My First Shower In 5 Years
And It Works!
I got my hair-brained shower scheme all hooked up today and took my first shower in 5 years. Eh….it was ok. I’ve gotten so accustomed to lounging in my canoe of a tub that it felt rather odd to stand up in a shower. Plus, I don’t care for the shower head. It was a wide spray of very fine streams of water. I felt like I had to move around just to get wet. I also mounted the shower head kind of high. I’m either going to lower it, or get a new shower head, or both.
Anyway, here’s a few shots, one with the curtain open and one with it closed.
I ran down to Target after I got the shower working and bought a shower curtain, rod, rings, bath mat, and waste basket. It came to $88. Choke! I was a little surprised it would be that much. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I bought a cloth shower curtain. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing, but at least it doesn’t have that smell of fresh vinyl that seems to permeate half the house when you buy a plastic one.
I took a 15 minute shower and didn’t try and control where I splashed at all. The shower curtain did a very good job of containing the water. Really, I would say 90% of the water went down the tub drain. Afterwards there was no standing water under the tub and NO water outside the shower area. I honestly don’t even think I needed to put the quarter round tile on the floor now.
The shower curtain never billowed away from the force of the splash. In fact, the outer sides of the tub didn't get wet at all, and neither did the supply lines or drain. Really, anything that went over the side hit the tile or curtain and slowly drained to the floor. The tub feet didn’t even get wet.
Above is after the shower. You can see that the cloth curtain got very wet in the center. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to have a liner, or what. I’ve never had a cloth shower curtain before.
Here are the pipes after the shower. So little water went over the front that it didn’t even wash away the small pile of tile and saw dust that collected there when I drilled the holes for the shower riser mount. You can see there is water on the tile, but the pipes are dry as a bone.
So far I’m going to say this is a resounding success. The only thing left to do is go under the house and make sure the shower pan doesn’t leak. However, I vowed not to go under the house for 12 months, so that will have to wait.
Next up, the door. It’s about 90% stripped of paint. I still need to sand it and paint it, and then I can hang it. The end is in sight.
15 comments:
Many people use a vinyl liner with a cloth shower curtain, the shower curtian will last longer with a liner. They're cheap (under $5.)and when they get ugly looking you can just throw it away and buy a new one.
I am a little disappointed. I expected that you would be in the tub when the curtain was pulled back. Next time you take a shower you should set up the camera on a tripod and take a video for us.
One thing my wife found strange in America was the fixed shower heads. In eastern Europe and a good part of western Europe you'll find hand showers. There are endless varieties and I bet you could find something to match your era. A hand shower will allow you to take the shower head off (its on a handle) and move it around your body as needed.
I did a follow up here...
http://1916home.blogspot.com/2007/06/hand-shower-bidet.html
of 1902 Victorians article about hand showers here:
http://1902victorian.com/blog/2007/05/10-uses-for-a-hand-shower.html
With such a beautiful bathtub and piping, I dont know if I could cover it all up with a curtain!
Cloth shower curtains are nice--they look much better than vinyl. They are also easy to launder. As a general rule, though, cloth shower curtains do require the use of a liner.
Anyhow, the bathroom looks great! I'm glad all your hard work has paid off.
Better to go ahead and use a liner--don't tempt fate. I've found the best ones at Wal-Mart (one of the few things I like there). Not much more than $5, they're fairly heavy vinyl and they don't billow in at all. I get the clear one, so it's not too dark in the shower. They last a few years.
it looks awesome, congrats.
keep the liner in the tub and the cloth curtain out.
you can wash the vinyl one, if you care to, in cold water, no spin. i get like 99 cent ones and throw them away.
I hate vinyl liners and refuse to use them. In Spain they make 100% poly cloth curtains that are in common use. Best of cloth, but repels water. Last time I was there I picked up a bunch...although my stash is running low now. I've looked high & lo for them here but can't find them....for the life of me I can't figure out why someone isn't importing them.
I came in to the comments just to check the ladies' posts. Kathy didn't disappoint. :)
As for the Vinyl Liner, I wouldn't bother. If you use one I find the cloth stays wet after the shower, sticks to the liner and it's not long before it goes mildewy. I use a cloth one alone, and it's fine. Then you don't have to throw anything away. Remember the Live Earth concerts. I'm sure Al Gore doesn't use a vinyl liner.
Looks great, you've done a wonderful job on the bathroom, I love the sink. The shower head is a bit high, but hey I'm 5'3 so most are to me!
A vinyl liner is used with a cloth shower curtain to prevent the cloth from getting wet and dripping on the floor. The vinyl is also tucked into the tub to keep the water in the tub, not on the floor. Since you don’t care if the water (apparently very little of it) gets on the floor, you really don’t need the stinky, sticky, yucky vinyl liner. There are also water resistant cloth shower curtains available that don’t get quite so wet.
Congratulations on the excellent job you have done in this room!
I'm siding with Angus on the cloth curtain/vinyl liner debate...Al Gore hates vinyl liners. If you don't have good air circulation in your bathroom the cloth curtain may not dry out well and pick up mildew, but then so will other things in your bathroom. At least you can launder the curtain.
About the shower head, better too high than too low, man! A European showerhead, though, those are choice. Also good for washing pets.
Bathroom really looks nice. Congratulations!
Thanks everyone for the comments.
Kathy, I took the video but it wouldn't upload. Darn it!
As for the liner, I bought one. It was about $3. It does have magnets, which are kind of a pain because the stick to the tub and the liner and curtain don't move as one.
I haven't been using the bathroom a lot because with out the door hung it's hard to get the bathroom warm enough be comfortable to use. Remember, this is summer time in Eureka. The over night lows can drop in to the 50s and that side of the house won't really warm up until the afternoons.
The plan is to keep the liner at this point, but I think it will go eventually. The cloth curtain dried out very fast. I don't think it will be an issue.
I'm all "Al Gore" too, but in FL, nothing dries (including humans). I use one vinyl shower curtain for years: a) if hook rips through hole, make a new hole next to it with a hole puncher; b) wash it in warm water with rags (they rub up against it and clean off the soap scum, throw some bleach in there if you have mold), it comes out of washer a crumpled, cold, dripping mess, go outside and shake it out, throw it in the dryer for a minute take out and immediately make as flat as possible; c) if bottom "melted-in" hem gets moldy, cut it off; d) when it finally has worn out its welcome, throw it away and keep the magnets for your refrigerator! P.S.: they also sell them at the dollar store!
Greg, you probably don't have a lot of humidity out there so ditch the liner. You said you didn't want to shower in a condom, with the liner you're in half a condom, so get rid of it.
I don't think that you need a liner or curtain at all. Aesthetically, it would look better with nothing there. Practically, you've done everything you would need to do to not have the liner at all.
I found the waterproofed, cloth liners at Walmarts about 10 years ago. They cost 10 bucks then and lasted forever. Looked much better than vinyl.
Your wastebasket isn't nickle-plated.
Kathy,
Even though this is California you need to think more Pacific North West. The bay is 9 blocks away straight down the street, and fog and rain very common. We are anything but dry here.
Alicia,
I could *almost* get away with out the curtain. I may try taking a shower with the curtain open just to see how it works. I think there will be some splash on the floor outside the tub area.
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