Help with master shower design

14 years ago

We are building our new home and are having a hard time making a decision on something. We will have a walk-in shower in our master bath (the kind that you walk-in, no door), 100% tiled, with a granite-topped bench. The plans were to have 1 shower head with a rain head above. Today at our post-framing walkthrough...we were presented with the choice of that, or 2 shower heads instead (or we could do 2 plus the rain, but that's add'l cost of course). We can't decide which we'd get more use out of, the rain shower head or 2 shower heads? Thoughts? Anyone have or building one of them and want to share?

Thanks so much!

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Comments (12)

stephanie93
14 years ago
We chose not to do the rain shower. Instead we chose to do a standard shower head and a handheld on the other side.
tr1140
14 years ago
We also have one standard shower head and a handheld in the master shower. This works great for us. I really like the handheld to help clean the shower and to shower our 5-year-old with!

We are in the planning stages for our 2nd build and are considering a walk-in shower. I'm concerned that not having a door would make things drafty. Have you had any experience with a door-less shower?
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I would do the following: - Lose the door -- in such a generous shower, you can do without it. - Place a small moveable stool near the door. - Build in the niches under what I think is a window -- and put them on the "interior wall" so they will only be visible from INSIDE the shower. Yeah, they always look so pretty in pictures ... less pretty when they're full of mis-matched shower goods. - One main shower head (with removable hand shower) at the far end, away from the door. Plus a rainshower in the middle /maybe slightly towards the main shower head. - Definitely yes to your idea about the controls being near the door. I would've said to the right of the door ... but I wouldn't quibble with straight ahead of the door. - Towel bars or hooks just outside the shower door ... between the shower and what I think is the tub. This'd set you up to take the shower with your right hand as you exit the shower.
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blindstar
14 years ago
We did a rain head, a standard head and a hand held. The hand held has a long hose and is useful for cleaning the shower. If I had to give up one it would be the rain head. They all run off the same high volume thermostatic mixer with a separate flow controls for each head. The controls are offset so you can mess with the temperature without being in the spray. It seems to work well for us.
blindstar
14 years ago
We put a Runtal hydronic towel radiator on the wall at the entrance to the walk-in shower. It gives us warm towels and migrates the cold draft problem.
arch123
14 years ago
We have a walk-in shower and have not had a draft problem. However we live in Houston and don't have many really cold mornings. We felt that we could easily put a door in later if we felt we needed one.
One thing we have been really pleased with are the groutless porcelain tiles.
wildcat22
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for sharing what you have!

We've never had a walk-in shower, and honestly "drafty" never occurred to me, I guess we'll find out this winter! We really don't have use for a hand held (I guess it might help with cleaning, but our cleaning lady can handle it! lol). I *think* we are going with the single and rain. We need to let our construction mgr know tomorrow. Thanks!
david_cary
14 years ago
Well - a handheld is good for things other than cleaning the shower. I would consider it a negative for resale if a house was missing one. I can't imaqine (personally) building a new house without one.

JMO.
mdev
14 years ago
Just a heads up- this may not be a problem for you depending on the brand of shower head you choose- but our Kohler rain shower puts out 10 gallons per minute. When we designed the shower, the downpour component and bodysprays had repercussions throughout the house. We needed to make sure we were getting enough hot water, volume, etc. I think we even need a bigger drain.

We are doing something very similar. We have a downpour shower and an adjacent shower head with 2 body sprays.

Our original plan was to install the Kohler DTV shower until we saw it at the Kohler design center in Chicago and it kept failing. The associate had to reboot it twice in 10 minutes.
wildcat22
Original Author
14 years ago
david cary - it must be a regional thing, I've *never* seen a shower where I am with a handheld? And we've looked at everything from $300,000 - $2mil homes (for fun!). It's not even an option anyone talks about, so I'm not too concerned about resale, and unless there are some unforeseen circumstances, we're never moving again! The only time I've seen them is in apartments when the shower head is so low you have to put one in to be able to shower effectively.
ncamy
14 years ago
My vote would be for both! But seriously if I had to choose, I would choose the handheld that is mounted so that it can be used as a shower head. I think that the handhelds have many many more benefits than cleaning the walls: they are great for shaving legs, washing children (or even dogs), washing feet or various other body parts when you don't want to get your hair wet. I've also recently heard more talk about hand helds being quite useful for seniors or people with limited mobility. The benefits for having two shower heads (for me anyway) is that my husband and I generally shower together (nothing kinky here...just saving time) and he likes his water to come out as a gentle spray and I like mine to pulse vigorously! So with two shower heads we both get our way. You didn't mention how big your shower is. I guess that might make a difference.
grendal_fly
14 years ago
Another vote for both and one of them a handheld on a vertical bar. While I use the rain head every time I shower, my DW uses the handheld ever time (to shave her legs) and we both use the handheld for the dog and cleaning the shower.
houseful
14 years ago
We went with two shower heads, a hand held and small body sprays that hit the lower back. I love standing under a showerhead and having it hit my back and shoulders. I don't think I'd want water dumping straight on my head. It might feel somewhat like waterboarding. ;>D