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20 Apr 2016

How does a Wet Room work?

- Written by Ash Bath

Once a wet room is fitted, the components that make up the room all do different jobs to enable the users to get the best results out of the room. But how do they work?

Firstly when looking at the flooring many people think that it’s just tiled. However underneath many steps have been taken to make sure the room not only looks great, but is waterproof and efficient, in this case its how the water drains.

Two of the main components under the floor are a former and tanking system. The former acts as in the same way as a shower tray, this is fitted beneath your tiled floor. Its function is to help drain the water away after a shower, this is made possible by its built in gradient which will steer all water down towards the drain/waste.

There are also many wet room myths as to how they work which you can read here, but these are incorrect. The whole room getting wet is one concern for many people however this can be solved by installing a well-positioned screen into the room, preventing water splashes escaping the area which along with the falls and gradient created by the wet room former, will ensure that only the showering area will be wet! Once the former is fitted correctly and all gradients and fall are correct, the first step of waterproofing is then put in place with the use of a tanking kit.

This is a waterproofing layer created by using either a paint-on or membrane kit. By having one of these systems in place you are making your wet room 100% watertight. Then on top of the tanking kit, the installer would use waterproof tile adhesive, tiles and waterproof grout, adding a second layer of waterproofing to the room, making it 100% leakproof.

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