Hello All,
I’m building a new house in SE Minnesota and would like to put a steam shower in my “organic” style house. ie; wood and stone as much as possible.
My dilemma here is that I went to a tile shop where they told me that they couldn’t recommend using stone in a steam shower because the porous nature of stone was linked to “excess microbal growth” leading to what, they didn’t say.
Does anyone out there know of this issue, or can you make sense of it? It seems to me that the ancients got along fine with stone, of course they’ve evolved into us so maybe that is a problem.
Thanks for your ideas,
Replies
What kinds of stone do they sell? Granite is not very porous. Some sandstones are so porous that water will run through them. One of the standard tests for granite is water absorption percentage by weight. I've never noticed it being specified for other kinds of stone, but that may only be because I was researching granite and not other kinds of stone. :)
I'd also say get a second opinion. If the shower vendor, the tile vendor and a stone vendor all recommend against stone, they may be on to something. If the stone guy says yes, the tile guy says no, and the shower guy doesn't care, then it sounds like somebody's badmouthing the competition.
I should make it clear that the stone we are looking at is slate or travertine.
Thanks for the quick reply.
My brother-in-law has a steam shower in his home in Calgary and it has slate on both the walls and floor. The house is about 4 years old and there are no problems to date with the slate. Another benefit, is that it is not too slippery under foot.