Bathroom Remodel - Steam Shower

[lovbyts]

Do any of you guys have a steam shower in your bathroom?

I'm purchasing a 2nd house, closing in a couple of weeks and we plan on doing some remodeling before moving in. $13K worth of granite counters not counting removal of old counter tops or cabinets. Thats just the granite, fabrication and install.

The bathroom we are also remodeling and I'm tearing out the way to small shower and single person tub that was put into a huge bathroom and thinking about putting in one of these jetted corner tubs and steam showers. I already have a jetted 2 person bath so I cant go smaller again, especially in a much bigger house.

[SexySweetheart]

the bottom pix looks like a the teleporter from THE FLY lol

[Times Roman]

what a coincidence! didn't even know it was called a steam shower. had both of those in afghanistan. one in one bedroom, the other in the other one I stayed in.

first, the tub was too spacious and takes up too much floor space for most bathrooms. not good for hygeine. possibly good for entertainment, but doubtful, never got to try it since only me in the room, and i had to modify it so i could take a shower. it was a pain in the ass stepping into and out of every morning and the tile was slippery on the restroom floor due to spillage. so if your goal is to sip wine with your woman as a prelude to sex, go for it. but if your goal is to "get clean", this tub is not very effective in my humble opinion. Bottom line, it's a bulky Jacuzzi tub, not a hot tub where you can really stretch out and relax. If you want a hot tub, just get a hot tub.

second. the shower. looks pretty cool, right? Mine even had a radio in there, with tricky disco lights, and more knobs and buttons to control whether or not water shoots out at you from the side, the ceiling, or the shower head. Again, sounds pretty cool, no?

Two problems.

1) it's a confined space. notice it has a ceiling? the internal volume of air is low, so it will get steamy quick. but no real air circulation. if you fart, you'll be breathing it immediately and for about 20 seconds, filtering it through your lungs. Yummy. But without this gaseous adulterant, when inside and the water running, with low volume for breathing, it "feels" like you are breathing the same air repeatedly. By the time you finally step out, the outside air in the restroom tastes fresh and clean and this aint right. As fancy as this thing is, a regular shower beats this thing hands down. I would personally never own one. I saw one one time where it was used appropriately. It was in a barn, and instead of spending tens of thousands constructing a restroom so he can shower off after riding horseback all day or working on the ranch, he just hooked up one of these units plus a hot water heater, and viola! Great idea, and very economical considering his options (he woman didn't want him coming in the house nasty, after mucking stalls and such)

2) The ceiling water dispensers really are a piece of shit, and are supposed to simulate a "warm tropical rain"? there are hundreds of water nozzles in the ceiling of this thing, and when new, works great. Two things will potentially happen. If you have any hard water at all, they will clog since so small, due to calcium deposits. the other thing is if you use this option, they drip. nothing worse than to get in first thing, before turning on the water and having the ceiling drip on you. or when you turn the water off and they are still dripping. no one wants a dripping ceiling, and that is what you will get with water nozzles coming from the ceiling.

Sorry LB, neither of these items are really that great. Personally, I'd construct a big dual nozzle shower, the traditional way, and if you want a tub, just get a jumbo claw foot tub. Both these things are a piece of shit.

EDIT:
on the tub. if you use as a bath for one person, that really sucks up a shit load of hot water. I had the corner tub like in the pic, and I couldn't fill it because the tub capacity exceeded my small hot water heater capacity.

[slfmade]

We want to put one in our house when we build it. Check out bathroomgetaways.com.

[kelkel]

You know I flew into this thread thinking hot Asian girls in showers.

WTF!

[Times Roman]

We want to put one in our house when we build it. Check out bathroomgetaways.com.

be real careful mate. many of these are a real piece of shit, made in china. read my write up and you'll understand. If you want this functionality, suggest opening the wallet a little wider and plumb the bathroom correctly, instead of buying one of these "ready to go" modular pieces of shit.

the plastic on them is such that it makes it real hard to keep sanitary. you have to climb inside to clean, and if you are spraying chemicals, suggest a mask as you will be in a confined space breathing in the fumes.

the shower fixtures are lower quality. You think you are getting a good deal due to the price/functionality, but the reality is these things don't stay nice for very long.

Trust me, I've used both for about a year.

