When it comes to renovating a bathroom, Chris Fuller says choosing the perfect style of stand-alone shower can be among the most stressful steps. As the owner of Kitchen Bath & Glass Center, Fuller has spent years helping homeowners learn about all the showers styles that are available before embarking on a renovation project, including learning about which framing, tiling, and shower doors are good options for his Melbourne, FL, clients.
So what makes choosing a shower so difficult for many homeowners? Fuller says it has to do with the number of styles and options available to choose from, along with the fact that no one particular style is more dominant than others. Rather than simply choosing the most common style, Fuller recommends doing the detailed research to find a shower style that best reflects both your budget and personal taste.
Showers Vs. Bathtubs
One of the most recent trends within the remodeling industry has been the shift away from bathtubs, as more homeowners choose to go with stand-alone showers instead, says Fuller. Not only are stand-alone shower installations the new norm when it comes to bathroom projects, but many homeowners are even beginning to tear out their existing bathtubs to be replaced with stand-alone showers.
Foregoing a bathtub in a home in favor of a trendier stand-alone shower might not always be the best idea, though, especially for anyone who is planning to sell his home in the near future. “When homeowners install a new shower, that means they’re losing a bathtub,” says Fuller. “If that happened to be the only bathtub in the house, then that can make reselling the house a little tricky.” Because so many homebuyers want at least one bathtub these days, Fuller recommends leaving one bathtub to help boost the home’s future resale value. “What seems to be the case is that most homeowners are fine just as long as they have left at least one bathtub in the house,” Fuller explains.
When comparing the cost of installing a bathtub to a stand-alone shower, Fuller says the two projects would be close in price. “Price wise, putting in a standing tile shower is actually quite comparable to installing a new bathtub with tile surrounding it,” he says. The reason? It turns out that building a shower pan out of mortar and tiling the walls above it is comparable in cost to the price of buying a new bathtub and adding tile above that. “If someone is thinking of doing a project like that, he should not let the price be a factor.”
Trendy Tiles
When it comes to new showers, Fuller says his clients in Melbourne, FL, want shower doors that are frameless and surrounded by extra large tiles. Of course, the large tile trend is not just restricted to showers—it’s becoming popular for homeowners to add extra-large tiles in other areas of the home such as the kitchen, as well. “A lot of people are interested in that particular look,” Fuller explains, “and I think it is a trend that got started because large tiles were what people were seeing in all the home magazines.”
Although large tiles are trendy right now, Fuller cautions that these things can come and go, and it’s possible that smaller tiles might be more popular at some point in the future. For now, however, he says the majority of new bathroom remodels he works on involve the use of natural-colored tiles in large sizes for the stand-alone shower While there is no benefit to using larger tiles, other than the aesthetic benefit, he says it just happens to be what’s “in” at the current time. For homeowners looking for a way to give their bathroom shower a modern look, installing larger tiles could be a fairly inexpensive option.
Rain Showerheads
Rain showerheads are another popular shower trend right now, says Fuller. They are essentially larger versions of a standard showerhead that come down directly from the ceiling rather than the wall above the bathtub. They are usually eight to 12 inches in diameter, which makes them much larger in size than a traditional showerhead.
When you start talking about installing one of these showerheads, however, a few issues need to be taken into consideration. Installation of the new showerhead can sometimes be more difficult because a portion of the ceiling needs to be taken out to put one in, which can considerably add to the overall cost of a shower installation.
When it comes to showers, there’s no limit to the number of unique products that can be used in bathroom renovation projects. For Fuller’s clients in Melbourne, FL, shower doors, drains, tiles, and even showerheads are all important pieces of any bathroom remodel that he recommends speaking with a professional to learn about all available options.
