One of the wishes of many homeowners on their lists is converting an old bathtub to a walk-in shower—whether it’s a prefab unit or custom job. Having a walk-in shower can generate the illusion of a large space and provide the bathroom with a clean-lined appearance. Plus, for the people who like a quick shower better than a long soak, this transformation is definitely to suit your active lifestyle.
However, there are people who still question if walk-in showers are really that functional. In this article, we are going to discuss the pros and cons of walk-in showers together with several considerations and tips. This may possibly help you with your bathroom designing or your next washroom remodelling project.
What’s a Walk-in Shower?
If you don’t have any idea what a walk-in shower is, it’s a type of shower where you don’t have to step up, hop in or tip right over to get to the shower space. They are not a combination of a tub or a shower curtain. These are areas in the washroom with a glass enclosure and plastic flooring. Normally, these walk-in showers don’t have doors for easy practicality, but there are several people who prefer a simple glass door so the water doesn’t go out into the rest of the washroom area or to make them look messier.
The market today has plenty of shower designs to offer. Home builders can construct and customize your walk-in shower as per your requirements. However, there are advantages and restrictions to the design one needs to be aware of while considering this alternative for their washrooms.
Advantages of Walk-in Showers
Getting in is effortless: When it comes to mobility, these walk-in showers are the best! You don’t even need to step in, like how you do in the usual bathtub. You don’t even have to climb on to an elevated platform and come down into that shower space behind the curtain. For a classic walk-in shower, there’s no blockage of a door too.
Provides a bigger and spacious appearance: It doesn’t matter what kind of bathroom you have; a walk-in shower can turn it looking larger and roomy, as you can simply see through the shower, without any misty or blurry hindrance in between.
This will work well when you renovate your bathroom by replacing the bathtubs with open glass shower doors. Also, because the shower itself becomes visible to the individual, the bathroom looks larger, as if it doubles the size. How? It’s because if the footage being covered by the shower area being provided to the whole bathroom in visual perception.
Their durability is unbelievable: Many people think that walk-in showers are weak; since they are made of glass. As a matter of fact, this kind of shower is intended to endure all the wear and tear that comes with years of usage and handling. You can consider it as a long-term investment, you don’t have to worry too much about replacing it for a long period of time.
Not to mention that they are also low in maintenance, unlike other shower spaces. It’s very easy to clean the dirt since they don’t have plenty of curves on the glass where the water can get confined.
Drawbacks of Walk-in Showers
Not getting complete privacy: Well, of course, given the utilization of glass, and not having a door in the shower, you can expect not getting the kind of privacy you want to have. So if you value privacy and some solitude moments, you can invest in glass frosted and getting a translucent glass shower to make the needed amends.
You can find water everywhere: Since there’s no door in the shower, you can expect water splashing out of the shower area, into the entire bathroom. Carefully plan and install small drainage by the splash guard to prevent the situation as much as possible.
Slippery floors and surfaces: This is pretty obvious since all the water splashing makes the ground wet and can be hazardous if someone slips in the washroom. This is why many homeowners like to buy anti-slip rubber mats.
Ways to Maintain and Care for Walk-in Showers
Once you’re done having a bathroom update. It’s important to care for it and have it maintained so you can keep your new shower looking and smelling great.
- Install a top-grade bathroom exhaust fan to get rid of humidity residue from the room before taking a shower.
- Utilize an open-bottom shower caddy to carry containers of bath gel, conditioner, shampoo, and bar soap. If you’re just going to leave these items on tile shelves or the floor, it can lead to muggy, slimy excess and mildew development.
- Buy a daily shower spray to break down soap residue. Just spray it lightly on tile walls and floors to shed water and keep soap scum and hard water deposits from assembling. Then get rid of excess water from tile walls rubber scraper if necessary. In this way, the walls will dry faster.
- Once a week, make it a habit to spray tile walls using an all-purpose bathroom cleaner that has a brush with stiff nylon bristles to scrub tile and grout lines. Rinse well with plain water.
- Using a commercial glass cleaner and soft clean cloths, clean your glass panels after each shower to maintain a sparkling and clean glass.
- Secure the grout lines every six months, or as suggested by your tile setter, to avoid hard water stains and mildew from forming.