Shower question, esp if you have a large family

[jaykay]

As a mum of four (boy 17, girl 15, boy 11 and girl 8) I can honestly say that demands upon the family bathroom have increased as eldest girl has grown up - I think she lives in the bathroom at weekends! If the pressure can handle it, an additional electric shower would be brilliant. Our problem is that the bath and the shower in the en suite are both run from the mains tank. If someone is in the shower, and another starts to run a bath the shower goes very cold - ouch.

For planning ahead, think of what you will need when there are five adults living in your house, possibly all rushing out to work/college in the morning, etc.

[Two_Sheds]

Am I just mucky?
I don't shower every day ... perhaps twice a week. Obviously I wash my Pits and Parts every day! but I don't shower all of myself because:
1) I have eczema and washing makes it worse (dries out the skin)
2) I'm on a water meter
3) I don't get all that dirty anyway

So, I wouldn't vote for an extra shower. I'd use the space to put some more pets in, myself ... or plants.

[percy charlie]

go for the shower, it will add value to the house, when getting ready to all go out, will save time on fighting for the shower and tears, great when been in the garden as no mud walked up stairs. or engine oil from men and there cars. and when not in use a conveient loo. cheaper to do it now that when the kids are teens.

[willowstar]

agree, go for it, bound to add value to the house and with teenagers in the house it will be invaluable, especially when they have their friends round to get ready to go out with them etc...

[Alison]

Best thing ever I say! Nothing to lose, people will always like more bathrooms !

Not everybody, I've never seen the obsession with multiple bathrooms - a friend of mine has 4 loos and there's only two of them so it just sounds like more cleaning to me! Personally the idea of a good sized cloakroom is much more appealing to me (storage is ALWAYS a winner with me) and it isn't as if it takes long to have a shower and get out so the queue will never be that long especially if you're all used to what you have. Have a rota or who goes first if things get bad. As already stated, you may well not have sufficent water pressure for 3 showers - think what's it's like when somebody turns the tap on when you're in one of the ones you've got.

[Mikey]

Good afternoon seahorse, there are a lot of question I have and a few answers for you. I specialse in this field aswell as Kitchens and Bedrooms, so please feel free to pm me if you have any specifics.

The main thing here to consider is the type of heating system you have and how your current bathrooms are fed. You will have one of a number of heating systems,
1) a gravity system which has a boiler, hot water cylinder, and cold water tanks. This is the main system found in older properties.
2) a combination boiler, this has neither tanks or cylinder and delivers hot water whenever this is required. The main downside to this type of system is there is a limit to the amount of hot water that can be drawn off at any one time the maximum in the domestic market at the moment is around 22 litres a minute, so this will supply one of your showers comfortably but would struggle with more than this.
3) An unvented system, or mains pressure vented system, both of these will have a boiler, cylinder and tanks, as your gravity system does, though will generally be found in modern homes (the cylinder will specify its type). The advantage of this system is that the water stored in your cylinder is stored under pressure (in an unvented system) so it has the capacity to supply a number of showers at the same time, without loss of pressure. A mains pressure vented system, is a variation on a theme where your cold water feed which is mains pressured is fed through a coil in the cylinder which is full of hot water fed from the boiler giving you hot mains pressured water. The advantage of this system is that you do not need annual pressure tests, as with the unvented system which can be costly.

If you have either system (1)or (2), then I would recommend making the upstairs shower valves thermostatic. A thermostatic shower regulates the supply of hot and cold water, if one or other is drawn away from the valve, the valve compensates by reducing the pressure of the other supply to keep the water the same temperature. Vital in large families.

Unless you have an unvented system I would seriously recommend if you go for a shower in the cloakroom that you make this an electric model, as this will allow showering whether you have hot water or not, aslong as you have electricity!!

If you want to put a sketch up of the spaces or pm me it then I will be able to advise whether it is practical to have a shower within the cloakroom, and what sizes are available or suitable for the space.

[lynda66]

If you have either system (1)or (2), then I would recommend making the upstairs shower valves thermostatic. A thermostatic shower regulates the supply of hot and cold water, if one or other is drawn away from the valve, the valve compensates by reducing the pressure of the other supply to keep the water the same temperature. Vital in large families.

