Steam rooms tanked before they are tiled

Every failed steam room we are called to in Morocco failed at the membrane. The tile was fine. The tile is always fine — it is what is behind it that gives up.

Indicative band: 50 – 160 thousand MAD, supplied and installed in Morocco.

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Steam rooms tanked before they are tiled

The tank under the finish

Liquid membrane over the slab and up the walls past the ceiling junction, reinforcing tape at every corner and change of plane, screed to a fall of at least 1:50 towards the drain, then tile or mosaic. Steam condenses on everything and runs down; anywhere it can sit, it will, and within a year it is behind the surface.

The ceiling is pitched 3 to 5 degrees so condensate runs to the walls rather than dripping on the person below. In a domed ceiling the geometry does that for you, which is one of several reasons the dome is not only decorative.

Generator sizing and the cost of stone

Output is calculated on volume with a correction for the finish. Glass mosaic and porcelain need less; marble and thick stone are thermally heavy and absorb the first ten minutes of every session. A marble bench is superb and it costs you generator capacity — we price both rather than quietly choosing the cheap one.

The generator lives outside the wet room, within about ten metres, somewhere a person can reach it with a spanner.

Water, and why Moroccan water matters here

Much of Morocco's mains water is hard. A steam generator on hard water scales, and a scaled generator fails. We fit a softener or a descaling regime as part of the job and put the descaling interval in the handover notes — it is the single most common reason a two-year-old generator stops working.

In short

Membrane over slab, walls and ceiling junction, taped at every corner
Floor falls 1:50, ceiling pitched 3–5° or domed so condensate runs to the walls
Generator sized on volume with a correction for marble against mosaic
Softener or descaling regime specified — Moroccan mains water is hard

Questions

Steam rooms in Morocco

Steam room or hammam?

A hammam is warm, humid and centred on a heated slab; a steam room is hotter, wetter and centred on the air. If the room is for guests who expect a spa, steam. If it is for the household, hammam, nearly always.

Can you convert a bathroom?

Sometimes — it needs a drain, a serviceable spot for the generator and a ceiling we can pitch. It almost always means stripping to the slab, because tiling over a floor with no fall buys the problem twice.

How often does the generator need descaling?

On typical Moroccan mains water, every three to six months without a softener and annually with one. We put the date in the handover notes.

Also in Morocco

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