Bathroom is an essential part of any house. Obviously, you and your family are using it on a regular basis and that is why it’s even more important to make sure this place has maximal comfort while still look attractive and fashionable.
Plumbing design is what you need to consider at the first point when you are planning to do some rebuilding or refreshment of your bathroom. Today you can find numerous options of how to do proper arrangements and find the best option for your particular house. A lot of things will depend on the original construction of the room and specific features of the water pipes system in the house. But some recommendations can be used in most of cases regardless the complexity of the works.
Considering the specific and pretty difficult plan of the works it’s better to forward the plumbing design job to the professionals. Only they will know better if it’s possible overall to place shower or bathroom (or even jacuzzi) in the room depending on its size and shape. Also, they can always recommend the better solution in regard to the location of the most essential parts. Finally, choice of the materials and the producers of the plumbing system can also vary a lot and you as an amateur may not know all these details.
Making a project..Planning it’s just a beginning, but only project can give you the overall image of how the bathroom will look like, with all the specifications.
- Choice of the plumbing. Modern plumbing systems are giving a lot of space for the imagination. Of course, you still can make a choice of the more traditional items which still can be presented in various shapes and colors. You don’t need to limit yourself only with white colors – nowadays you can arrange the whole bathroom in grey, beige, green, blue and even black colors when most of the items will match and create a unique atmosphere. If you are willing to take advantage of the achievements of the modern technologies, you can consider hanging drainage which is definitely more complicated but will provide you with many advantages. Additionally, among the recent tendencies you can also meet inbuild plumbing modules which help to provide more space and can be considered as one of the most reliable and stable systems for the bathroom design.
- Drainage system is one of the most crucial technical parts of the plumbing design. That is how your bathroom will not only be fashionable but also will perform its main responsibilities – supplying and removing the water. Toilet, sink, shower, bath tub – all these items require careful attention to their drainage system so you can fully enjoy your regular morning and evening procedures. To do the job perfectly, you need to check and adjust the holes in the floor before covering it with tiles or other materials. Modern drainage systems can allow you to do the proper water-removing arrangements without sacrificing the overall interior of the bathroom, but even the most recent technical achievement will not help if the floor is laying in wrong way. Here we can also name such important features of the drainage systems as durability, waterproofing, hygiene and reliability. Therefore, you need to make sure that these features are approved and guaranteed by the producer.
- Soundproofing mat is one of the newest trends in the plumbing design. Unfortunately, many modern houses have very thin walls, and the sound of the water from the shower or bathtub can indeed significantly affect the comfort of other people living in the house (or in case of the condo – even of neighbours). Meanwhile, with such soundproofing mats you can lower the sound of the flowing water down to 20 decibel which will make your bathroom one of the quietest areas of the house.
- Plumbing design nowadays can be in accompany with the highest technical characteristics so you will not have to make a choice between style and practical side of the interior. And the best example in this case is to choose the modules which will help you to hide most of the plumbing system (unless you are willing to show it up). Not everybody knows but nowadays even the button for flushing the water in bathroom can be turned into sensory or just be replaced with the automatic flushing.
Types of pipes.Plumbing includes not only visible parts but also some processes you can not see. Plumbing pipes are one of the most common examples which you can see in each and every bathroom.
Today there are many options you can choose from but to make you better understand the difference, we combined most of them into 4 types:
- Galvanized Steel. We started with them because that is how the plumbing systems appeared at all. And it’s not just a part of the history – today you can always find them in old houses. Therefore, we can already mention one of its main benefits – durability. Another essential detail is that with galvanized pipes you will not need sound-proofing mats as they on their own can manage the problem of too loud water flow. But obviously there was a reason why people turned to other options in regard to the plumbing pipes. And one of the most essential is that steel is a subject for corrosion which can become a really dangerous problem if we are talking about the water
- Copper. This is another example of the pipes’ material which has been using for many years in the past. Nowadays you can even find it in the modern houses as it is still a very competitive type. In comparison with the previous kind of pipes, these ones are resistant for the corrosion so can be easily used in all living areas. Also, the specific features of the material allow it to successfully handle both with extremely high and low temperatures of water. Ecological activists can also find a great advantage of copper pipes because they can be easily recycled (especially in comparison with modern plastic replacements). Commonly known that copper itself is a pretty solid and rigid material so it can be used only if the area is not too narrow because it can be pretty challenging to adjust these pipes there. Finally, one of the reasons why this type is not that commonly known and used today is that the cost of it much higher than of others.
- Polyvinyl Chloride Pipes, or PVC are the most popular both among the house-owners and the specialists in the plumbing design. The area of the usage covers almost all plumbing structures including sinks, toilets, drainage systems, shower and others. Here is why. Firstly, with plastic pipes you can forget about any rust at all so the water even after decades of their usage will be still very clean and safe. Here we can notice one more additional benefit in this regard – such pipes almost don’t have any expiration date. Secondly, they can manage high water pressure and therefore be used to provide the water to the whole house being the main line of the supply. Thirdly, plastic itself is much lighter than metal constructions so it will be much easier to install these pipes and to repair them in case of any damage. Finally, the shape of the pipes helps them to be less affected with the blocks. But even the most commonly used plumbing system can not be applicable for each and every house. For example, here you will find a very limited number of sizes, and if you are planning some unique and original project you might not be able to find a proper type of PVC pipes. Another weakness in this regard is that plastic pipes cannot be comparable in the hot water withstanding with metal constructions.
- Cross-linked polyethylene pipes are pretty similar to the PVC with some small differences. Thus, they are of different colors for cold and hot water so even if you will decide to fix some problem with the plumbing system by yourself you can easily recognise where is which supply line. Also, despite this type of pipes still can be considered as a very strong one, they are quite flexible and can be used for any kind of constrictions.
Materials for other plumbing design categories..While the choice of the pipes’ material fully depends on its technical characteristics, sink, bath tub, toilet and other components are playing an essential role in the interior and you need to make sure that all the items will be in harmony and match each other. The easiest way in this regard is to choose one or two particular materials and use them for all the plumbing components.
Ceramics is still on the first place among most of the customers as it’s pretty flexible for making different forms and colors. Additionally, despite its popularity, it’s pretty easy to get the model which will look very authentic and even tailored made which will add extra value and luxurious style to the whole interior.If you are interested in more original ideas, glass sink will definitely impress you and everyone who will visit such a bathroom. Of course, it can cost more than traditional options and it’s even not so easy to find it on the mass market but it’s a great chance to get advantage of the modern technologies as few decades ago such a project was not possible to bring to life.
Acrylic can be considered as a budget version but with such great benefits as the best flexibility and lightness among the plumbing design materials. Therefore, there are no limits for your imagination and with acrylic you can create almost any possible design you may want.
Finally, you can make a combination of more common materials with wood, plywood and even silicone – possibilities are indeed endless! The main thing in this case is to make sure that these materials went through some specific procedures to make them applicable for the usage in the humid environment.