spring-cleaning bathrooms, maintaining cleanliness and the external shine of tiles and faience, but have we taken everything into account, and isn’t there a hidden danger hidden behind the gloss? Let's look at all the items in detail and eliminate possible mistakes that could cost the health of everyone at home.
- Toilet
The toilet is probably the most dangerous thing in the house in terms of bacteria content. Under its rim hides a multi-billion army of microbes, ready at any moment to get on our skin and clothes, and for this they do not have to wait until you look there, because at the moment of flushing, bacteria scatter two meters within the radius of the toilet and land on you without direct contact . In cases of a shared bathroom, these bacteria also end up on your hygiene products, soap, towels and toothbrush. What we advise you, in addition to regularly cleaning the toilet with detergents, is to close the lid before flushing and do not allow bacteria to leave their environment. Also, do not forget to change the toilet brush for the toilet, its bristles contain all sorts of things, periodically pour boiling water over it and leave it overnight in a soapy solution. - Toothbrushes.
We don't expect any harm from our toothbrushes, because we change them regularly and keep them clean. True, this cleanliness is deceptive, after the very first brushing of the teeth, bacteria settle on the brush and multiply in the damp bristles, the brushes stand side by side, in the same glass, and generously share bacteria with each other, touching each other. It is absolutely clear that we cannot buy a new brush every time, brush our teeth and throw it away, but we can isolate them from one another, place them not in a cup, but in separate nests, we can scald the bristles with boiling water before use, and we can also place our brush with bristles down into mouthwash. - Shower cabin.
A very convenient and economical structure, the glass doors and tray shine, everything seems to be fine and there is no danger, until we look into the wet joints where the cabin comes into contact with the wall, especially the corner with the pipes. This is where there is freedom for the formation of black mold and mildew, all the conditions, moisture, warmth, and not in front of your eyes. We advise you to pay attention to this place Special attention, even if you don’t see fungus, do not forget to treat the joints with antifungal and antibacterial agents. Keep soap and shampoos away from this place, everything that you will then rub into your skin, do not let fungal spores get into your cosmetics. - Tiles and joints.
Bathrooms and toilets are characterized by high humidity and poor ventilation, so to preserve the walls and ease of processing, they are often decorated in smooth tiles. Harmful bacteria settle on clean-looking tiles that are damp from fumes; we don’t see them, but they can trigger bronchial asthma in us, especially if there is no sufficient air duct. There is only one way out, the same disinfection, but the most important thing is not to forget to treat the seams between the tiles, go over them with a brush with a solution, because for the loose, porous structure of the tile mixture, it is not enough just to go over it with a cloth, and more careful care is required. - Excessive cleaning with detergents.
It is not paradoxical, but our love for cleanliness and the use of cleaning products can also harm us, for example, we simply inhale chemical vapors when cleaning, even with the use of gloves, we cannot guarantee that strong products will not come into contact with the skin and, what is especially dangerous, poor quality rinsing bathtubs, sinks, tiles and toilets. If you haven’t washed off all the detergent and it remains on the walls, then while taking a bath, you will get a stab in the back from the “friends of the moydodyrs”, because they are the same as bacteria as you are, they act on destruction and you are guaranteed an allergic reaction.
According to a 2007 US General Safety Council research report, home injuries are the fifth leading cause of death in the US. Researchers point to the bathroom, along with the kitchen and stairs, as one of the most hazardous areas in the house.
1. Water, water all around
The most basic part of the bathroom is water: in the sink, bathtub and shower. And this is probably the number one danger. More people are injured and even killed by falls in the bathroom than in any other room in the house. The problem is that the water doesn't always stay where it needs to be. Poorly installed shower curtains and simply wet feet are some of the main causes of water on the bathroom floor.
The ideal shower has glass doors rather than curtains. Otherwise, you can minimize leakage by using two curtains: one that falls into the bathtub and the other, a decorative curtain, that hangs onto the floor. To stop sliding, try installing the tiles in your shower with a little uneven surface, and place soft rugs on the floor.
2. Slippery bath or shower products
Modern people use many products in the shower and bath. The problem is, all of this: shampoo, conditioner, body gel, exfoliant, shaving cream, create a lot of foam and make surfaces slippery. The soap may slip enough to cause a fall.
Soap accumulations should be cleaned regularly. After a shower or bath, dry surfaces quickly.
