River Rock Shower

[Patrick Jenkins]

I have been searching for any good pictures of a shower encloser made of river rock. I have not found any my wife likes yet. She feels I have not enough to do. Slave labor I say! But none the less I have been tasked with finding one she likes and make it for her. Anybody seen one out there on a website?
Granted I had a few beers and threw the idea out as a joke. Now I have to make it so. I said "Imagine a shower with a waterfall and made of river rock".

[farrier71]

Well Patrick, when you figure it out, let me know! You can have a few beers with my hubby, make him think it's a great idea and talk him into making one for me also! Just think of things I could get my husband to build for me in our new home if he would only dream (however jokingly) outloud like you did!!!!!
Good luck to you, it sounds like a wonderful idea tho............ever watch the decorating or building shows on T.V? There is a good one called 'Pools and Patios' or something, they might have a good idea for rock shower that you could incorporate into your house. Happy Designing!

[Patrick Jenkins]

Farrier71,
I can't get cable where I live and we don't want a dish, yet. So I have not seen the show you were talking about. I may just have to come up with my own design. Just convince your hubby it will be romantic....we men are pretty shallow when it comes to that!

[Tim Bullock]

Great Place maestro...........We design a lot of showers (if room permits) with a labyrinth entry (no shower door).........stone and glass blocks.........all stone without extra light is pretty dark.....I guess the amount of light desired is based on whomever your shower partner is............LOL

[Dan Bodenstein]

I did some research and found the following.
------------------------------------------------
BackwoodsHome Magazine Issue #77

26 A river rock shower By Dorothy Ainsworth

With a set of instructions, a pile of “cultured stones,” and six bags of cement Dorothy Ainsworth set out and built herself her own beautiful river rock shower. In this article she tells us how
she did it.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/previssues/issue77.html
(There is no link to the article, but previous issues are available)

------------------------------------------------
I have contacted them to see if they will post the article.

Dan

[Dan Bodenstein]

Check out THIS shower.

Wilma! I'm Home!!!!

http://www.2ndnatr.com/artrock1.html

http://www.2ndnatr.com/images/artroc1m.jpg

Dan

[BradBradstreet]

Here is a photo of a hotel lobby friends stayed at the other day in Canada. I sure hope the water was hot in the shower.

http://www.ebradstreet.net/Brad/HotelLobby.JPG

[Patrick Jenkins]

Tim,
Do you have any pictures or sketches of the showers you have done? I have plenty of room so I can go as big as I want to. I know what you mean by enough light! Some times there is not enough darkness!
Dan,
Cool looking shower.
Brad,
That is just to cold for me. I thought you east coasters headed south for the winter.
Alan,
Most of the websites I have seen talk about their showers, but never show you them.
Keep the ideas coming.

[Tim Bullock]

Patrick.......You likely find lots of stuff online or in kitchen/bath mags...............If room permits, Never,Ever put on a shower door..........

[BradBradstreet]

Tim, I agree with you - at least in the Master bathroom. We did not try to put in a shower door in there. The floor of the shower is 2-3 inches lower than the bathroom floor. There is a pull curtain to the shower. The whole shower "room" is tile - floor, walls and ceiling. But, there is no need for a door.

[Patrick Jenkins]

Why not a shower door?

[BradBradstreet]

A shower door is one more maintenance item. They rust and fall off. Designed right one does not need the door or even a curtain.

[LogSmithy]

Check this one out! Its a murial out of stone inlaid on a wall of stone. Imagine what you could do!?

http://www.naturalstonesite.com/album/120.jpg

This gal can teach you!

Phone (250) 357-9515
Email: ksmts@netidea.com
Mail Kootenay Stone Masonry Training School
P.O. Box 486
Salmo, BC
V0G-1Z0
Canada

The sky is always the limit when you get the right training and skills to do it your self!

Bill Lasko

[Patrick Jenkins]

I found a picture today of a shower made of stone. I found it in "Log Home Living". It has a waterfall in it. The picture has given me enough of a start to do the design phase. My buddy has a river rock shower, but not the waterfall my wife wanted. I think I can combine to basic elements in them to do it now.
So now I just have to go and start collecting rocks...

[Paula-in-CO]

I thought tile seems like a lot of work to clean, but rock? Holy cow. I must be missing something.

[Stephanie]

Those of you building these showers without doors, anyone have a floorplan for your bathrooms? I'd love to see one.

Maybe you could have a skylight to hold back the mold...

We're doing our master bath entirely in tile. These guys have some beautiful stuff (in the MD, VA, NC area).

Mosaic Tile Company (http://www.mosaictileco.com)

[BradBradstreet]

Stephanie, you might get an idea of our Master bathroom from the pictures below. The shower/toilet area is all tile (walls, ceiling and floors) except for the outside log wall. The main section of the bathroom is sheetrock walls except for the 2 exterior log walls. Around the tub is tile. If you expect shrinkage you need to worry about how to tie the tile into the log walls.

[Stephanie]

Brad,
Excellent point about shrinkage and tile. *Sigh* I had visions of combining the two, but I don't see how that could work on the same wall.

Beautiful photos of your cabin by the way. What part of Maine is it? My family has a cabin on Brassua Lake near Moosehead Lake.

[BradBradstreet]

Stephanie, I do not want to steer you away from tile and having it butt into a log wall. There are ways of dealing with it and I am sure folks more experienced than I, as in most of the folks here, would have some alternatives.

We have a tile kitchen counter that slides back to the exterior log wall. Yes, there is a gap. But, by not trying to fit the tiles into a slot, it works fine.

In our bathroom we have 2 tile walls and a tile ceiling that go to the exterior log wall. There is one ceiling tile in the corner that is a bit out of place. Not bad in 11 years. All around the tub we have tile - that goes up to a marble cap. Again, it can work. Just plan for it.

[Stephanie]

Brad,
It was something I just hadn't thought all the way through. I just talked to my builder and we're going to put up walls for the tile, if needed. We also decided to put up a false wall for our kitchen cabinets with a tile back splash.

Planning ahead is very important!! Thanks for your note!

[lisa]

Patrick,

I just found a wonderful picture of a rock shower. It's in a book called "Snow Country" mountain homes and rustic retreats, copyright 2000 by Elizabeth Flood and Peter Woloszynski. ISBN 0-8118-2451-9

I bought this book on Amazon and it's got a lot of great ideas for log home lovers- The rock waterfall shower is on page 136.

[mfritch]

Patrick, Just how odes someone pay the hot water bills for a 'waterfall' shower. I don't know about your family, but my son can actually fall asleep in the shower! Then again, I guess he would wake up when the cold water kicks in!

You might try checking out the Taunton Press website. You can now get in and see some outrageous design elements there.

[Patrick Jenkins]

Mark,
I plan on putting a normal type shower head in also. I will add a knob to switch to go to the waterfall. I seen a website that I think recycles the water. I think it was called Water Structures . com. I did a search using waterfall showers and came across it.
It will be no different than the large soaker , jetted bathtub. I won't use it all the time. But for Romantic evenings....
Think of it as Viagra Niagra!!!

[Patrick Jenkins]

I was turned onto another website that shows a picture of a rock shower. www.us.kohler.com It is in the spa, bath section. It shows a waterfall as well as a shower head. It looks like it has a bathtub also. A base line to start from as far as a design. :D
OOOPS... I should have added more to this. When you get to the Kohler webpage do a search with the word"waterfall or K-1002".
There is another waterfall effect product they have called" Souris Sheetflow spout". It looks adaptable to other types of showers you may want to do. Go to the thread " Snail Shower / Doorless " to continue the saga.