Steam Shower Venting Help

9 years ago

I am ordering glass for my steam shower and I have some questions.

1) How necessary is a transom? If you have one do you ever use it? I know that post-steam I can just run a quick blast of cold water to kill the steam. But I'm thinking while steaming a transom could be useful to help with air flow or to let some steam out without opening the door. Does it work that way or is the main point of a transom to let steam out after? In that case, in my opinion, a transom is not necessary.

2) I've seen some suggestions to have a steam shower door swing in both directions. Ideal being that opening the door into the shower helps it dry faster without swinging the door out and having it be in your way, or making a puddle outside. Sounds like a good idea because if you leave the door closed a steam shower can take a long time to dry since it is "sealed".

3) How "sealed" does a frameless steam shower need to be? Is a door seal strip necessary? Is silicone between the glass and tile necessary? These elements detract from the look of a frameless shower but are they necessary to hold enough steam in the shower?

Thanks!

Featured Answer

Jubilante

9 years ago

We have a door that has a small tilting cutout in it...and really never use it or need it for steam or temp control. We ended up with a very tiny gap between the glass door and the tile wall on one side. It doesn't seem to prevent the steam build up in the shower, but the wall does get damp. We were concerned at first, and have this strip thing we tried to see if it made a difference...didn't really change much and was a pain.

Our door swings out. We usually wipe down the glass after cooling down to keep as clear as possible. We just run the fan and have a small window in the bathroom.

We enjoy the shower, probably should use it more!

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Comments (10)

uscpsycho
Original Author
9 years ago
Do you have a seal strip on the edge of your door?

And if you could have the door swing both ways, would you do it? Would leaving it open help dry it out faster?
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PRO
Creative Tile Eastern CT
9 years ago
Ceiling pitched 2" per foot. Vapor proofing required (exceeds waterproofing) less than 0.5 perm rating. Silicone caulk required at glass. (a neat caulking job is possible) . Vent located outside the transom evacuates the steam quickly. A glass door without a transom would need to go to the ceiling. Light in shower needs to be a sealed unit. The 2 way swinging door is a good idea if the door is not to the ceiling as the pitch would prevent it from opening inward. Be sure your tile setter is experienced with steam showers. This is not your average installation.
Steam Shower - Alexander Lake · More Info
Jubilante
9 years ago
We swing the door out to dry. It can go in, but would stop at some point due to the top of the shower stall, as mentioned in last post. Our glass door does go to the ceiling, our "transom" is more a cut out. This picture is the cut out in tilt position.

We leave the door open after steaming and the dry time seems pretty quick.
uscpsycho
Original Author
9 years ago
Do you ever use the transom? If you were to do it again, would you build it with a transom?
PRO
Creative Tile Eastern CT
9 years ago
Option - build a header to allow the door to swing fully inward.
PRO
Mint tile Minneapolis
9 years ago
Very NICE CTEC
uscpsycho
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm bumping this thread of mine to see if I could get an answer on a variant of the last question. Never really got any advice on that question anyway.

All the exterior edge gaps between the shower glass and tile will be sealed with clear silicone and I'm going to put plastic/rubber strips on at least three sides of the shower door. But I would prefer not to have anything on the "strike" side of the door because it looks much better without it. I much prefer to have a small unsealed gap here.

I do have a transom and will not seal the gap around the transom; if I seal the door on four sides that will be the only unsealed area.

I have read that you NEED to let some cool air into the shower if you want to see the steam. Makes sense. So I guess I have two questions.

1) If I seal the door on all four sides will enough cool air get in through the gap around the transom to make the steam visible?

2) If I only seal 3 out of 4 sides of the door (my preference) will too much steam escape?

__________________
Lori Davis
8 years ago
uscpsycho: I wish you had gotten an answer on this.... I'm in the same boat right now. What did you end up doing?
PRO
Designer Drains
8 years ago
great question, always have clients asking about this.