We’re working on another great tiled shower project in Mechanicsville. This one will have a custom arched top niche with glass shelving, several different sizes and styles of tile in a unique pattern and a nice thick frameless glass door and two handled shower spa system. You’ll have to wait to see how ours turns out but below is a bunch of great ideas about how to use frameless shower doors in your bathroom project.
I’ve worked on a lot of bathrooms. Some very small and some very large. Our latest bathroom remodel here in Henrico was very small and had it’s own unique problems that needed addressed. Measuring only 7’4″ wide x 3’6″ deep just getting a full shower, vanity and toilet in the room along with storage cabinets and heat would be a challenge. Even fitting a towel bar became a tight squeeze. The room was so small I needed to use the panoramic funtion on my camera just to get the full height of the shower in the picture so please excuse the poor photography.
With the toilet offset too far to the outside wall there was no room for a vanity.
The homeowner wanted to be rid of the pedestal sink and awkwardly installed fiberglass shower stall from a previous remodel. The shower wasn’t going to be a problem but installing a vanity would leave no room for sitting on the toilet. Using 3-D drafting software we were able to move the toilet around and determine exactly what size vanity we could fit in the space.
12" deep Euro style vanity gains storage while allowing leg room.
Moving the toilet towards the inside wall and installing a 12″ deep Euro style vanity with overhanging sink would allow us to leave some legroom in front of the toilet. Though small the vanity still allows for some under sink storage and with the matching medicine cabinet and wall cabinet we were able to gain a bit more storage.
New tiled shower with glass accent and niche
The shower area was opened back up to full width of the room and a Carrara Marble style tile was installed over the Schluter System membrane for a totally water tite install. For an accent a glass band was added along with a two shelf niche for in-shower storage. The tile was grouted using an epoxy type grout for years of easy cleaning. The tile was also carried over onto the floor of the room to tie it all together.
There were some challenges and a couple sacrifices along the way do to size and space available but overall this turned out to be a great bathroom remodel. The homeowners were some of the best we’ve ever worked with and we are truly grateful to them for allowing us to help with this project.
Thinking of remodeling your bathroom? Give us a call at 804-266-3776. We’ll be happy to help.
Herb Coulter, The Remodeling Company, LLC
Sometimes what you see when you look in your shower doesn’t tell the whole story. This shower looks to be in great shape from above but had been leaking for a long time. And don’t let the grout fool you. Unless it is sealed or an epoxy grout is used it isn’t actually waterproof by itself.
An old mortar pan style shower lets the water soak through the grout and into the mortar below but then has a metal pan that directs the water to the drain. If the seal is lost around the drain it will leak into the surrounding sub-floor.
So what are your options when this happens? Here are three options that are available for replacing your Glen Allen shower. All of which start with tearing out the old shower and fixing the rotten wood before moving on.
1. A new acrylic pan and wall system can be installed. This is the least expensive but there are limitations in sizes available. There are different quality levels among these too. Although all of these come in 2 to4 piece sets some are well designed and direct water to the drain with no need for caulking joints making for a clean look.
2. A bit more pricey is a cultured marble floor and wall system. Like the acrylic it comes in separate pieces but with the thicker panels and many different tile and stone pattern options to choose from it definitely has a more solid look and feel.
3. Last is to rebuild the tile shower using on of the newer systems that utilize solid foam pans and totally sealed waterproof membranes to keep water from soaking in and leaking. This is usually a comparable in price to the old system and is totally customizable with any shape, size and tile that you would like. Eliminating the mortar bed from the pan will also lower the humidity in the room and help prevent a musty odor from developing from water that has not drained out.
Whichever route you choose we can help. If you have questions or would like to talk to someone about replacing a shower in your Glen Allen home, give us a call at 804-266-3776.
Herb Coulter, The Remodeling Company, LLC
In many Glen Allen bathrooms there is simply not enough space to store all of the things you use daily. Even with a vanity cabinet you may not have space for storing towels, soap or other necessary items. In this bathroom we removed a 5′ vanity and replaced it with a smaller vanity set beside a floor to ceiling cabinet that is large enough to serve as a storage closet. Prior to installing this tower all of the bathroom supplies were store in a hall closet.
In her recent article on Houzz.com, Jennifer Bishop expands on the vanity tower idea with lots of pictures and examples digging deeper into the versatility of this simple storage solution. Scroll through the pictures below or follow the link to the full article.