W
etrooms have been
one of the fastest
growing trends in UK
bathroom design for
a number of years,
they make the most
of space within a small or large room and are
a great all-round design solution to suit people
of any age or ability. The trend today however
differs from early wetroom designs where
the whole room tended to be open-plan. Today
designers are more likely to create a broken-plan
design offering alternative uses in the space,
with distinct zones created by screens, split
f loors and various finishes.
This new broken-plan solution has been driven
largely by practical considerations. It usually
involves a glass shower screen to ensure that
not all the f loor becomes wet and requires
waterproofing. The trend has seen the sale of
deep shower trays reduce and tempered glass
shower panels and fixings rise to ref lect it over
the past few years.
To facilitate the wetroom trend, which offers an
overall cleaner uncluttered line in the room, the
number of hidden components in the bathroomhas risen. And as they are hidden behind a
façade that can be expensive to access, like tiling
or waterproof wall panels, it has meant that
the performance and reliability of these hidden
elements has become even more important.
Early wetrooms tended to ref lect commercial
applications where the whole room became a
showering area. Waterproofed by a membrane
product, they were and still can be an expensive
option largely due to the time involved in fitting
and drying, rather than the material cost. A
wetroom quickly became a specialist product
to install, often carried out by experienced
plumbers that were prepared to embrace new
technologies. New materials have been developed
since these early days to speed up the process,
making it more affordable and to offer f lexibility
in the size or scale of the waterproofed area.
Early wetroom solutions would take at least
two days to install, simply because many of
the membrane solutions required 24 hours to
become waterproof. Today, products like Kudos
Aqua4ma offer a dry installation with uPVC
panels with solvent welded joints allowing fitting
and tiling within the day. The robust panels
allow a damaged tile to be removed and replacedwithout compromising the waterproof integrity
of the system. Whilst the Aqua4ma system allows
for a full wetroom application, by far the most
specified element is the in-f loor galvanised steel
shower tray and shower deck, so creating a part
wet f loor area, a trend growing in popularity in
any size of bathroom. It’s also possible to retrofit
finish the showering f loor area with an almost
transparent anti-slip product.
For those not prepared to go all the way with
a wetroom solution, the market for shower trays
has changed dramatically over the years too
with trays as shallow as 30mm and slimline
high performance waste systems to suit the take
away of large volumes of water from large trays.
Dependent on the f loor these trays can also be
inset to become f lush with the f loor and there
are now a choice of tray materials and anti-slip
textures that are attractive and practical too.
Whatever your choice, full wetroom, part
wetroom or slimline shower tray the result is a
great base for walk in showering glass panels
which look great in bathrooms large or small.http://www.kudosshowers.co.uk
@kudosshowersltdNick Graville, Sales & Marketing Director at Kudos
Showers, discusses the latest trends for broken-plan wetroomsSOLUTIONS
Interior & Exterior Finishing Phase 3
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