What Is the Difference Between a Wet Room and a Walk-In Shower?

A bathroom remodel can transform your home experience, especially when you opt to convert your old bathtub or shower to a walk-in shower or a wet room. Walk-in showers and wet rooms can turn your daily bathing routine from a chore to a relaxing, spa-like experience. But, if you’re unfamiliar with either term, you’re probably wondering what exactly the difference between a wet room and a walk-in shower is—and which is right for your bathroom remodel. At BathWraps, our bathroom remodeling products, including walk-in showers, have helped countless homeowners across the country transform their bathrooms, so we can help explain some of the differences between a walk-in shower and a wet room.

Wet Rooms

Wet rooms, despite their name, are not entire rooms dedicated to bathing. A wet room is actually an area of your bathroom that’s been sequestered to use as a shower, but that doesn’t feature either shower walls or doors. Consider it an open-plan shower that’s not separated from the rest of your bathroom (unless you decide to opt for a wet room shower screen for some privacy). Wet rooms also commonly feature tile flooring with a standard shower drain.

Walk-In Showers

Walk-in showers, on the other hand, are more distinct areas of the bathroom. They don’t necessarily need to have a door, but they usually feature shower screens or a barrier of some kind, differentiating walk-in showers from the open floor plan that wet rooms provide. Walk-in showers also feature shower basins instead of tile flooring.

Installation Differences

While walk-in showers and wet rooms share a number of similarities, they’re also quite different from each other when it comes to installation requirements. Wet rooms can often have more extensive remodeling and renovation requirements than walk-in showers. That’s because wet rooms often need custom tiling and floor grading in order to ensure the shower drains correctly. Walk-in showers, on the other hand, often have a quicker installation, especially when you choose a fast-installing option, like a BathWraps shower. Our products can be installed in as little as one day, which is often significantly faster than the turnaround time of a wet room renovation.

Easy-to-Clean Acrylic

Our bathroom remodeling products, including our walk-in showers, are manufactured from durable virgin acrylic. This material is uniquely suited for use in showers because it is both durable and low-maintenance. Unlike traditional shower materials, acrylic won’t chip, fade, crack, or peel over the years. Plus, it’s exceptionally easy to keep clean and even includes the mold and mildew-fighting power of SilverShield™ antimicrobial technology, to make shower cleaning as easy as possible.

Contact Us Today to Learn More

Now that you know the major differences between wet rooms and walk-in showers, do you know which one is right for your bathroom remodel? If you need additional guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out to BathWraps. We’d be happy to talk about your bathroom remodel and install a new wet room or walk-in shower for you in as little as one day!