Steam Showers In Home Bathrooms Are A Hot New Trend

Many people enjoy visiting a steam room at a spa or health club, but you can't always get there when you need to relax. Instead, some homeowners are adding steam showers to their bathrooms or constructing whole steam rooms. Ideally a steam shower or room will produce heat from 80 to 100 degrees with 98 to 100 percent humidity.

Benefits: Proponents of steam showers and steam rooms tout a variety of benefits. Steam is good for the skin, purging toxins from your pores. It can help clear sinuses, providing assistance with allergies, bronchitis, and other conditions. The warmth can increase circulation, help with muscle pains and ease conditions such as arthritis. Plus, no matter what your health status is, everyone likes to relax and de-stress.

Steam Room: An in-home steam room can be created out of an existing room - usually a bathroom - or large closet. It can also be an addition to your house (be sure to get a building permit for this option). The key is that steam rooms need to be water - and air-tight. When converting an existing room, most remodelers will use fiberglass or some other vapor barrier on the walls and silicone to seal the room's cracks.

Often the inside walls, and floor and ceiling, are covered with cedar, a wood that is conductive, but does not rot easily. The room will also contain a stove or steam generator and wooden benches, typically in different heights. When building steam rooms, home remodelers often provide a slanted ceiling that encourages condensation to roll rather than drip down and a slanted floor to encourage drainage. Some include vents or windows to easily ventilate the room after a shower.

Steam Showers: If you don't have the budget or the space for a separate steam room, you can install a steam shower in your bathroom. Many manufacturers sell modular steam shower units that often fit in the space of a shower stall, or even a bathtub. These modular models provide more features, but you may be paying for features you won't use, and the design of a pre-fabricated model may not fit with your bathroom's decor. The third option is to have a custom designed steam shower, which can be installed in the location of the current shower. This option allows you to get the features, configuration, and design that you want, but is more expensive.

Features: All steam showers share some characteristics. They must be mostly airtight, meaning that all the cracks, especially around the door, must be sealed. Every steam shower needs a steam generator that is close to the unit, usually in a nearby cabinet. Look for a unit that generates the right amount of steam for your sized shower and one with features that make it easy to clean and service. You also want a generator that delivers the steam quickly. Some steam shower units come with built-in aromatherapy or chromotherapy (colored light) capabilities. It's good to get a unit with a timer, because steam showers should usually last no longer than 20 minutes. A remote control is also handy.