If you are planning a bathroom refit in Newcastle or anywhere across Tyne and Wear, the choice between a wet room and a walk in shower is usually the first big decision. They look similar in brochures, but they are built very differently, cost different amounts and suit different houses. Here is what actually separates them, based on what we see fitting both in Tyneside homes.
A walk in shower is a low profile shower tray, usually 25mm to 45mm high, with one or two glass panels and no door. The tray sits on or in the floor, water drains through a standard waste, and the rest of the bathroom floor stays a normal floor. It is essentially a modern, open version of a shower enclosure.
A wet room does away with the tray altogether. The whole floor is waterproofed with a tanking membrane, laid to a gentle fall towards a drain set into the floor, and then tiled or covered in vinyl. The shower area is level with the rest of the room, which is why wet rooms are so popular for accessibility and for smaller bathrooms where a tray edge eats into the space.
A walk in shower is the cheaper and quicker job. Replacing a bath or old cubicle with a low tray and glass screen typically runs from around 1,500 to 3,500 pounds fitted, depending on the tray size, tiling and whether pipework needs moving. Most installs take two to four days.
A wet room is a bigger undertaking because the floor has to come up. On the timber floors common in Tyneside terraces and semis, we need to cut in a former to create the fall, tank the floor and lower walls, and often adjust joists to get the drain run right. Expect roughly 4,000 to 8,000 pounds for a typical wet room conversion and around one to two weeks of work. Concrete ground floors, common in post war estates, need the screed channelled out for drainage, which adds labour.
Upstairs bathrooms with timber floors can take either option, but a wet room needs enough joist depth for the drain and a proper fall, and the tanking must be done properly. A failed wet room membrane leaks into the ceiling below, and it is an expensive fix, so this is not a job to cut corners on.
If your bathroom is small, say under 2 metres by 1.7 metres, a wet room often makes better use of the space because there is no tray footprint or door swing. In larger bathrooms, a generous 1,400mm or 1,700mm walk in tray with a single fixed screen gives most of the open feel at a fraction of the cost.
For anyone with reduced mobility, a wet room is usually the right answer. The level floor takes a wheelchair or shower seat with no step, and grab rails and a fold down seat are easy to add. Even the lowest walk in trays still have a lip of 25mm or more, which matters for wheeled access.
Day to day, wet rooms need a bit more thought. Water can travel, so towels, loo rolls and bath mats want to live away from the shower zone, and good extraction is essential to dry the room out. On resale, one wet room in a house with another conventional bathroom is generally a plus; converting the only bathroom to a wet room and losing the bath can put off buyers with young children.
Yes, provided the timber floor is sound and there is enough joist depth for the drain and fall. The floor and lower walls must be fully tanked, and it is worth having the drainage route surveyed before committing, as some joist layouts make the drain run awkward.
A properly tanked wet room should not leak at all. Problems almost always come from skipped or poorly lapped membrane, missed corners or unsealed pipe penetrations, which is why the waterproofing stage matters far more than the tiling on top.
As a second bathroom or en suite, usually yes, particularly for buyers thinking about accessibility. If it replaces the only bath in the house, it can narrow your market, so keep a bath elsewhere if resale is a concern.