[slfmade]

be real careful mate. many of these are a real piece of shit, made in china. read my write up and you'll understand. If you want this functionality, suggest opening the wallet a little wider and plumb the bathroom correctly, instead of buying one of these "ready to go" modular pieces of shit.

the plastic on them is such that it makes it real hard to keep sanitary. you have to climb inside to clean, and if you are spraying chemicals, suggest a mask as you will be in a confined space breathing in the fumes.

the shower fixtures are lower quality. You think you are getting a good deal due to the price/functionality, but the reality is these things don't stay nice for very long.

Trust me, I've used both for about a year.

Fair enough. Thanks

[Cuz]

13 grand in granite? wow, that must be some high end exotic granite and about 100 sq ft or so. dammt man. Make sure you get one of those "rain style" shower heads.

[Hoggage_54]

[kelkel]

There it is! ^^^^

[fit2bOld]

A nice large walk in tiled shower with a place to sit and steam unit is definitly better than that hunk of fiberglass.

[lovbyts]

All good honest advice and that is what I was looking for.

They tub will be for a 2 person intimacy time and not for cleansing. The shower, Yeah I will probably just go with full glass enclosure for now with dual heads and built in body massage heads, then add the steam unit later?

One thing I know about the units I was looking at they do have exaust fans I would have hooked up so that wouldn't be a worry but built in would probably be better value.

[Honkey_Kong]

All good honest advice and that is what I was looking for.

They tub will be for a 2 person intimacy time and not for cleansing. The shower, Yeah I will probably just go with full glass enclosure for now with dual heads and built in body massage heads, then add the steam unit later?

One thing I know about the units I was looking at they do have exaust fans I would have hooked up so that wouldn't be a worry but built in would probably be better value.

In order for us to be able to give you proper advice, we're going to need to see your hot young asian ladyfriends soaking wet and as close to naked as this site will allow.

Feel free to post high-res pics or video of them.

[Shol'va]

[QUOTE=chadcuz1985;6623378]13 grand in granite? wow

[B]Here's hoping you aren't getting uhum.... Taken for Granite![/B]..

[lovbyts]

[QUOTE=Shol'va;6627227]

13 grand in granite? wow

[B]Here's hoping you aren't getting uhum.... Taken for Granite![/B]..

Working on more quotes but I know it's still not going to be cheap. I figured around 10K before getting bids. We are looking at at-least 3 full sheets of Granite and with rounded edges.

[Lunk1]

I prefer hard water so none of those would work for me.

[lovbyts]

I prefer hard water so none of those would work for me.

Oh yeah, no hard water issues in my are. If the water was any softer it wouldn't get you wet...

[Cuz]

3 full slabs is a lot. It is cheaper if you buy the slabs though. I have a friend with a granite business so I was lucky he could take out all of the overhead the huge companies charge. Granite at a shop will run you 45-100 dollars sq ft here, and we are very poor here. I figure 80-200 in a metropolis. I had 2 estimates done when we done ours and I ended up saving about 600 bucks just on our little job. Its all about what kind of granite you like, the prettier more vivid colors in the pattern of the rock can go up drastically compared to the solid colors. I have the "tan brown", its a dark granite for the kitchen and " venecian gold" for our bathroom. just my .02, hope it goes well. its quite a project if you are doing it yourself.

[lovbyts]

3 full slabs is a lot. It is cheaper if you buy the slabs though. I have a friend with a granite business so I was lucky he could take out all of the overhead the huge companies charge. Granite at a shop will run you 45-100 dollars sq ft here, and we are very poor here. I figure 80-200 in a metropolis. I had 2 estimates done when we done ours and I ended up saving about 600 bucks just on our little job. Its all about what kind of granite you like, the prettier more vivid colors in the pattern of the rock can go up drastically compared to the solid colors. I have the "tan brown", its a dark granite for the kitchen and " venecian gold" for our bathroom. just my .02, hope it goes well. its quite a project if you are doing it yourself.

I hear you and I'm not talking about the small 3ft slabs. I'm talking about the 5ft x 10ft slabs. Yeah most of the slabs we have looked at are rated A- = least expensive - D+ = most expensive and of course the ones we want to go with are all D = $2000 per slab. I am of course still price shopping but we have been going to BIG warehouses with 1000s of slabs to find the best prices. This picture would only represent 1/2 or less of one of the warehouses we have visited.


We have not even figured out the price of the back splash or the tile floor for the master bathroom and the main bath upstairs.

I will probably go with this shower design since this is pretty much how my bathroom is set or will be go with a corner 2 person tub and shower with 2 shower heads and controls.


Probably 2 of these type shower head/units.

