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Bathroom shower stalls
There are many ways to create bathroom shower
stalls, but in the past few years, the most popular and common method is
also the simplist, and that is to use a pre formed, fiberglass stall that
comes from the factory already made with soap dishes and everything, ready
to push up into the wall or corner of your bathroom and frame in with two
by four stud framing, for a permanent but easily installed pop in type of
modular shower stall. These shower stalls are in a variety of sizes,
styles, and colors, and there are some that are large enough to accomodate
two shower heads, one in each end of the modular unit. They are referred
to as modular because everything you need to install a shower is included,
except for the piped in plumbing and fixtures themselves. You put the
modular until up the way you might attach a set of permament books shelves
or perhaps a pre made closet structure, and then you are done. You just
have to install it so that the drain hole in the bottom and the various
places where the faucets and shower pipes enter the stall are lined up
with the pre fab holes in the modular until, so that you can secure the
plumbing as you tie in the unit to the framing around the outside of it,
where the framing will be hidden by the curvature of the edges of the
modular stall.
Other bathroom shower stalls are made from scratch, using custom designs
or architectural drawings, and are created just as you might build a small
room, with the walls, floors, cieling, and fixtures all intergrated into
the plan. The easiest ones are made in the corners of rooms that are
already concrete or stone, and the stone or concrete is sometimes coated
with a water proof sealant. Then a drain is put into the floor, tiles are
laid around the floor to the edges of the walls, and usually a lip of
masonry is placed around the outer edge of the floor of the shower, where
it meets the rest of the room, so that the water in the bottom of the
shower cannot flow out onto the rest of the floor and cause water damage.
The shower head can be run up and placed from the ceiling over the middle
of the shower stall, or it can be run along one wall so that it is
attached to the side.
One of the mostvery interesting and exotic types of bathroom shower stalls
is what is called a jungle shower, and these are often used outside, to
provide a place to wash off after going to the beach, working in the
garden, or just to make a romantic getaway shower in a remote part of the
landscaping, where you may enhance the location with stone waterfall
features, a gold fish pond with water lilies, or other features like a
viel of vines or tropical plants. Of course these showers are suitable
mostly in warm climates, or at least for use only in the summer months,
because they are simple, rustic, and based on those used in places like
Costa Rica and Hawaii, where the temperatures are mild or downright hot
and sunny all the time. The jungle shower is usually fashioned from bamboo
or other natural material, and is basically a shower with no hot water
line, open to the sky, with a simple drain in the ground at the floor of
it, or a trough to run the water away from the base of the shower. For hot
water, a cistern or even a large plastic water container with a valve or
spout on it, heated by solar energy, often works well.
Other ideas for designing of bathroom shower stalls can be found in the
how to books at your local home impromement center or at any good
bookstore with a section on building or home decorating.
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