3. Bright and white surfaces
A pure white bathroom can look great, but the combination of light, white surfaces and reflective surfaces (like mirrors and chrome taps) can be disorienting. Bright lights can even be dazzling to someone with less than perfect vision, as is the case with many older people. What's more, all that brightness can mask standing water on the floor, increasing the risk of slipping.
Switch to frosted bulbs to help reduce glare. A row of contrasting tiles (or wallpaper border) breaking up the white wall space will help maintain balance.
People who are trying to keep the bathroom warm use an electric heater in this room. Like anyone electrical appliance(hairdryer, razor) in a bathroom where there is so much water, a heater is a potential risk electric current, as well as accidental fire.
If staying warm is a problem, install a permanent wired heating system and install heated floors only in the bathroom. Or you can run the shower a little earlier before your bath to allow the steam to warm up the room.
5. Shower doors
Glass shower doors have become popular as an alternative to vinyl shower curtains. But they are known to deteriorate over time. They can also break if impacted. Since most doors are made from tempered glass, they tend to instantly break into many small pieces rather than big jagged ones. This is less likely to cause severe cutting, but can still seriously injure a child or frail elderly adult.
You don't have to give up glass. Just make sure family members don't use them as towel racks or lean on them. Check shower doors regularly for cracks and chips.
Health
No one usually thinks about any danger when basking in hot bath.
In fact, there are sometimes quite serious (and in some cases even fatal) health hazards lurking in your bathroom.
According to the Home Safety Council, home injuries were the fifth leading cause of death in the United States in 2007.
The most dangerous places Bathrooms, kitchens and staircases are considered to be in the house. What is the danger?
1. There is water everywhere
The biggest danger in the bathroom can be nothing other than water - it is everywhere: in the shower, bathtub, sink. Many suffer injuries, sometimes fatal, due to falls. The problem is that sometimes water can be where it shouldn't be. Easy to slip on wet floor, if, for example, you didn’t close the curtains properly while taking a shower, and water leaked onto the floor.
Advice: Ideally, the shower room should be equipped with unbreakable glass or plastic door, and not just draw the curtain. To reduce the risk, be careful not to allow water to leak onto the floor when you take a bath. For example, you can install the curtain so that it falls inside the bathroom rather than hanging outside. To prevent the floor from being too slippery even if water gets on it, install tiles with an uneven surface.
There are also special mats that help prevent slipping and which can be placed near the shower or bathtub. Ordinary rugs can also be dangerous, so you should choose ones that absorb moisture well and do not slip on the floor surface. If you decide to make renovations, it would still be better to take care of special tiles on the floor.
2. Slippery bath or shower
When taking a shower or bath, we usually use by various means. The problem is that shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, scrubs, shaving creams and bubble baths settle on the surface and make it very slippery.
Advice: Bathtubs and showers should be cleaned regularly after use. This will help get rid of buildup on the walls. detergents and reduce the risk of slipping next time. Slippery surfaces are especially dangerous for the elderly or those with balance problems, so the use of special mats inside the bathtub or shower is especially recommended for such people.
3. Dazzling shine in the bathroom
Clean, sparkling bathrooms look great, but the combination of light, white surfaces and reflective objects (mirrors and chrome) can be disorienting. For people with poor vision, shine in the bathroom can cause serious harm, especially for older people. Also, with the blinding shine, you can easily not notice the water on the floor and slip.
Advice: Matting regular bright light bulbs can reduce shine in your bathroom. When decorating a bathroom, you can combine tiles with wallpaper that does not reflect light so much. You can also paint the walls in contrasting colors if one of the residents has poor eyesight or problems with orientation.
4. Electric heaters in the bathroom
People who want to heat a bathroom for the elderly, children or those who are sensitive to cold temperatures often use electric heaters. Like other electrical appliances (hair dryers or shavers) that are used in the bathroom where there is a lot of water, heaters are very dangerous and can cause electric shock.
Another danger is that someone could slip, fall on the device and get burned. Any towel, mat or piece toilet paper near the device may cause a fire.
Advice: If keeping your bathroom warm is a must, install heating systems specifically for bathrooms. Or you can open hot water and warm it up with steam before an elderly person or child uses the bathtub.
5. Broken shower door
Glass shower doors gained popularity in the 1980s as an alternative to vinyl curtains. Basically, of course, they are useful. But sometimes they tend to beat when incorrect installation. They also break easily if you slip and hit them.
Most doors are made of tempered glass, so they break into very small pieces. Even small pieces can easily cut themselves, especially for children and the elderly.