[Cuz]

I hear you and I'm not talking about the small 3ft slabs. I'm talking about the 5ft x 10ft slabs. Yeah most of the slabs we have looked at are rated A- = least expensive - D+ = most expensive and of course the ones we want to go with are all D = $2000 per slab. I am of course still price shopping but we have been going to BIG warehouses with 1000s of slabs to find the best prices. This picture would only represent 1/2 or less of one of the warehouses we have visited.


We have not even figured out the price of the back splash or the tile floor for the master bathroom and the main bath upstairs.





I will probably go with this shower design since this is pretty much how my bathroom is set or will be go with a corner 2 person tub and shower with 2 shower heads and controls.


Probably 2 of these type shower head/units.

that is a badass bathroom man. the shower is going to be awesome. I prefer the mosaic tile myself, really looks high end with the granite, might want to consider since you pretty much got one shot at it.

[lovbyts]

that is a badass bathroom man. the shower is going to be awesome. I prefer the mosaic tile myself, really looks high end with the granite, might want to consider since you pretty much got one shot at it.

I'm going with tile for the bathroom floor and walls but granite for all the counter tops. Tile has a tendency to go bad, deteriorate if the grout is not re sealed ever few years. That's the problem with the house we are getting. It has tile counters throughout and there are many places the tile is falling off due to poor maintenance.

These pictures dont show it very well but some of the corners are just hanging on. It would be cheap to have it all repaired but I figure this is the last house I will be buying in the US since the plan is to move in 10+ years to the Philippines so I might as well make it what we really want from the get go and it will only add to the resale value down the road.



This is the bathroom now. Tub and stupid little counter top next to it will be removed to make room for corner tub. Show wall between the shower and tub will be removed to make room for a much bigger shower.



This is pretty much the granite we have decided to go with.

[lovbyts]

Update.
Purchase was completed August 13th.
We spent the next 2 weeks cleaning out the house of all the trash and stuff the previous owners decided to leave behind. The garage is full of stuff we have decided to either keep, garage sale or donate at a later time.

I have taken 3 trailer loads to the dump. 1st trip, 1600 lbs. All items from the garage and house. 2nd trip 1500 lbs. All items from the garage and house. 3rd trip 1600 lbs. including remodel/demolition materials.


Yes all this stuff in the garage including the vacuums were left by the previous owner including 1 new in box un-assembled Kirby Sentria.



These pictures are after one full day of cleaning in the garage before I took the picture. The vacuums were scattered everywhere. I also threw out at least 12 that were sitting outside. The inside of the house was not much better. lol

[lovbyts]

Here are some more current pictures of the remodel/demolition in progress.

We decided to go with 100% hardwood except for the bathrooms and laundry room. They will be tile. The house was already 80% hardwood.

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Rebuilding the kitchen island due to water damage but that was part of the plan anyways.

[lovbyts]

A few pictures of the pantry remodel.

[Lunk1]

Funny that such slobs owned so many vacuums lol.

Hopefully the condition allowed you to get a great deal that you can capitalize on with a little sweat equity.

[EverettCD]

I didn't read every post so I might repeat what some others have already stated.

I have used a few of those steam showers, they look super cool & that's about it. I barely fit in one of them & I'm not a massive NFL lineman.

My favorite type of shower is one that I built on a remodel job in a buddies new-to-him house. I ripped out the old single bath tub that looked like it was made for Napoleon. I moved the exterior wall out 3'. Built a bench seat across the entire back wall, I had both he & his wife sit in different chairs to see what height & depth they wanted the bench seat to be (my buddy is 6'4" & he can lay flat on it). Installed a combo shower head on the wall (hand held wand & fixed large round rain style shower head), on the ceiling I installed two large round rain style shower heads (I think they are about 10") in the ceiling. The water flow/temp control valve on the wall has a separate 4 position valve (water flow off, wall mounted shower head, ceiling mounted shower head & all shower heads flowing water). When all of them are on flowing water it's like a drive through car wash It's floor to ceiling tile that they picked out, the two walls facing into the bathroom area is a frameless glass enclosure that a local glass company ordered after I supplied the dimensions. 10' ceiling & the floor area is 8' wide X 7' deep.

One of these days when the ole lady & I build a house that is what will be in the master bath

[EverettCD]

That will be a very nice home when you're done remodeling it, congrats. I feel your pain having to haul all the junk off. I bought a foreclosure home at one time, thankfully they didn't trash the interior but they skipped town with every appliance, light fixture, switch & plug in the house. It wan't too bad though, about a month & half is all it took to have it ready for move in. All said & done, I saved a bundle buying a foreclosure home & doing the work myself.

