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Why you need a good shower enclosure
If you have a shower, especially one that is
inside your house or apartment, you will likely require some kind of a
shower enclosure, to keep the water from the shower from going outside of
the shower and getting all over the floor, walls, and other parts of the
room the shower is in, which is most likely your bathroom.
A shower enclosure for inside should be made with care and attention,
because water is the arch enemy of construction materials, in most cases,
and if you have water getting where it is not wanted or welcome, you can
wind up with some kinds of problems that grow and spread like a cancer
through the building, starting in one room and following routes through
the floor, the walls, the subfloors, and into other rooms. As water moves
away from your shower, it wicks its way - in other words, it follows the
path of least resistance by going toward anything that absorbs it, and it
spreads dangerous moisture throughout the path it takes. If you have a
leak for instance in a shower in your bathroom upstairs, and it allows
water to collect on the floor, the water will then seek a crack or opening
in the caulk or the flooring, and go through there. As you see the water
go away and may be led to think it has just evaporated harmlessly, it is
in reality moving down under the floor where you can no longer see it.
Once there, it can contact electrical wires, insulation, the plywood
substrate, and other parts of the house and gradually cause them to
disintegrate. By the time you find out you have a leak, it may be dripping
through the ceiling below and it may have already rotted out the wood in
the walls downstairs, as well as those that support the floor of the
bathroom.
So, when you make a shower enclosure, be sure that it is covering all the
areas where water can sneak out of the shower, so that you don't have
water getting onto the walls or floor of your room. It is a good idea to
make the enclosure tight by using caulking, and to check the seal of the
caulk every year to make sure it is still working well.
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