If you are totally honest, it has to be agreed that most North American bathrooms do not qualify as the most glamorous rooms in the house. Some critics describe them as ranging from staid and boring to downright dangerous, containing slippery floors, water guzzling toilet tanks and old tubs that are showing distinct signs of wear.
Couple this with poor ventilation, a moldy shower box and cheap fixtures and fittings; it really does appear that many North American bathrooms could be considered the Cinderella room in many homes. Essentially their design seems like no more than an annoying afterthought, the main work having gone into the other rooms in the house.
Why is the bathroom so ignored?
With the information given above, many of you may be scratching your heads to understand this situation. Let’s look at another thought provoking fact. At an average cost of about $10,000 dollars, the bathroom is one of them most expensive rooms in your house to fit our from scratch or even to remodel, if you have inherited an old bathroom in a house that you have bought. Consider spending $10,000 on a living room or a dining room and you could treat yourself as a king.
Incredibly despite the amount of money you are preparing to splash in your bathroom, the plans the designers come up with could leave you yawning. What they give us is some shiny fixtures and his n’ hers sinks, a toilet all lined up in a row and then a tub and that is about it. All of this in needs to be packed into a tight space, on average bathrooms in North America measure 5 by 8 so you don’t have much space to play with at the best of times. Another problem that you have to face is that your dirty fixture, the toilet, is right next door to the places where you clean yourself (the tub and the sink). You will know that this doesn’t make for the healthiest environment.
Ready for more pain?
In most non eco friendly bathrooms, the amount of water that gets flushed away in North America including Canada is scary by comparison with European countries. The energy you will consume heating water and lighting the room, while trying to get rid of the water vapor and the accompanying mold will hurt your wallet. Yes, it may be time to update your abode’s commode. Don’t delay, take action immediately and always think green, turn dank and rank to green and clean!
Saving water is possible
At the top of your eco bathroom list of improvements saving water needs to be absolutely at the top. When you are looking for clues and suspects, the toilet should be trembling as you turn your magnifying glass on it. Did you know that the toilet all on its own, can consume as much as 27%of all water that the household uses. While much of the waste is caused by people running showers too long before they step in, or overfilled tubs. Bad maintenance, leaking and constant streaming or dripping taps can run up the costs.
Installing water saving bathroom fixtures are a really important step. Then making sure everyone knows how to use them correctly is really important too. How can you get started? First of all install low-flow shower heads and faucets; the days of the Niagara Falls type of fixtures are effectively over. Make sure all water leaks are sorted out and sealed effectively. Consider a shocking fact that a leaking toilet can waste a staggering 300 gallons of water a day.
If you really want to be smart, install a gray water system. This collects water from the sinks and the shower and feed it into the toilet reservoir and even into your garden water butt so you can water your garden.
Coming out of the (water) closet
Just consider how much time you and most of us spend in the bathroom, lazing in the bathroom in the tub or just letting the shower water run over you should be a real pleasure. This is true but how come Canadian bathrooms resemble a closet? Smart bathroom remodeling take their inspiration from across the world. In a traditional Japanese bathroom the view from the bathroom is considered really important. You could say that the window and its view define the room. Make your bathroom includes natural light from skylights or windows, a great view is really important.
Banish the en-suites! A bathroom for every bedroom is not necessary; you are not running a hotel! A bathroom upstairs and one downstairs should be more than necessary. Think of the space saving it can offer you and the money saving when it comes to the heating costs, ventilation costs and maintenance costs – you know it makes sense!