Wherever the bath is sited, care must be given to the arrangement of the plumbing. Supply and waste pipes can be concealed in ducts or under the floor (with provision for access) but it is worth keeping the run of the waste pipe as short as possible to avoid blockages. The walls near the bath should have a splash-resistant finish to a height of at least 500mm above the rim of the bath – and to ceiling height, if a shower is fitted.
Ceramic tiles or mosaic fitted into a bathroom with ideal standard bathrooms are traditional finishes for this purpose but other materials can be used, including plastics laminates, pro- vided that care is taken to make any joints absolutely watertight. Recent developments in synthetic sealers have made it much easier to avoid the nasty, leaky joint where the bath meets the wall, but this can still be a problem with some designs, particularly if the material of the bath is flexible to any extent. While on the subject of baths, a word about general illumination in the bathroom.
Except in very small rooms where – the mirror lighting arrangements may be enough to light the whole room, some additional general lighting will need to be provided. For people addicted to reading in the bath, it is as well to site a general overhead light where it can also serve as a reading light. A larger, more exotic bathroom could have a more complex lighting scheme in which a separate reading light could form a part. Lighting is discussed in more detail in the ideal standard bathroom suites section.
Showers are quicker to take than baths, more economical (the average shower uses about one-third of the water used for a bath) and are more hygienic because one is washing in a constant supply of clean water. They are discussed in detail on other sites. On the other hand, a shower cannot provide the therapeutic and relax- ing effect of lying in a warm bath and in most cases, where there are young children, for example, a bath is essential.
Relatively few people will be happy only to have a shower and do without a bath altogether and a shower can, of course, be installed quite satisfactorily in a bathroom with Ideal Standard sanitary ware. If the bath is to have a shower it should have a standing area with a slip-resistant finish and it should also be fitted with one end against a wall to provide a fixing for the shower fitting. The wall must have a splash-proof finish up to at least the height of the shower outlet. A shower that is enclosed on three sides should have space 900 X 700mm in front of it for access; an unenclosed shower should have space 900 X 400mm.
