Showers

The shower for most of in modern Ireland of us is a daily wake up ritual. As opposed to the concept of the having a bath, the shower provides speed and effectiveness in cleansing and freshening us up before the daily toil in our places of work.

A bath is a more time consuming and relaxed affair when there is no pressure on time. Most people in Ireland take a shower for convenience and a bath for the luxury and comfort of a gentle soak in the suds.

Nowadays, there is a bewildering choice of showers on the market, suitable for all budgets and tastes. In the main bathroom, you are likely to find a companion shower to the bath that is already there. This can also be used, perhaps as a guest shower where the main bedroom has an en-suite shower.

Showers come in various shapes, usually with a 1200mm x 900mm base when they are a stand-alone feature. They generally will have glass or Perspex sliding doors done in square or semi-circle design to minimize the space they take from the rest of the bathroom. A recent trend in more luxurious equipment in large new build houses is what is known as a wet room, which is an open section of the bathroom, or stand-alone area much larger than your conventional shower. This will have rain -effect dispersal of water and additional wall jets that give a riveting and refreshing experience.

The advent of what are known as power showers – showers with an individual pump on each unit rather than conventional electric showers – means Irish developers are installing these more frequently than before in new homes. They form part of the full plumbing installation and whilst they add to the cost at construction stage, they more than justify the expenditure in time as they give considerable savings on electricity costs.

The electric shower remains, of course, the most popular type in Irish homes, but they have a huge appetite for electrical energy and from a running cost point of view are very uneconomic.

Modern versions such as those supplied by the leader in the Irish market, Triton, have improved over the years. They cannot however match the force and economy of a power shower.

If your budget can stretch to it and you are doing a new-build, Bathrooms Ireland recommends the power shower route. This will also be easy to install if you are adding a bedroom to the house or re-vamping an existing bathroom.