Steam Showers Manufacturer

Tiled Shower Stall VS Prefab Stall

Adding a tiled shower stall or prefab shower stall to a half bath increases both value and utility in a home. Which form of shower stall you should choose will depend on your space and budget.

he two types of shower stalls are prefab or tiled or custom stalls. Prefab is short for prefabricated, meaning that the shower stall comes in a few large pieces that can be easily and quickly installed. Prefab shower stalls are made out of a few different materials, but most ofen you will find them made out of acrylic or fiberglass. Custom stalls are usually made out of tile or a stone as granite or marble.

While prefab stalls have long been shunned by the design world because of their limited colors and styles, new manufacturing techniques have widened the options available to a home owner considerably. There are a large variety of colors and patterns now available, although the standard white or ivory remain the most popular color choices.

One of the largest advantages of prefab shower units are the potential cost savings. A homeowner with some previous home repair skills can usually install a prefab shower unit in a single afternoon. This can be a very attractive option for a do it yourselfer looking to save money.

Also, prefab units are often much cheaper than the materials used to build a custom shower units. They can often be purchased at a home improvement center for only a few hundred dollars and only require some caulk and some screws to complete the installation. They come in single piece and multiple piece units. Multiple piece units are preferred because they easily fit through doors.

Prefab units have a few disadvantages. First of all, because they are made to standard sizes, it may be difficult to install them in an older house where most of the walls are not square. Also, if your prefab stall get damaged in any way, chances are you will have to replace it. Although spot repairs are possible, cosmetically they are seldom desirable as anything more than a temporary fix.

By Amy Whittle

How to Install and Care For Your Shower Wall Traverine Tiles

Travertine tiles add a decorative feel to the bathroom. Bathroom installations are incomplete without this creative addition. This incredibly beautiful stone has a high maintenance issue. People love and hate this stone simultaneously. However, this issue doesn’t alter their decision to install the durable stone in their shower area.

The maintenance of travertine tile isn’t an issue, if you maintain them regularly. Their longevity is determined by the way you maintain them. Hence, a dedicated effort improves the endurance of travertine. So, how about replacing your old shower tiles with travertine? Just give it a try and I can assure you that you’ll be proud of your tiling decision.

You can remove the old tiles from the shower area very easily. Firstly, scrap off the grout with help of a chisel knife and hammer. Now, remove each tile at a time by hammering the tile with a chisel. Remove all the dirt and grit from the wall. After cleaning the tile, put a good quality mortar on the surface and paste the travertine tiles on it. You can also use a spacer to simplify your task.

After installing the tiles, keep the area untouched for 24 hours. Now, fill the gap between tiles with help of a grout. Prepare a grout mixture and put it on the trowel for easy application. Don’t forget to wipe the excess grout with help of a cloth. Select a portion at time and grout the tiles perfectly. These days, you can also buy colorful grout for the installation of your travertine tiles.

If you can’t install the travertine tiles yourself, then appoint a professional tiler to do the job. You can also seal the tiles so that they retain their shimmer. However, installation doesn’t end the job for you. You should maintain them regularly. Blot all the stains, dirt and spillage as soon as possible. You can also appoint a restoration expert to conduct the activity once in two to three months.

So, don’t think any more and add an extra edge to your bathroom with help of travertine shower tiles.

By Jason Colling

Shower Door Leak

I have responded to a lot of calls to look at leaky showers over the past 13 years. Almost all of the showers that I have inspected have leaked at the door or metal track that holds the glass. The leak itself is not always noticeable, but the damage it causes over the years is obvious.

The result is rotted baseboards, water damaged Sheetrock, and mold where the shower meets the floor just outside the glass door. The good news is that when faced with signs of water damage isolated to outside the shower door, almost all leaks have been the result of an original installation error. The error is in the way the shower trim was sealed with silicon caulk. The mistake is compounded over the years by handymen and DIY’ers adding more caulk to the inside of the shower as a repair or part of home maintenance. Don’t worry, it is a common impulse to keep adding caulk to the shower in anticipation that the leak will eventually stop. Not only is this installation error common, I have witnessed it in 100% of showers with the same water damage pattern.

The most important lesson when sealing with caulk is “less is more.” As it is very important to thoroughly caulk the outside of the metal shower trim, it is equally important not to caulk over the “weep holes” inside the shower. These are little drain holes in the bottom of the metal track inside the shower and on pre-made acrylic shower pans. These holes allow the condensation and water inside the metal track to drain back inside the shower instead of being trapped and eventually finding an alternative escape route. For the system to drain properly, I also suggest not caulking inside the track at the corners. The faster the water can flow down the track and out to the shower drain, the quicker the shower will dry. This reduces the chance of mildew and mold growth tremendously.

