often but it could give you an early warning.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EYO25QE?psc=1

 

I've got a few similar 9v alarms dotted around my boat - in the engine bilge, cabin bilge, in a tray under the shower drain and one with my water pump in a washing up bowl which has saved flooding a couple of times.

The only disadvantage I see is a wet floor after showering? What others do you see?

 

In my earlier post which you already responded to I mentioned a greater propensity for leaks. Greater movement between materials on boats compared to houses means that there is a potential for leaks in any wet bathroom area, including a shower. If you then increase the dimensions of that wet area you increase the potential for leaks.

 

While it's true that wetrooms have been sucessfully installed on boats, many others have also failed - and if it fails it may mean ripping out the whole bathroom (rather than just ripping out and replacing a shower area). Personally the only type of wetroom I would have on a boat is the one-piece moulded plastic type commonly found on GRP cruisers, but others are free to make their own choices.

 

The other disadvantages are a wet toilet, wet toilet paper already mentioned by others in this thread.

Edited January 21, 2017 by blackrose

[Naughty Cal]

Avoiding wet loo roll is easy enough. Just install a look roll holder with a flap over it.

 

[Robbo]

In my earlier post which you already responded to I mentioned a greater propensity for leaks. Wetrooms have been sucessfully installed on boats, but many have also failed and if they fail it may mean ripping out the whole thing (rather than just ripping out a shower area). The only type of wetroom I would have on a boat is the one-piece moulded plastic type commonly found on GRP cruisers. The other disadvantages are a wet toilet, wet toilet paper already mentioned in by others this thread.

To be honest I think there is less potential for leaks if the tanking is done right, in fact looking at most shower cubical installations I think these are more prone to leak long term!

 

I don't fancy a one piece moulded plastic as these tend to look cheap. Decent tanking should be all you really need.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Robbo