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i have a themostatic shower ..... with a new condenser boiler thing ..... the main gripe i have is that if you like hot showers, they don't get hot enough ...... mine on full power/only hot water, is to be honest just warm enough for a quick shower and you can't turn it down, cos then it adds cold water...... when i run a bath, it has to be running on slow, otherwise you can get in it without adding cold ...... it would probably be better if it was upstairs, as the downstairs water gets very hot on full.

[Seahorse]

Thanks again everyone I'm still undecided! For our current circs, I'm all in favour of more space for wellies and bird food but if all you folk with teenagers are telling me otherwise...

I'm having trouble uploading a pic but I'll PM you Mikeywillis - thanks for your offer of professional advice

[janeyo]

Our old house had a shower downstairs ( and 2 baths and a shower upstairs). It had a downstairs bedroom too which we think was cos they had an aupair or granny there or something and that's why they put it in. I can honestly say we thought it would be great to have an extra one, but it never got used. The plan was for OH to come in mucky from under the cars etc and use that one, but he never did. I always told him not to use it as it was an extra one to clean! The guests used it - we had one guest in 4 years! lol
But when we had OH friend staying with us for a few months he did use it everyday.

I wouldn't be in favour of another shower here for us. But I only have 2 children so far!

janeyo

[BrideXIII]

I don't have a large family, just me and two boys, but, in the summer we have exchange students, 4 girls at a tme, and we only have one shower/bathroom/toilet combined.
however, good scheduling makes it easier, I must admit though, an extra bathroom would be a godsend, when you are dying for a wee and can't get in the bathroom for over an hour

[Mikey]

i have a themostatic shower ..... with a new condenser boiler thing ..... the main gripe i have is that if you like hot showers, they don't get hot enough ...... mine on full power/only hot water, is to be honest just warm enough for a quick shower and you can't turn it down, cos then it adds cold water...... when i run a bath, it has to be running on slow, otherwise you can get in it without adding cold ...... it would probably be better if it was upstairs, as the downstairs water gets very hot on full.

I'm not sure I understand you correctly, most thermostatic valves have a click button on them to allow you to get above 38 degrees, which is set as a non scald temperature mainly for children. The fact that you can get very hot water downstairs I would check if you have a push in red button on the temperature gauge of the valve.

Combination boilers are renowned for their inability to fill a bath very well, its all down to the litre per minute flow of them, as I said before the best out there domestically speaking is around 22 litres a minute, and an average bath hold 150 litres plus, so its not surprising that it takes an absolute age to fill them.

[Nicos]

I know someone who installed a 1 1/2 width shower downstairs so they could hose down their dog's feet and tummy when it came in from walkies -covered in mud.

[lynda66]

I'm not sure I understand you correctly, most thermostatic valves have a click button on them to allow you to get above 38 degrees, which is set as a non scald temperature mainly for children. The fact that you can get very hot water downstairs I would check if you have a push in red button on the temperature gauge of the valve.

Combination boilers are renowned for their inability to fill a bath very well, its all down to the litre per minute flow of them, as I said before the best out there domestically speaking is around 22 litres a minute, and an average bath hold 150 litres plus, so its not surprising that it takes an absolute age to fill them.

theres no button or anything, its a tap mixer jobbie with the shower coming out the top ...... the shower turner onner goes right round to hot then when you turn it the other way it adds cold, so you can't reduce the power to get it hot, cos it gets colder there is no temp gauge or anything, i moaned when they fitted it, but apparently it's tuff ........ i just tested the temperature, it's 35 degrees
takes at least 20 mins to fill my smaller than normal bath, so that i just have to add a tiny bit of cold but it does my head in not being able to use the shower.

[Mikey]

I know someone who installed a 1 1/2 width shower downstairs so they could hose down their dog's feet and tummy when it came in from walkies -covered in mud.

I suppose if your gonna let the dog walk all over your tummy, then a large shower is essential.

[Seahorse]

Finally, a pic (I hope). More or less to scale. The cross hatched bits are a load bearing wall, so I'd prefer for that to stay (I know an RSJ would sort it but it'd all add to the cost). N.B. Where I've written 8' 5", that's the whole measurement of the two rooms! The showeroom bit is around 5' square.



I have a combi boiler.

Had a plumber round this morning and he thinks that if I have a concertina door, replace the loo where it was, shower in the other back corner and a little basin opposite the loo we should be able to get everything in. That would leave me with the other small space for shelves, coat hooks etc.

It would certainly be tight but with a corner opening shower door, I think it would be satisfactory for a guest/occasional shower room.



Any thoughts?