Rain Shower Head and Controls – Part I

Choosing the Right Rain Shower Head and Controls (Part I)

A little while back, we got to take a look at a bathroom with a high contrast contemporary type finish. There are colors that range from white to black.  They have used a relatively wide shower head that’s wall-mounted. This is similar to a typical rain shower head.  Sometimes rain shower heads are called rainfall or waterfall shower heads.  In many cases, they can be mounted directly from the ceiling because unlike a typical shower head which has a directional spray, rain shower heads are intended for the water to fall entirely vertically downward.

This particular shower head happens to be eight inches in diameter which is much larger than most typical spray shower heads.  However, rain style shower heads like this can often be even much larger than eight inches in diameter.  Ten and twelve inch options are also common and popular, but large options are also available. Some luxury rainfall shower heads can even be as large as 24 inches in diameter or larger.  

Rain Shower Head and Controls - Part I

There are a handful of tradeoffs in the pros and cons between traditional shower heads and rainfall style shower heads. Rainfall type shower heads have a gentle flow like little drops of rain that fall down upon you while you’re bathing. By comparison, typical shower heads have much higher flow and pressure. In general, nowadays, we don’t necessarily have a lot of water pressure in shower heads. The amount of water pressure allowed to be used or designed into shower heads is limited to help reduce unnecessary water consumption.

The president of the USA went on numerous childish rants complaining about attempts to conserve water and our planet and reduce water usage.  However, under the same president, water costs have increased significantly.

Even when regimes and parties flip through administration changes, it’s likely that in the future the cost of water will continue to increase drastically throughout the majority of the United States of America.  In most cases there are regulations that require the reduction of water flow through showerheads  Therefore, even relatively large rainfall take shower heads might have a limited total flow of water.  A spray type shower head that’s intended to have high pressure, can actually clean vigorously, without a high flow of water. It all comes down to engineering and design. So the president of the USA is just wrong.

Rainfall type shower heads are a bit different in design, though regarding higher pressure. Another one of the limitations of rainfall type shower heads is that since the water emanates from a directly vertical position, it isn’t necessarily able to be easily directed in other angles. Often, with a rainfall shower head such as this one, there’ll be an additional integrated component such as a wand. That wand can be used to wash under areas like under the arms, for example. Otherwise, a rainfall type shower head will not be able to direct water into upwards vertical direction or even horizontal type flow directions.

You can see a picture of the shower controls with the wall mounted one next to the wand controls. The shower control is the large round dial on the wall. This can be used to control both pressure of the water and the temperature of the water. There are some examples where the shower controls only affect the temperature of the water and do not limit or increase the flow of the water. We generally recommend against using those type of shower setups.

the shower controls with the wall mounted

Looking closer at the aesthetics of this particular shower, there are some areas that have a significantly large span of almost just white color. Other areas are a range of dark gray to almost black. If these colors were intermixed more consistently throughout the shower, it might look a bit more typical or common. With these large expanses of areas that have very ranges of high contrast, it’s a bit unique. We’re not saying that, in this case, the uniqueness is actually good, though.

It’s hard to tell whether or not the overall aesthetic benefits from his breakup of the colors. There are also areas where there is a bright yellow or gold color veining in the tile. Those areas of gold present spots of visual interest. Whether or not it actually looks convincingly real is hard to say because they are some cases in nature where colors actually do occur like this.  Calcutta marble may be the influence for this particular design. 

large span of almost just white color

If you look closely in the picture below, you can see there are actually two different knobs at this particular shower control. One controls both the flow and the temperature of the water and the other knob works like a diverter to change the origin of the water from the shower head to the shower wand and vice versa. In this upcoming week, we’ll talk about more about some of the tradeoffs between the rainfall type shower heads and more traditional shower heads.

two different knobs at this particular shower control

Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help 

As dedicated and local DC metropolitan kitchen and bath builders and installers, we pride ourselves on turning your visions into reality. Your kitchen and bathrooms can reflect your unique style and be designed with personalized aesthetics. It can be a process from creative designs to the realization of your dream space. Specializing in kitchen and bath construction, we bring expertise and skills to every project. If you’re contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, we’re happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience.