Advice: You don't have to replace the glass door if you already have one installed in your shower. Some glass doors have towel bars installed on them, so to reduce the pressure on them, ask your family not to hang towels on these bars. Instead, install a coat rack on the shower wall.
Check these doors regularly to ensure they do not develop small cracks. Make sure that the door does not scratch. Some masters claim that frosted glass more fragile than transparent ones, but there are no exact indicators of harmlessness yet. If glass door or the bathroom mirror still breaks, lay a towel on the floor so as not to step on the fragments, and then carefully clean and vacuum the bathroom when everything is dry.
The bathroom is one of the most important rooms in any apartment or house, despite the fact that it usually occupies small area. The bathroom should be extremely functional, safe and at the same time comfortable and relaxing. How to avoid the most common mistakes in planning and decorating a bathroom, provide everything you need and not try to save on vital costs necessary things Our article will tell you.
Cerasa
Choose the right materials for your bathroom
According to statistics, most home injuries occur in the bathroom, so experts categorically do not recommend using smooth floor tiles in this room. Just a few drops of water can be enough to turn it into a skating rink, which is especially dangerous if there are children or elderly people in the family. For the bathroom, choose slightly ribbed floor tiles, preferably with a special anti-slip coating, for example, textured artificial stone.
Tiles imitating appearance wood, will help create coziness in the bathroom, Ceramiche Gardenia Orchidea
You should also pay attention to the ceiling finish. Popular and a budget option finishing is plastic panels, however, you should remember that they will definitely not save you from a possible leak, and besides, unappetizing stains will remain on the surface. It is currently considered optimal suspended ceiling, which will reliably protect even from a large-scale flood from above. To drain the water accumulated in the ceiling, it will be enough to make just one small puncture of the surface.
Correctly calculate the number of tiles
There is nothing more disappointing when you only need a couple of tiles to complete your bathroom, and the store cheerfully informs you that this collection has already been discontinued. Alas, errors in calculations required quantity material is a very common phenomenon, which is why you need to be as careful as possible when taking measurements and take tiles with a reserve.
Don’t be afraid to combine tiles with mosaics - it looks very impressive, Lea Caramiche
Memo: when laying tiles diagonally, you should take 15% of the required amount, when laying horizontally - 10%.
Don't skimp on faucets
If the goal is to save money, set your priorities correctly: Italian tiles from fashion designer or a bathtub with a hydromassage are by no means essential items, but a leaking faucet that does not regulate the water well can definitely ruin the life of the whole family. Instead of changing one regularly low quality faucet or a toilet on another of the same level, it is better to choose from the very beginning, even if not the most stylish, but reliable option.
Rubinetterie F.lli Frattini
Take care of high-quality ventilation of the room
We tend to underestimate things that are invisible at first glance. One of them is the ventilation system, which is more important in a room with high humidity than anywhere else. To prevent it from starting up in the bathroom mold and similar untidiness, check the quality of natural ventilation in the room and install forced (fan) ventilation if necessary.
Advice: An additional fan sometimes turns on automatically along with the lighting, however, this is not always convenient. It is better to provide for forced ventilation autonomous switch.
Pay attention to the height of the bathtub and sink
Obviously, the sink should be at a comfortable level for the user. As a standard, this height is 85 cm from the floor and is designed for people with a height of 1.65 to 1.85 cm. Accordingly, if the height of family members differs significantly from the standard, it makes sense to choose a hanging model and install it at a comfortable level.
The wall-mounted sink can be equipped with additional rails and cabinets, Cosentino Group
Very often, due to the laying of additional pipes, it is necessary to increase the height of the floor or install the bathtub on a podium. In this case, it is also necessary to take into account that a high side in combination with a podium can be inconvenient, especially for short people, which increases the risk of slipping or injury. In this case, you should choose a different bathtub model, abandon the podium or provide steps or steps in it.
Memo: if the bathtub is built into a tiled podium, do not forget to provide a hatch in it, in case you need to change pipes or repair something.
Do not install a toilet opposite the entrance - it is not a throne
The toilet is, of course, an important and necessary thing, but it is still not worth making it the center of the bathroom interior. It is advisable that it is not located opposite the door and does not fall into the line of sight from other rooms. Sometimes it makes sense to install it diagonally or hide it behind a small wall projection or partition if we're talking about about the combined bathroom.
Ceramica Cielo
Memo: remember that expanding wet areas, moving the toilet to another place and combining the bathroom can only be done in agreement with the housing inspection.
