Can anyone give me advise about how to slope the ceiling in a steam shower? We have 9ft. ceilings and we are planning on a seamless glass shower that will go all the way to the ceiling with a transom over the door. My concern is if we slope the ceiling to the back wall (the only one we can...the left side has the fixtures and the right side is glass and will have the bench), how do we make it look good? Does anyone have any photos they can share? Thanks for your help!!!

bicoastal, Unless it's detailed with a full vapor barrier from the start, it's very difficult to turn a "regular" shower into a steam shower with just a little remodeling. Traditional showers are normally built with a drainage plain behind the tile/cement board...it might be tar paper, it might be polyethylene sheet plastic...but it's usually "lapped for drainage" instead of being fully sealed at the seams, and it's usually a partial wall installation instead of being floor-to-ceiling and ceiling. Or there might not be any barrier at all. Just tile over backer board over framing. A steam shower can drive moisture through natural stone, through grout, and into the wall. If there's not a fully inclusive vapor barrier on all six sides of the steam room cube, then moisture vapor can be driven through the wall and into the wall cavities. When warm moisture vapor cools, it'll condense...wetting and saturating the insulation and/or the wood framing. Not good. That's why with steam showers it's best to have a fully integral vapor barrier on all sides of the cube. A small yet important point, is that "waterproofing" does not necessarily mean a "vapor" barrier. You can use a waterproofing membrane, and it'll shed liquid water. That's good enough in a traditional shower. But vapor can pass through some waterproofing membranes. Again, that's not good in a steam shower. Moisture vapor would destroy your green board over time, green board is moisture resistant. Not waterproof. Not vaporproof. It's been recognized for at least the past 20 years by good tile mechanics that green board is an inferior tile backer in wet areas. Building codes finally caught up to common trade knowledge and banned green board as a tile backer in wet areas in 2006. That said, in a typical shower green board can perform fine or 30 years or fail in 3 years. In a steam shower it'd be a short-lived installation due to repeated vapor drive. The nice thing about having a topical vapor barrier applied to the face of the tile backer board (between the backer board and the tile) is that the only thing that can get "wet" in a situation like that is the tile and the thinset. The membrane stops the moisture from penetrating into the backer board. With no deep wetting, the steam shower can dry more quickly than otherwise might be possible. While there are several materials out there that perform fine, you'll see Bill and I mention Kerdi. It's not the only material that can do the job, but it's a warm-fuzzy for me. It's been my membrane of choice since way back in the 20th century. Wow, that's over a thousand years!

I got the glass through a local shop. My situation was different, as only one wall, the "front" door wall, was glass. The other three walls were kerdi and tile. The sloped glass ceiling was captured in the walls on three sides and clear silicon was used to seal the remaining side to the front wall of glass. I'm not sure what type of specific seal was used on the door. It might have been clear vinyl. If you do a search or ask at the glass shops, it might also help if you refer to it as a "raked" (sloped) front wall of glass. Actually, lemme see if I can get a quick google hit... Found one at Wilson Glass. Not exactly what you're looking for though. Using something like that with a sealed transom overhead would work and be the lest expensive. Having the front wall as a single piece of glass with the door cutout of it would be $$$$$.

Beautiful steam shower you've got there AnnKathryn. What sort of stone is that? Wisconsin, KERDI is supposed to be approved now for steam rooms, though I don't believe that Schluter allows it to be installed over cement board. You'll want to check with their Technical Services department on that. I prefer to build my steam showers along traditional lines with mortar and metal lath. I've talked about my prejudice with my local Schluter rep and he's got me convinced that KERDI is an alternative with longevity but I'm still timid about hanging a couple hundred pounds of stone from a bonded membrane. He's promised to share with me enough case studies of existing installations to bring me around and I trust him on that. Best of luck, Shaughnn