A wet room is not a shower without a tray, it is a waterproofed floor structure with a controlled fall. Get the build up and the tanking right and it will outlast the rest of the bathroom. Get either wrong and the first sign of trouble is usually a stain on a ceiling downstairs. Here is how the job is properly sequenced.
Step one, survey the floor
Everything depends on what is under your feet. On a solid concrete ground floor the drain and pipework normally have to be chased into the slab, which is noisy and adds a day. On suspended timber, joist direction, depth and condition decide whether a recessed former will fit between them and whether the joists need doubling or noggins adding. This is the part a good fitter spends the longest on at survey stage, because it sets the price and the programme.
Step two, drainage and fall
Water needs somewhere to go and a consistent slope to get there. A linear drain against a wall gives a single plane fall and lets you run tiles in one direction, which suits large format porcelain. A centre point drain needs a four way fall and works better with smaller tiles or mosaic. The waste run needs adequate fall along its length too, which is why the drain position is dictated by the existing soil stack more often than by preference. A shallow or reversed fall leaves standing water, and standing water finds every weak point in the grout.
Step three, the former or the screed
On timber we normally cut in a preformed sloped tray designed to sit flush with the finished floor. On concrete we either form the fall in screed or use a former bedded in. Either way, the aim is a rigid, flat, correctly sloped surface with no deflection. Any bounce in the floor will crack tiles and eventually break the waterproof layer.
Step four, tanking
This is the layer that makes it a wet room. A liquid membrane or bonded sheet system goes over the whole shower floor, up the walls to at least 1.8 metres in the wet zone, and across the rest of the floor. Corners, drain flanges and wall to floor junctions get reinforcing tape bedded into the membrane, because those junctions are where movement happens. Two coats, correct cure time between them, and the drain collar clamped down properly. It is a slow, unglamorous day and it is the most important one on the job.
Step five, tiling
Use a porcelain rated for wet floor slip resistance, ideally R10 or better underfoot. Larger tiles look superb but need cutting to follow the falls, so around a centre drain smaller formats are more practical. Fix with a flexible adhesive suited to tanked substrates and use a flexible grout. Movement joints go at wall to floor junctions and at any change of substrate, filled with silicone rather than grout.
Step six, screens, brassware and ventilation
A single fixed screen of 900mm to 1000mm keeps spray contained without making the room feel closed in. Set it a few millimetres off the floor so water passes underneath rather than pooling behind. Choose a thermostatic valve with a decent flow rate, and if your home is on a gravity system check pressure before you order a rain head that needs more than the system can deliver. Finally, extraction. A wet room puts more moisture into the air than a shower enclosure, so a properly ducted fan with a humidity sensor and an overrun timer is not optional.
Timeline on a typical Stoke wet room
- Days one and two, strip out, waste away, floor opened up.
- Days three and four, joist works, former set, drain and waste connected.
- Day five, boarding and levelling.
- Day six, tanking coats and cure.
- Days seven to nine, tiling and grouting.
- Days ten to twelve, second fix, screen, sealing, commissioning and clean.
Common mistakes we get called out to fix
- Tanking stopped at the shower zone only, so humidity got behind the boards elsewhere.
- Drain fitted level with the tile rather than a couple of millimetres below it.
- Grout used in the movement joints, which then cracked in a straight line.
- A fan rated for a cloakroom fitted in a wet room, running through metres of flexible ducting.
Book a free wet room survey
We will look at your joists or slab, confirm what is realistic, and give you a fixed written price within 24 hours. All plumbing, tanking, tiling and electrics are done in house by our own fitters across Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stone and Leek.
Common questions
Can you put a wet room upstairs on timber joists?
Yes, and we do it regularly. The joists are checked and reinforced where needed, a recessed former is set between them, and the whole floor and lower walls are tanked before anything is tiled.
Does the whole room get wet?
It should not. A correctly set fall and a screen keep water in the shower zone. Tanking protects the rest of the room from splashes and humidity rather than standing water.
How long does a wet room take to install?
Usually eight to twelve working days. The extra time over a standard bathroom comes from the floor build up, the tanking cure times and the more demanding tiling.
Do wet rooms devalue a house?
Not if there is still a bath elsewhere in the property. A single bathroom home converted entirely to a wet room can narrow the buyer pool, which is worth a thought before you commit.
What goes wrong most often?
Inadequate tanking at the joints and corners, and a fall that is too shallow. Both are invisible on handover day and both cause damage months later.
Do you guarantee the waterproofing?
Yes. We use a full bonded tanking system installed to the manufacturer specification and back the workmanship in writing.