[lovbyts]

Funny that such slobs owned so many vacuums lol.

Hopefully the condition allowed you to get a great deal that you can capitalize on with a little sweat equity.

Ha I know right? Yeah my wife has already sold 2 of the dysons making $300+ and we are keeping the best 2 of them. One is the newer small ball type and a larger like new Dyson animal. I hope to get around 1K for the Kirby since it's new and has every option imaginable to man.

I didn't read every post so I might repeat what some others have already stated.

I have used a few of those steam showers, they look super cool & that's about it. I barely fit in one of them & I'm not a massive NFL lineman.

My favorite type of shower is one that I built on a remodel job in a buddies new-to-him house. I ripped out the old single bath tub that looked like it was made for Napoleon. I moved the exterior wall out 3'. Built a bench seat across the entire back wall, I had both he & his wife sit in different chairs to see what height & depth they wanted the bench seat to be (my buddy is 6'4" & he can lay flat on it). Installed a combo shower head on the wall (hand held wand & fixed large round rain style shower head), on the ceiling I installed two large round rain style shower heads (I think they are about 10") in the ceiling. The water flow/temp control valve on the wall has a separate 4 position valve (water flow off, wall mounted shower head, ceiling mounted shower head & all shower heads flowing water). When all of them are on flowing water it's like a drive through car wash It's floor to ceiling tile that they picked out, the two walls facing into the bathroom area is a frameless glass enclosure that a local glass company ordered after I supplied the dimensions. 10' ceiling & the floor area is 8' wide X 7' deep.

One of these days when the ole lady & I build a house that is what will be in the master bath

Yup, I'm not going with any of those. I am putting in a conventional 2 person jacuzzi tub and enlarging the shower by 10 in. Deeper and 12 in. wider installing 2 wall mount shower unit's with body spray and rain shower heads as well as curved glass sliding door (54") and one glass wall with tile floor pan and walls. The picture of the shower is just the door example, not the pan. Mine will be rectangle 50" x 54" with 2 of these wall mount shower units.

That will be a very nice home when you're done remodeling it, congrats. I feel your pain having to haul all the junk off. I bought a foreclosure home at one time, thankfully they didn't trash the interior but they skipped town with every appliance, light fixture, switch & plug in the house. It wan't too bad though, about a month & half is all it took to have it ready for move in. All said & done, I saved a bundle buying a foreclosure home & doing the work myself.

Thanks, yeah by doing most of the work myself instead of using a general contractor to oversee everything I'm sure I will save a LOT but it's also a LOT more work than I planned on doing since I already work 12 hrs days 4 days a week.

[lovbyts]

Just a little update. I still have not finished the shower but here is what it looks like now.

[Black]

Just a little update. I still have not finished the shower but here is what it looks like now. <img src="http://forums.steroid.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146969"/><img src="http://forums.steroid.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146970"/>

Nice work buddy. Lookin good.

[lovbyts]

Nice work buddy. Lookin good.

Thanks, I still have a lot to do though. Here is the granite I had installed last week.
Post a Pic of Your Latest Purchase

[Igifuno]

Sweet lov.. Making progress.

Looks like you could fit about 10 hotties in there with you.

[lovbyts]

Well it's still not done but it's closer. If you didnt see before I decided to go with a more traditional shower instead of a all in one shower unit.

It has taken a long time because I have been working and finishing other parts of the house but here is the updated pictures.

[bass]

Very nice Lov. enjoy it in good health!

[Igifuno]

That's pretty kick ass. Love those showers that just "rain" on you. Very nice.

[jasc]

That's awesome Lov! Big enough for atleast 5-6 young asian girls

[Igifuno]

That's awesome Lov! Big enough for atleast 5-6 young asian girls

Woman.. Young Asian women.

[kelkel]

Well it's still not done but it's closer. If you didnt see before I decided to go with a more traditional shower instead of a all in one shower unit.

It has taken a long time because I have been working and finishing other parts of the house but here is the updated pictures.

That's damn nice.

[lovbyts]

Woman.. Young Asian women.

No he had it right the first time. :-)

Ok maybe older Asian girls.

[lovbyts]

OK I finally got pictures of the finished product for the shower. Of course we had some issues along the way but it turned out pretty nice.

The tub is finally operational also after finding a couple little leaks I had to lift it above the surround, block it up, Macgyver the drain so I could fill it while elevated and look for leaks but it's done also.