Stone Walls and Wet Rooms

[Linden Arden]

Apologies for the thread title sounding like an Elton John song.

I am about to start construction of an en-suite bathroom, one wall of which is the original (Limousin, if it makes a difference) stone - I wan this wall to be part of the shower area. Presumably I need to repoint it as it hasn't been touched for many a year, is there anything special I need to treat/point it with if it's going to be doused in water twice a day ??

Also, in an ideal world, the shower area would be walk in with no door and no wall, ie tiled on two sides and floor with the stone wall at the back - is there an accepted distance water travels in a shower (I know it depends on what you're doing...) or to put it another way, how big does the shower floor need to be to stop the wooden floor in the rest of the bathroom getting wet ??

Thank you for your indulgence

[Guest CFrost]

Done lots of looking into wet rooms good link http://www.wetroom.info/sitemap.htm lots of good ideas.

http://www.pickquick.co.uk also have products that are used for tanking and waterproofing such areas. They advised me to apply two coats of Rubberised latex bitumen emulsion under the tile adhesive to create a waterprrof barrier in case the water manages to penetrate the waterproof tile adhesive.

 

I have built one in my house in the UK and found 1metre wide and 1.8 metres long very good. The closer the shower head points directly towards the floor rather than at an angle ie directly down from above, the better to reduce the splash distance.

Down lighters used within the shower area MUST confirm the the regs for lights within a shower area, I found mine through http://www.screwfix.co.uk mail order and they deliver.

Take care with the drain and ensure that access can be gained to the trap and pipe work without having to resort to taking up the tiles again.

 

Hope this helps

 

Regards

Phil & Kimberley

 

[Anton Redman]

Provided you have good ventilation I think you could get away with the wall about 1.2 metres from the shower head. I would use a ceramic shower tray rather than going full wet room route.  This gives you a 8 cm lip to step over .

[Linden Arden]

Thanks for the wet room advice people - the point I may have failed to make is that I want the stone wall as part of the shower but still as exposed stone; presumably some sort of waterproofing is required, although thinking about it the outside face of the stone wall seems to stand up to the Limousin rain pretty well.

[vicandphil]

You could probably coat the stone wall with a product such as unibond pva mixed with water. This has the affect of being a transparent sealer so you could still see the stone in your wall.

I would imagine there are other sealers that would do the same job.

[Anton Redman]

[quote]Thanks for the wet room advice people - the point I may have failed to make is that I want the stone wall as part of the shower but still as exposed stone; presumably some sort of waterproofing is req...[/quote]

1. Check put how far the eaves overhang. Ours are a good 80 cm clear of the walls . Our foundations are on shale which I can cut through with a club hammer. I would not want risk a daily jet of water on some of our rocks.

2. What happens when you lean against wall accidently ?  Ours are somewhat rough.