Steam Shower?

[Moose]

I am looking into retrofitting my bathroom with a steam shower unit. Has anyone done this and how do I go about doing it. Are there any specific brands to stay away from? Do I need a seperate power sorce? Any information would be helpful.

Thank you, Moose

[fishwidow]

I did one a few years ago. The actual unit was located in the baeement. 220 volt necessary. The main thing with the shower enclosure itself is to make sure you use heat and moisture resistant lighting. We also used a sauna class tempered glass door. Behind the ceramic tile we had a special fabric membrane and some heavy duty sealer. It turned out really well. One thing to keep in mind though is the cost to benefit ratio. If you are going to do a first class job, it gets expensive. We had a window, which was special tempered glass, the fabric and sealer was expensive, and the door was expensive. In the end we did not use it enough to justify the cost. We sold the house and it was a great shower and steam room, but I kind of doubt that we recovered all of the cost we put in to it. We also did all of the labor ourselves, so if you're looking at paying a carpenter, tile man, electrician, and plumber that would add even more cost.

[Moose]

fishwidow,

Where did you get the steam unit from. I was thinking of adding it to my current shower stall. I would have to do a little remodeling but I need to do it at a low cost.

[Shack]

Fishwidow,

Do you think it would more cost effective to build a cedar steam room outside the house, by the deck area, under a deck with no windows?

[fishwidow]

Moose, we got the steam unit from the some place online. The brand was Mr. Steam. The unit itself needs to be located away from moisture. That's why it was in the basement right below the shower. As for doing it in your regular shower, that might be okay, but the shower door might need to be upgraded to tempered glass, and has to be somewhat tight to keep steam from escaping.

Shack-I'm sure that would be cost effective. We were remodeling the bathroom anyway so we would have added the window, but the door was a sauna door that went floor to ceiling and we added extra insulation to hold in the heat, and a bench to sit on. For the most part, we used it every day as a regular shower. We just didn't use it as a steam room room as much as we thought we would. We have a sauna that gets used much more often.