Designing / BuildingHome & Garden

Shower? Tub? Tub & Shower Combo?

If you haven’t considered this yet, you surely will soon… so long as you’re planning on building a new home, that is.

Which will it be for your master bath?…

  • Just a shower, no tub
  • Just a bathtub, no shower
  • A tub & shower combo
  • Separate shower and a tub

For years now, I’ve had my heart set on a completely custom shower inside the master bathroom. I call it “my YMCA shower”.

separate-shower-tub

I guess that puts me in the “just a shower, no tub” category.

I visualize our new master bath as a tiled wet room. Yep, a full-size walk-in shower room.

There is no tub or shower “insert” — just floor to ceiling tile.

No separate shower flooring — instead, the tiled wall combines with the tiled floor, seamlessly.

And inside my ideal master bathroom, a bath tub is nowhere to be found. (I figure I can use the tub in the guest bathroom on those rare instances when I get the urge to take a bath.)

Ideally, there is also no door… not even a shower curtain on this mega shower. The entryway is far enough away from the actual showerhead that there is very little chance of anything nearby getting wet. (Though the entire room is tile anyway, so it wouldn’t matter much if something did catch a splash or two of water.)

And another bonus for a walk-in shower like this would be a cut-out window in the shower room itself — high enough up to be private, but large enough to let in a significant amount of light.

 

The Benefits Of A Wet Room Shower

A shower like this is very easy to clean. I know because we had a shower like this in a house we rented in Florida. (Loved it!)

The best part: No shower door to get hazed over with soap scum. No metal parts or nooks & crannies to get gunked up with grime over time. No shower curtain & liner to try and keep from mildewing. Nothing but smooth tiled walls to wipe down (or hose down with a detachable shower head) in one fell swoop.

NOTE: We are still in the design phase regarding the master bathroom in our soon-to-be-built log home. However, as it stands now, our current plans are to include a “wet room” shower, and no bathtub. Pictures to follow (…several months from now, of course).