Baths Just Not What They Used to Be

In the 1960s, architects began to realize the potential of bathrooms as a design center. Whereas people used to avoid the bathroom when showing their house to guests, today they are installing bathrooms meant to be showed off, says Curt Shafer, owner of The Faucet Factory in Encinitas, a store specializing in decorative plumbing fixtures.

And Mike Sussman, a salesman at the store describes this change in attitude even more succinctly: “In the 40 years I have been in this business, bathrooms have gone from outhouses to palaces.”

Though this may be a slight exaggeration for folks reared in cities, bathrooms in large custom homes have certainly become virtual palaces, with the owners spending $15,000 to $20,000 on plumbing fixtures compared to the $1,200 developers usually spend on plumbing fixtures for the typical tract home.

However, when you consider that modern tract homes contain many features only the wealthy could afford in the past, in the future some of these deluxe bathroom amenities could become affordable for the average home.

It was inevitable that computers would invade the bathroom.

According to Guy Brinson, manager of Indiana Plumbing Supply, a wholesale distributor of plumbing fixtures in Carlsbad, the Kohler Company is leading the way in this area with its Environmental Enclosures, or “environmental chambers” as he calls them. These are computer-programmed combination sauna, steam bath, shower, whirlpool bath and tanning salon units that are installed into a wall.

“Before entering the unit you can preset, for example, the sauna for 10 minutes, the steam bath for 8 minutes, then dry off with a warm breeze and suntan for 20 minutes, all without touching the controls again. You also have the option of changing the time periods and sequence, after the program begins, from inside the chamber,” Brinson said.

According to a company brochure, the top-of-the-line enclosure comes with natural teakwood interior and high gloss teakwood exterior fascia, a removable padded deck, a two-person, six-jet whirlpool bath, and a 24-karat gold-plated faucet, jet trim and shower head. Another model comes with all of the above except the whirlpool bath. It was “designed for those who have already installed a whirlpool bath and want to add the amenities of a health club.”

But it may be some time before you see one in your neighbor’s home. Since it is designed to go into a wall and the recess has to be about 8 feet high, 9 feet wide and 8 feet deep, most tract homes would require structural alterations to accommodate it. And, for some, the price might be a deterrent--$25,000 to $30,000 installed. (Not including the cost of the alterations.)

“We sell about two of these units a year,” said Brinson, “Those who buy them are usually building a house so large that the extra space required is of no consequence.” Among his company’s customers who bought environmental chambers are a Mexican diplomat who built a five-story home and movie actor Burt Reynolds.

Another high-tech convenience that can be custom designed, according to Sussman, is a computer-controlled bathroom that you command from your office computer via telephone line. Your bathtub at home fills with water at your predetermined temperature, the whirlpool activates and a stereo plays your choice of music just in time for you to walk in the door, throw off your clothes and bathe the cares of the day away.

Not to be outdone, the Toyo Company of Japan, the world’s largest manufacturer of plumbing supplies (Kohler is the second largest), offers an executive bathroom that is automated to the point where a toilet/bidet and wash basin are recessed into the wall and revealed with the push of a button. (The bidet has a blow-dry as well as wash feature.)

For more modest homes there are steam baths, designed to be installed in the bathroom, that have digital timer controls with an on/off switch and readouts inside the unit to control the time, temperature and steam, without having to leave the enclosure. And programmable whirlpool baths are available with electronic sensors that control the intensity of the whirlpool action by passing your hand over the sensor.

One Kohler whirlpool bath just brought on the market has a hinged door (a boon to the elderly and the physically impaired) that allows the user to walk into it instead of the usual method--climbing over the side. As water flows into the bathtub an automatic sensor inflates a seal around the door making it watertight. When the water drains out, the sensor deflates the seal allowing the door to open.

Perhaps the most innovative electronic modern bathroom accessory is a toilet that the Kohler Company calls the “Peacekeeper Seat-Actuated Flush,” in recognition of the long-standing battle between the sexes over toilet seats being left up.

Some scaled-down versions of luxury bath items are already affordable.

“I can sell a bathtub with a whirlpool, with the same system as the expensive ones. For $600, any bathtub can be a whirlpool bath,” Sussman said. But, he cautions, to install it requires the expertise of a professional or an experienced handyman.

And, if you enjoy saunas, you no longer have to live in a Scandinavian castle or belong to an expensive health club.

Helo Sauna and Fitness of California sells prefabricated do-it-yourself saunas for the residential market. The saunas are designed to be installed in any room in the house because they don’t require plumbing.

There are smaller and larger models available, but a 4-by-4-by-7-foot prefabricated sauna costs about $2,960. Helo, based in Martinez, Calif., has more than 90 variations from which to choose. Customers can also design their own and have the wood cut to size.