Ready to use shower cabins.

[grumps]

Good afternoon,

It's a lovely sunny day here in Morbihan and lunch was exceptional !!

Now :

Does anyone have an opinion regarding ready made shower cubicles ?

We are about to start fitting our second 'bathroom' which will not have a bath, just a sink, toilet and shower.

The house has oak floors on chestnut beams and consequently presents some levelling challenges but we don't like tiled floors and we will be keeping the wooden ones.

Our first 'proper' bathroom functions perfectly, and we see no reason why we can't have a shower cubicle on the wood floor as long as the shower tray remains rigid.

I've been looking at the various options to create the shower and initially thought that I would install a porcelain tray and build a tiled wall round it with one large glass entrance door.

Having visited several Bricos to get prices for all the bits and bobs I've noticed that there are ready to go units available for quite a bit less money than a bespoke unit would cost.

The quality is variable and reflected in the price but some units actually look and feel quite good.

My initial concern is that they all have plastic or fibreglass shower trays instead of traditional porcelain and I wonder if they might be too flexible.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts and experiences regarding these units.

Thanks,

Mark.

[andyh4]

Our experience is that they are very good, but that the mastic which you will need to use to seal the panels together will require regular renewal. Unlike solid porcelain and tiled units, these do flex and there seems to be nothing to stop them doing so - except perhaps to concrete them solidly in!!!

[Gluestick]

Well, my advice is don't!

Far better to create a shower partition from water-proof quality board, or better, two walls onto the existing wall as a rear; tiled.

Don't be seduced by the massage jets, either!

The critical aspects for a decent shower are: the thermostatic valve and its simple replacement: the shower head; the tray and the waste; and, of course, the door.

Cabin tend to suffer from various problems: perhaps the main, being replacement of the dedicated thermostatic valve and tap when it dies: whereupon one finds it is unobtainable.........

Doors rust; and are hard to clean, properly.

Our plastic tray cracked early on (after the warranty had expired, naturally) and the replacement cost, for a solid plastic job which fitted the side was 40% of the whole damned thing's original cost! (Leroy Merlin).

The sides wobble; and as Andy states, the sealing mastic, needs regular replacement; which is quite a job, as it entails dismantling the whole cabin.

KISS!

Keep It Simple Stupid.

[:)]

[Chancer]

I've had two and will never again buy one, they did me OK when I first moved in and had no facilities, I sold one on and unfortunately the other is in my bathroom, they look great but are awfull to live with, the tray does not have any fall at all and you have to mount the cabin at a stupid looking angle, even then you will be ankle deep during a shower, the water runs away so slowly through the bonde that there will be horrible deposits left behind, you wont be able to clean it for several hours and even then you are mopping up a sludgy puddle.

The base trays are not strong enough and unsupported, I now weigh very little but it flexes and cracks every time.

Buy a proper base and door, several years back they sold pre-formed back and side panels for showers and corner showers, they were really good and really practical, you could remove them to access the jets etc but nowadays its back to tiling.

[Quillan]

We had one for around six years in a small guest bedroom and it was OK did the job but I wouldn't use one again. We have a more flash one in another room which is one of these sit in jobs and loads of different shower heads. Both did and have lasted well. No problem with joints and the ones we bought have had their thermostatic taps changed without problem. You simply buy one that has a standard set of holes for the taps. The problem that we had and why we had to change one was somebody was drunk (a female guest) and fell over in the show and on the way down grabbed hold of the pole that the shower head was attached to. Ripped the whole thing out of the plastic cabinet so we had to replace it. We actually got a bad review for that would you believe even though the guest stuck it back with chewing gum so we didn't know till after they had left and we cleaned it. However I did reclaim the doors and the thermostatic valve which I used to build a proper shower with a porcelain tray (I wouldn't buy fibreglass again). Perhaps to get round building the wall you might look at a corner door shower.

[Pierre ZFP]

Can I add a 'Me Too'

I have the same model cubicle as Gluestick above and have had exactly the same issues. 

The (plastic) shower tray cracked, the thermostatic valve got stuck in the Cold position and nothing would persuade it that I wanted a warm shower.

I got it on the basis that it would be easy to instal and would do me for light use in a holiday home.

Pretty high up on my To-Do list is to rip it out and do it properly!

[Quillan]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

Can I add a 'Me Too'

I have the same model cubicle as Gluestick above and have had exactly the same issues. 

The (plastic) shower tray cracked, the thermostatic valve got stuck in the Cold position and nothing would persuade it that I wanted a warm shower.

I got it on the basis that it would be easy to instal and would do me for light use in a holiday home.

