Both options give you a step free, open shower without a clunky enclosure door, which is why they get lumped together. In practice they are built very differently, and the right choice depends on your floor structure, the size of the room, your budget and who will be using it. Here is how we talk it through with customers across Glasgow.
A walk in shower is a shower area with a low profile tray, usually 25 to 45mm high, and a fixed glass screen on one or two sides. The tray collects the water and sends it to a standard waste. The rest of the bathroom floor stays a normal, non waterproofed floor with vinyl, tiles or laminate.
A wet room does away with the tray entirely. The whole floor is tanked with a waterproof membrane, a gradient is built into the shower zone so water runs to a floor drain, and the finished tiles sit flush with the rest of the room. A glass screen is optional, but most people still fit one to keep spray off the toilet and towels.
A walk in shower is the cheaper and quicker route. Swapping a bath for a low tray and screen, with new tiling to the shower area, typically lands somewhere in the region of £2,500 to £5,000 in Glasgow depending on the tray size, tiles and whether the plumbing is being moved. It is usually a three to five day job.
A wet room costs more because there is more work below the finished floor. You are paying for a former or screeded gradient, a full tanking system, a floor drain, tiling the whole floor and often replastering walls. Realistic figures for a standard Glasgow bathroom are around £5,000 to £9,000, and the job takes closer to seven to ten days because the membrane needs to cure before tiling starts. Every quote depends on what we find once the old suite comes out, so treat these as ranges rather than promises.
This is the bit most online guides skip. A large share of Glasgow housing, from Victorian tenements in Dennistoun and Shawlands to 1930s semis in Bearsden and Newlands, has suspended timber floors. Timber moves, and a wet room on a timber floor needs a rigid, well supported base and careful tanking or the grout will crack and water will find its way into the ceiling below. It is entirely doable, we do it regularly, but it adds work and cost.
On a solid concrete floor, common in post war council stock and newer builds, forming the gradient is more straightforward, though you may need to cut into the slab to get enough depth for the drain and the fall. A walk in shower with a tray avoids most of these questions, which is one reason it remains the default for upstairs bathrooms in tenement flats where the downstairs neighbour would be the first to know about a leak.
Wet rooms win on accessibility. There is no lip at all, which matters if someone in the house uses a wheelchair, has limited mobility or is planning to stay in the home as they get older. They are also easier to clean, since there are no tray edges or silicone joints to gather mould.
The trade off is water. Without a tray and a decent screen, the floor near the shower gets wet, towels get damp and the toilet seat can catch spray. Small bathrooms of under about 2 by 2 metres suffer most. Warmer floors help too, so underfloor heating is worth budgeting for in a wet room because it dries the tiles quickly. A walk in shower keeps water contained, which suits busy family bathrooms where the shower runs three or four times a morning.
Go for a walk in shower if you are on a timber floor upstairs, working to a tighter budget, or the room is small and shared by several people. It gives you 90 percent of the open, modern look with less risk and less spend.
Choose a wet room if accessibility is a priority, the room is generous, you are on a solid floor or ground level, and you are prepared to invest in proper tanking, a good drain and someone who has done it many times before. Done right, it is the more elegant and future proof option. Done badly, it is the most expensive bathroom fault we get called out to fix.
Yes, but only with a properly stiffened floor and a full tanking system, and it will cost more than a walk in shower. If the flat is above someone else, a low profile tray is the safer option unless accessibility is the priority.
It can, particularly for buyers looking for accessible or premium bathrooms, but a poorly finished one puts people off. A well fitted walk in shower is often just as attractive to buyers and costs less to install.
Planning permission is not needed for either in a normal house. In Scotland a building warrant is generally not required for a like for like bathroom refit, but if you are moving drainage or altering the floor structure it is worth checking with Glasgow City Council building standards first.