The type of caulk you use is also key to a long lasting sealed shower trim. 100% silicone caulk is the only caulk that has stood the test of time for me. It doesn’t shrink or crack unless it is in direct sunlight, and it stays flexible for a long time. Acrylic caulk hardens, cracks, and is less successful in keeping out mold and mildew. As a rule of thumb, it’s easier to match clear silicone to the metal trim and plumbing fixtures while white or grout color matched silicone is easier to match the corners of walls, shelves, and benches inside the shower.

Last but not least, check to see if all of the rubber seals are still in place and in good shape around the glass, the sides of the shower door, and the sweep at the bottom of the shower door. These are there to help shed water down the inside of the shower and help keep splashing through any gaps in the door to a minimum. These items can be inexpensively replaced at a glass supply shop.

By Chad Walker

Colored Marble Tile Flooring For Your Bathroom

All throughout civilization, there has been no doubt of marble’s eminence. One of the most popular places in the modern home for marble floor tiles is the bathroom.

Marble has retained its ranking as the supreme building material for vanities. A natural marble vanity or sink stands out as the one and only choice for many discriminating and aesthetically-inclined homeowners.

While marble has the characteristic of being etched and stained by water and chemicals, the use of modern sealants has significantly reduced this major risk.The stone that inspires poetry and has been used to create architectural wonders across the world is in fact a metamorphic rock, which was formed by the alteration of limestone or dolomite.

Marble is used for both interior & exterior flooring applications. Marble is available in many colors like milky white, red, black, mottled and banded, gray, pink and green. Some manufactures offer marble tiles in the form of green marble tiles, green marble slabs & green marble blocks.

New Technologies Have Reintroduced Marble Tiles As Bathroom Vanities

A more recent advance in tile fabrication technology has enabled marble floor tiles to be within the reach of many homeowners. A sink could be a bowl of polished marble which sits atop a vanity. A tall faucet empties water into the vessel. It is a simple, yet supremely artistic way to decorate a bathroom that will make all your houseguests green with jealousy.

Marble tiles on the floor of a bathroom are almost a commonly seen necessity, if a homeowner’s target is to create a luxurious bath. These tiles are available polished or honed. Honed tiles generally provide more traction. Polished tiles do provide a more elegant look, however they can be very slippery when wet, so bath mats need to be placed at strategic points in the bath or shower room.

Marble Could Also Be Used As A Shower Wall

Many professional interior decorators know the key to a luxuriously created bathroom is to utilize marble around the walls and the tub. Most Jacuzzi bath tubs and Roman tubs look far more elegant wrapped in stone. Marble is also a popular fixture in shower walls and in steam showers; again however, traction is a factor that need to be seriously taken into consideration.

Marble mosaic tiles are often used on shower floors, and the grout lines provide the necessary footing to prevent slipping.Hand-carved marble trim pieces are also good for use in framing bath mirrors, and a wide variety of marble accents will round off your ultimate dream bath.

Tumbled Marble Also Makes For A Rustic, Old-World Bathroom Feel

The current rise in the popularity of “tumbled marble” has seen an increased use in many homes. These rustic tiles look more like travertine, wherein they have a rough finish, and often have little pits full of crystal, as well as an an uneven edge which is usually rounded at the corners.
These varieties are available in many sizes and are good for backsplashes, showers, and flooring. The hand-carved look of these tiles helps provide an excellent method for counteracting the formal air which marble typically lends to a room.

By Vanessa A.Doctor

Health Benefits of a Traditional Sauna VS Infrared Sauna

The benefits of a traditional sauna compared to an infrared are more or less the same. The difference will be in the degree of benefits that a body can receive from these two having an entirely different system of giving beneficial heat to the body and the risk that a high blood sufferer might encounter in a traditional one.

In a traditional, the method of conveying heat to the body is by heating the air environment to heat the body, while in an infrared sauna, the heat is directed to the body and not the air environment. Thus, in a traditional, to attain a desired heat temperature for a body, the heat temperature of the room has to be higher, which can be very inconvenient for a person to stay long in the room. In an infrared , since the infrared heat rays only heats the body instead of the air surrounding, the person inside an infrared sauna can be comfortable even for a longer period.

These obtaining situations would result to making the person having a sauna inside an infrared room receiving more beneficial heat from the infrared rays because of the longer duration of his stay inside an infrared room. While on the other hand, a person having a sauna in a traditional or steam can only receive beneficial health in a limited time as he will be subjected to uncomfortable heat inside the sauna room. Aside from the time duration, the degree of beneficial heat the body receives in an infrared sauna is more deep penetrating as the infrared rays heat is focused on the body and not in the air around the body. The heat penetration of a body in a traditional sauna will be shallow as the heat is not focused to the body but almost all over the sauna room.