Pretty high up on my To-Do list is to rip it out and do it properly!

[/quote]

We bought both from Leroy Merlin. I don't know if that makes a difference but I normally find their products a bit better in most cases than Brico Depot although I use both depending on what I am working on.

When I replace the second shower I will also do a 'proper job'. These fancy showers look nice but in reality the 'gadgets' hardly get used although I do like the 'rain' shower bit.

[grumps]

Thanks for all your replies, which confirm my reservations about ready built shower cubicles.

I'll build a proper one with a porcelain tray, tile all the bathroom walls and fit a good quality corner opening shower door, ending up with 2 sides tiled and 2 sides glass.

Parfait !

(Bizarrely ; the porcelain trays appear to be cheaper than the plastic/fibreglass ones !)

Thanks once again,

Mark.

[f1steveuk]

First off, hello Gluestick, nice to "see" you, hope all is well?

We wondered about these cubicles, the promise of a quick and easy install, but I was concerned about "wobble" and the likely cracking it might cause. I wondered about the use of expanding foam to make the tray and walls more rigid, then thought, might as well get a tray and glass blocks and build a proper shower.

If we went for a plastic cubicle for the rarely used "guest flaat", would the expanding foam option be any good, baring in mind it will be on a concrete floor?

[Gluestick]

[quote user="f1steveuk"]First off, hello Gluestick, nice to "see" you, hope all is well?[/quote]

Not too dusty, Steve: older but probably not much wiser!

Yourself?

[quote]We wondered about these cubicles, the promise of a quick and easy install, but I was concerned about "wobble" and the likely cracking it might cause. I wondered about the use of expanding foam to make the tray and walls more rigid, then thought, might as well get a tray and glass blocks and build a proper shower.

If we went for a plastic cubicle for the rarely used "guest flat", would the expanding foam option be any good, baring in mind it will be on a concrete floor?

[/quote]

Well, my not exactly "Cheap" unit from Leroy, had a tray, very thin, in-filled with expanding foam, presumably to create rigidity, precisely as you suggest.

However, it bent and crackled and groaned under light loads. And then fractured, irreparably around the drain orifice.

The sides wobbled and moved. I was compelled to replace the tray with a very heavy and stiff unit (From Leroy), drilled and fixed multiple new proper plated nuts and bolts and fixed the sides all around to the tray with a super-strong Dupont sealer/glue. Having repaired the thermostat valve by disassembling, bringing back to UK, and into the workshop.

It is possible to fit a new wax cartridge to most: if one can find/ modify a suitable unit.

Never ever again!

[:@]

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

Can I add a 'Me Too'

I have the same model cubicle as Gluestick above and have had exactly the same issues. 

The (plastic) shower tray cracked, the thermostatic valve got stuck in the Cold position and nothing would persuade it that I wanted a warm shower.

I got it on the basis that it would be easy to instal and would do me for light use in a holiday home.

Pretty high up on my To-Do list is to rip it out and do it properly!

[/quote]

Yes I do remember that, Pierre!

If you also remember, I did successfully repair my shower valve.

See Here:

Perhaps worth the OP looking at this and being warned off!

[:D]

[Quillan]

[quote user="f1steveuk"]First off, hello Gluestick, nice to "see" you, hope all is well?


We wondered about these cubicles, the promise of a quick and easy install, but I was concerned about "wobble" and the likely cracking it might cause. I wondered about the use of expanding foam to make the tray and walls more rigid, then thought, might as well get a tray and glass blocks and build a proper shower.

If we went for a plastic cubicle for the rarely used "guest flaat", would the expanding foam option be any good, baring in mind it will be on a concrete floor?
[/quote]

The instructions for both of mine told you to screw it to the wall for which fittings were supplied. No wobble on either.

[Chancer]

My first one went on the first floor in my first temporary "camping" bathroom while I was living in a garden gazebo.

It seemed like to much grief to move it into my own flat when I got to that stage so I bought another thinkingI would use it in one of the rented flats; what was I thinking of [:'(]

Granted back in 2005/6 all visitors from the UK said "wow" but I soon regretted fitting the second one which to this day I am forced to live with, I got Lucky with the first one though, someone who bought something off me from Leboncoin, probably cheap UK loft insulation, gave me €100 to take the thing away, OK it may have had little use but I got the good end of the bargain.

Mind you if you think they are cr*p these days you should have seen the one I removed by throwing it out the first floor window.

For me the mitigeurs and jets have only been a problem on one unit, the cabinet I can live with its just the awfull bases which creak despite being foam filled, mine havnt cracked yet but they sound like they do each time, that and the lack of fall and pathetically slow drainage.