You can visit our company website at https://dupontkitchenbathdc.com/ Here at our website you will find a simple and convenient web form that you can fill to contact us quickly.

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The tile used on his bathroom is an unterminated or hexagonal tile with an embossed texture. Unlike most wall tile installations which terminate all the way up at the corner of the joint between the wall plain or have a termination strip, this tile is installed with a raw staggered edge. Sometimes an edge like this is called a floating edge. If you look in the picture below, you can see that the tile at the vertical inside corner of the wall is cut to fit the shape provided by the wall plane. The top of the tile though is left raw to just follow a staggered edge of the hexagonal tile itself. The staggered unterminated edge of the tile doesn't necessarily look bad, in this example. They've been careful during installation to not let mortar ooze out in a way that looks rough or unfinished. At the lower tiles though, in the picture below, you can see the top of that unterminated edge. There are two problems with that kind of unterminated edge. First, you can see the raw edge of the tile itself. Since this is not a solid piece of natural material, the front or exposed face of the tile is a different color than the internal composition or body of the tile. When it's exposed like this and doesn't have a terminating edge you can see that difference which makes it visually apparent that it's not a real material. It's a manufactured material. The second problem with this type of unterminated edge is that the mortar itself has a thickness of roughly 1/8 of an inch. When applied with a 3/16 inch Notch trowel, the mortar becomes compressed but still even when flattened as much as possible there still is a thickness of that mortar. Once it is dry and cured, you can still see the thickness of that mortar. In almost all cases of tile installation, unlike stone masonry or even brick masonry, the tile mortar is not intended to be exposed at the joints. In between joints, in the field of the tile, the mortar will be covered with a colored grout. In this case, the tiles are set so tightly that there is almost no visible grout line between them. The grout used is a color that's very similar to the tile and the effect works. In some cases when the tile has a variation of significant color difference between the ranges of colors within the tile it's difficult to have a grout that complements or blends. Here though because the colors continuous across the face of the tile and the grout has been matched so well, you can't even hardly notice it. You can see that joint or between the back of the tile and the wall very clearly in the next picture below. You can see there's a very thin line with a black dark shadow between the tile and the wall. In some cases, when a tile is left unterminated at the edge, a gun applied caulking can be applied across the edge, smoothed, to almost make it look intentional. Sometimes in bathrooms without really good ventilation, if there's steam from hot water, that steam can condensate and build on the wall. When the vapor droplets accumulate enough they'll roll down the wall and in this case they'll sit on top of and get back behind the edge of the tile. That's one of the downsides, here though, this bathroom is just like a powder room with a toilet and a sink, but it doesn't have a shower. Most of the steam moisture buildup in bathrooms comes from showers. In the picture below you can see the distance between the other side of the ceiling and the top of the tile. Here they were at least smart enough to bring the top of the tile to a point that's above eye level. Typical eye levels are around 60 to 75 inches above the finished floor height. The mirror used above the bathroom sink has an integral LED light that wraps the perimeter of the round mirror. It basically provides a dramatic high contrast to the adjacent tile. That high contrast accentuates the texture of the tile. This tile has this intentional embossed or relief texture which is well employed when lit in a way that emphasizes the texture. The next picture below shows a close-up view of that edge at the top of the tile. Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help As dedicated and local DC metropolitan kitchen and bath builders and installers, we pride ourselves on turning your visions into reality. Your kitchen and bathrooms can reflect your unique style and be designed with personalized aesthetics. It can be a process from creative designs to the realization of your dream space. Specializing in kitchen and bath construction, we bring expertise and skills to every project. If you're contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, we're happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience. You can visit our company website at https://dupontkitchenbathdc.com/ Here at our website you will find a simple and convenient web form that you can fill to contact us quickly.

Hex Wall Tile

Modern Hex Wall Tile for Bathrooms in Washington DC The tile used on his bathroom is an unterminated or hexagonal tile with an embossed texture.