People suffering from high blood pressure likewise are discouraged from using traditional saunas, but are encouraged to use infrared. Although both kinds of saunas would tend to lower blood pressure, the intense room heat of a traditional or steam saunas would tend to aggravate more the high blood pressure of a person the moment he steps out of the sauna room and be subjected to a sudden change of temperature. Unlike a steam or traditional, infrared’s do not heat up the room. The infrared room remains cool and more or less the same as the outside room temperature, thus enabling a person who suffers from high blood pressure to comfortably lowers his or her blood pressure without any threat of a sudden change of temperature the moment he comes out of the infrared sauna therapy room.

By Jon K

The Benefits of A Steam Sauna

Most of us have heard about the health benefits of a sauna and may have been lucky enough to use one at a club or gym. Many of these are dry saunas but the steam sauna is considered to be the most beneficial for those seeking relaxation from stress and health related problems. As a matter of fact, the benefits of sitting in a sauna steam room are almost limitless. Sitting in a sauna steam room is most beneficial if you are stressed out due to your hectic lifestyle. The steam sauna enables you to relax from your daily responsibilities and jobs and forget the worries of the day. This way you are able to avoid of the heart diseases and even insomnia. The sauna’s steam frees you from all the pressures and stress of every day life thereby bringing about relaxation to your already worn out body.

The steam of saunas also makes your body feel clean. In fact, not only does it improve your physical and emotional health but also detoxifies the body from all the unwanted dirt and fats. This further unclogs the pores of your skin. This makes your skin cleaner, acne free and glowing with health. This way you feel even more confident and invigorated about yourself. The steam of a sauna is also extremely beneficial for those who suffer from kidney damage. The steam emitted during a sauna help induce detoxification of the entire body and its internal organs. Those whose kidneys have been damaged are able to filter their bodily wastes better after a session in the sauna. As the steam from the sauna induces sweating, the kidneys are able to filter the toxins more efficiently.

The sauna’s steam also improves your emotional health of the individual by relaxing your. This is because the steam relaxes and soothes the body. As a matter of fact, most people who bathe in a sauna steam room attest that each session of sauna make them feel good. It also helps them alleviate various emotional problems such as anxiety. The warmth and comfort of the sauna steam enables you to temporarily forget all your worries and achieve a healthy state of mind. Sauna steam rooms like the AromaSteam capsule model AS-SR steam sauna are complete relaxing zones. Whether you feel bored with life or are completely stressed out, going to a sauna would definitely lighten your spirits and boost your confidence to give you a pitch that would make you feel wonderful.

Not only would the sauna steam enable you to enhance your physical health and emotional well being, but it also provide various health benefits such as detoxification. You may consider a steam sauna bath an indulgence but the warmth of the sauna steam will energize and refresh the inner person.

By Chang Seward

Sauna Facts and History - Did you Know This

When someone tells us about a sauna experience, what comes to mind is that little wooden room in some health spa where one simply sits to enjoy a great sweat session. There are several sauna facts however that seem quite fascinating. For instance, the first sauna existed a long time before the Roman Empire flourished. The earliest sauna was when men and women sat together and dug several holes to fill them later with wood and stone and some fire. Then, they would gather around these holes and enjoy the warmth until they would start to sweat. Most of the most indigenous tribes believe in sweating as a way of getting rid of “bad spirits” which cause disease. In all probability, the old sweat sure probably did cure and solve some ailments because sweating causes detoxification which is good for the human body.

Another sauna fact is this - having a sauna does help us lose some weight. There is however some disagreement about this because some medical experts reason that the weight lost is simply water lost from the body. Other’s however reason that one sauna session is equivalent to losing about 500 calories. What becomes apparently clear is that whatever the case may be, having a sauna does relax our nerves, opens and cleans body pores and detoxifies the body and takes away toxins as we sweat.
There are different types of sauna treatments. The most popular is the Finnish sauna, which is a wooden room with a temperature that reaches almost 100 degrees Centigrade. That sounds terribly hot but remember that in a Finnish sauna, the heat isn’t uncomfortable because the water splashed on burning stones bring down the humidity. The Finnish sauna session is almost like a “sacred rite”. People inside the sauna room are not allowed to swear, talk too loud or converse about anything controversial. Some even use leaves like birches and batter their backs during the sauna session because this loosens and relaxes their muscles. Usually before and after a sauna, one has a cool bath. Another interesting sauna fact is that during the winter some even jump into ice lakes after a sauna the same is done in some places in the Soviet Union where taking a jump into an icy sea or lake is considered a healthy before and after a relaxing sauna session, particularly during the cold winter.

Sauna sessions have been common even during the Roman Empire. Sauna was accepted then as a cure for body diseases, including mental anxieties. That was also why common hot and cold baths were popular during the Roman Empire. Sauna sessions seem universal and can be found in almost any culture. Even the native American Indians has separate sauna cabins and tents where they would gather the elders of the tribe and fill a main huge hole with stones heated to produce heat. The heat would create a steam that was considered sacred and beneficial for every disease including that of mental anxiety depression. The Indians believed that having a sauna session makes one wiser, healthier and more fit to face the challenges of their rather wild environment.

