Wet Room & Super Loos

the only thing I can mention through disastrous experience is the floor itself, if it’s not at the right gradient you’ll have flooding so when you agree to it and decide on what you want just double check this – it’s a common trap. If you get a tray in the glass enclose thingy, make sure it’s not slippy. I find people’s definition of non slippy differs from mine – some just cant get enough of an ice rink like feel when water is added…..not sure if that helps at all.

I like the sink idea though…slightly jealous.

I turned down a wet room last year.

I like carpets and lots of lovely warm rugs and mats. All you do is
pick up the rugs and mats and chuck ’em in the washing machine.

But it was probably the wrong decision, these are so functional.

Are you having two sinks? How are you going to wash your hands, face, brush teeth and such with a sink that has no downward facing tap?

Wetrooms have their good points but they are not space savers and bathroom brochure pictures tend to have bathrooms bigger than my house when displaying, lol.

I have issues with my shower tray, because it is level it is rubbish at draining. The water can sit in it for ages. The flooring that my housing association put in is a bit of a puzzle, it takes an age to dry so we often have to mop it as PAs and I could end up in a crumpled heap if we slipped.

I assumed minkey wrenches was a deliberate error lol or is that just how my mind works

@sar78 wrote:

I assumed minkey wrenches was a deliberate error lol or is that just how my mind works

My are typos legendary

Our bathroom is a self build (and showered in loads and loads of wet rooms on holiday) whereas my old one was done by the council (Altro marine bobbled flooring slightly sloping to the plug for the wet room look). Was nice and grippy but because it was bobbled, when I fell on it, it was like being spiked by a bed of nails – very ouch).

Currently we have raised the floor of the bathroom, which allows for a toilet to be sunken along with the riser (so you don’t see the rise legs and means the whole thing goes very low as I have short legs and need to reach the floor for balance when seated). Looked at the closomat toilets myself but the model that rises vertical doesn’t have a full remote control bidet function (I would say this is essential if you might lose the use of your arms enough to wipe/wash properly). Also, the closemat seats don’t cup my pelvis enough to keep me balanced (and their ergonomic one clamps me so much to the loo I can’t be pulled off onto my feet!!). I’m still waiting for the invention of the perfect bidet/toilet/riser thingy whatsit.

The sink was chosen specifically to be big enough to lean forward and get my head in it along with PA hands and a shower head. The tap is central and swings away over the side for my head to go into the large deep bowl. The taps either side are angled and move in notches with a cross hair type tap head (which I used to be able to turn with very little hand movement but now I can’t reach). I think we just got them all from B&Q. There is no pedestal so I fit right under and hubs built a shelf along the wall that it hangs on to put my feet up and balance i.e. foot plate function. (Oh and the shower hose is next to the sink for the hair washing).

Those moving sinks are great – I used one once that had a deep inch long ridge all the way around which I couldn’t lean over to do my hair or get my hands in properly but they rise and lower thing is great.

We have built in a level grid shower but it’s not ever worked as the bathroom is a build in progress (I can’t see it being finished in my life time to be honest!) So, I have a sink wash and a tuppar ware bowl of water balanced on my chair for the loo (soon to be replaced by a bidet). We have future plans to get a ceiling hoist so built in a door that leads to the bedroom and would track over everything (we think). This is a real problem area at the moment because if I fall on the bathroom floor during a transfer, I’m in real trouble because not only does it hurt like hell on my pelvis but I can’t breathe out of my ‘wheelchair’ position as I slump all over the place :-/ At the moment people just have to quickly scoop me up and do a one person lift straight of the floor which is really dodgy H&S wise. Thinking that getting the ceiling hoist in in the next year or so might be the way to go but at least we factored it into the build.

The hardest part has been the floor – currently it’s a bit of lino off-cut that has none-slip surfaces that is supposed to be ok for wet rooms etc as a temporary floor covering. However, this is still far too slippy when wet to put in permanently (or if I have dusty feet that lessens the friction) so we bought a dining room table top protector and used a glue to make the backing rough – this is on the floor in front of the loo for transfers. Basically, I have tried lots of bathrooms flooring and still have to use none slip mats and similar to stand on or we all go sliding onto the floor!

On holiday, the wet rooms often turn into a swimming pool because the conversion has been done really badly. Been in some really good ones though where their is only a little slope, good drainage and no crappy curtain to get wrapped up in. Hubs usually ends up in the shower with me because he gets drenched – PAs used to use swimming costumes or bring a change because they always ended up wet. Never had flooding problems with my wet room at uni or with the council DFG conversion. Sometimes, the brakes on shower chair wasn’t very good and I would roll out of the bathroom though

@rachelmurphy wrote:

we are about to have a wet room put in but we only have a 1 bed flat and they want to rip out our only storage cupboard in our hall way to make the bathroom more accessible … as our flat is housing association the ot has said its either that or we could put in for a move to bigger accommodation. think its more hassle and stress we dont need , but hey ho ! i love the idea about a sink like they have in hairdressers , that would be brilliant .

Sometimes I think OT’s just want to knock walls down. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.