Last sauna fact : every sauna session affects every part of our body system. Sauna session relaxes our minds, improves our respiratory system, cures arthritis, allergies and improves our body immunity. Perhaps, it’s time to go back to the basics, try the sauna, and get back to real living again!

By Teresa B

The Infrared Sauna Kit

The Infrared sauna kit is easy to assemble. A sauna kit is a package containing all the pieces necessary to put together a sauna yourself. A portable Far-infrared sauna kit is an option that may be right for your particular circumstance. There is also a pre-built sauna which can be even easier to assemble or disassemble than the sauna kit.

The Infrared Sauna kits are completely portable and designed for in home use. The Infrared Sauna is a ‘ dry’ environment at temperatures lower than the traditional sauna. This infrared sauna kit requires a little more handyman skills to put together than the pre-built sauna.

The infrared sauna kit comes with all the components required to build your sauna.

The sauna kit provides all the instructions necessary to get started on its assembly. The sauna kit is very affordable – with a lower installation cost than the traditional sauna, or steam room.

Infrared sauna kits are available in almost any size that you can think of, you can also order custom-made sauna kits. This can be helpful if your particular location is unusual in any way. The advantage of sauna kits over pre-built saunas is that the sauna kit can be installed in a pre-existing space. Pre-built saunas are more commonly used as freestanding saunas.

There are many factors that will help you when deciding the right size for your sauna. Having your room planed out and measured will save you a lot of time and hassle also try different combinations to find the best fit for you. Before buying any sauna, make sure you are physically fit enough to use it. When installing do not alter the electrical components as you will void the warranty.

By Paul Hegarty

How to Build a Finland Sauna Cabin

A Finland sauna cabin would be a nice addition to complement anyone’s house. According to the Finnish Sauna Society, almost every Finn owns such a cabin at one of the tens of thousands of lakes that dot this northernmost European nation. For the Finns, sauna bathing is a way of life and a commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

A traditional Finnish sauna burns wood. The sauna bath house is usually located in a small cabin near a lake or river. In North America, most outdoor saunas are situated in the backyard and the shower has to suffice for the traditional swim in the lake. There are several options for recreating a Finnish outdoor bath house. A builder could build from scratch using plans that are readily available. The second and better option is sauna kits or pre-built sauna rooms that make construction of such a cabin a feasible project even for the novice home renovator.

The Western red cedar cabins from Mr. Sauna make construction of a Finnish sauna a snap. There are several designs to choose from and each bath house can be assembled with a few simple tools. No framing or insulating is required. These are completely self-contained home saunas with red cedar exterior walls. All that is needed for outdoor use is the addition of a roof and a wood burning sauna room heater to recreate the Finland style bathing experience.

Another self-contained cabin is the ThermaSol modular home sauna that comes with an electric heater. The western red cedar wall and ceiling panels are coded for easy assembly. The Finnish style bath house comes with pre-assembled benches, a pre-hung door and accessories such as a bucket and ladle. These cabins come in a variety of sizes and fit perfectly into the corner of a spare room in your house. With the addition of a roof, ThermaSol saunas could be set up on suitable flat surface in the backyard.

By Kevin Urban

How to Install Sauna Room Doors and Benches

Sauna room doors are made to fit standard door openings framed at a rough 26 x 82 inches. One of the most important aspects of a properly installed door is the fact that it should always open to the outside. A wooden handle is a must; you don’t want to accidentally get burned when touching a hot metal handle. Locks should be avoided in home saunas. It’s important to get out as fast as you can when the heat becomes unbearable while sitting on one of the upper benches.

The sauna benches, door and wooden flooring are included in your precut sauna kit. Some assembly is required when you install the door and benches. Most doors for sauna rooms are pre-hung, making the installation easier than hanging one yourself in the frame. Specify whether you want the hinge on the left or on the right side when facing the outside of the door.

Benches that come with prefabricated home saunas or pre-built modular saunas are pre-assembled for easy installation. If you purchase a precut kit, you might have to assemble the bench supports yourself. Just follow the step-by-step instructions that show you how to install the bench, door, window and flooring. If you are building a sauna room from scratch, remember to countersink the screws as they become extremely hot and can cause accidental burns.

Make sure you specify the right type of wood when ordering your sauna kit. The wall and ceiling panels, doors, benches and floorboards of home saunas are all manufactured from wood. Most kits use Western red cedar, but some people are allergic to the smell of cedar wood. If this is the case, order your sauna room bench, door and other accessories in your choice of Redwood, poplar or spruce.

By Kevin Urban