Make the right choice: shower or bath
Most of us want to soak in a spacious bath, but objective reality is often far from the dream. In a small bathroom, it makes sense to install not just a shower stall, but one that will take up minimal space.
A minimalist shower will not visually clutter the space and will not take up much space, Dimasi Bathroom
Advice: optimal options For many, a combined model, which is a hybrid of a cabin with a splash screen and a full-fledged bath, can be a good choice.
Combined bath and shower, Jacuzzi Europe
Take care of lighting
Few of us can boast of a bathroom with a window. Accordingly, there are no natural sources of lighting, which means that artificial sources will have to be used as much as possible. Recommended circuit: built-in ceiling lighting around the perimeter of the room and additional lamps near the mirror in front of which you apply makeup or shave, and in the sink area.
Options for placing additional lamps in the sink area, Kerasan
Memo: in the bathroom, the location of lighting sources should be planned at the renovation stage, since due to high humidity, All lighting require additional insulation and grounding.
As much as you might want to avoid clutter in your bathroom, you can't do without storage. Additional hanging shelves in the corner, baskets for dirty laundry, a cabinet or a neat box for small items - all this will require its own space, which should be provided for in advance.
Built-in wardrobes with glass doors in the bathroom, Falper
For fans of order and minimalism, built-in niches or cabinets with closed doors hiding numerous vials and jars from prying eyes can be a way out.
An unusual solution for a storage area, Moma Design
Memo: In addition to plumbing fixtures, the bathroom must have furniture for storage, at least minimally. Towels, detergents and cosmetics, hair dryer, etc. it must be kept at hand, and not in another room, otherwise there can be no talk of any comfort.
Remember the outlets
Some seemingly insignificant details can significantly ruin your life and mood. One of them is the lack of sockets, because in every room modern house There are a lot of available equipment. In the sink area, it is worth providing at least one socket with special protection against water ingress, and also provide additional sockets for washing machine, boiler, etc. devices.
A socket for a hair dryer, electric razor and other devices will definitely come in handy, Duravit Italia
The bathroom, one of the most important rooms in the house, often becomes a source of danger. A tiled room can undermine your health in three ways: here you can get physical injury, chemical poisoning, or even chronic disease.
But this is not a reason to give up hygiene. Making a room less “harmful” is not that difficult.
Physical threat
Typically, the bathroom floor is covered tiles. When water gets in, it turns into a skating rink. By tradition, the bath itself is enameled. This coating looks very impressive, it does not wear off for 30 years and remains extremely slippery all these years (even if it is dry). All this creates ideal conditions for falling and receiving numerous injuries, fractures and concussions. Especially slippery surfaces are dangerous For:
- children under 5 years old. Firstly, babies still have very poor balance control, and secondly, they have not yet developed the instinct of self-preservation, and when falling, they will not even try to grab onto something;
- women after 50-55 years. Age-related and hormonal changes in the female body, characteristic of this period, make bones extremely fragile. After the half-century anniversary, it is easy to get a fracture even with a minor blow; it breaks especially often femoral neck- by nature this is an extremely delicate place. Such an injury is very unpleasant: the bone does not heal for a long time and there is a risk that after recovery one leg will remain shorter than the other.
What to do?
To make the bathtub and its floor more stable, you need special mats, which can be laid not only on the floor, but also in the bath itself. For this purpose there are mats equipped with suction cups, which rigidly fix their position. If you don't like the rug, attach it to the bottom of the bathtub anti-slip application. You just need to remember that such rugs must be on rubberized base, otherwise various microorganisms will quickly settle in them.
In addition, the surface of the bath itself can be coated acrylic- this will increase its durability and eliminate any slipping.
If you decide to change the floor in the bathroom, do not be fooled by the cold beauty of glossy tiles - this is the most “slippery” type of coating. Give preference matte porcelain granite. It is very difficult to lose your balance on it, even if it gets wet. This material is considered one of the most environmentally friendly, superior natural stone in strength and, unlike some types of finishes, does not become radioactive over time.
Chemical threat
Usually the bathroom is small in size and, as a rule, poorly ventilated. In this regard, the use and storage of chemical cleaning substances in it leads to the fact that the atmosphere of the room quickly fills harmful toxic substances. And they not only provoke poisoning, but can also accumulate in our body, leading to cancer and chronic diseases.
Read also:
- Dishwashing detergents are a time bomb
- Cosmetic horror stories: alcohol, parabens, silicone and ammonia
What to do?
- To minimize the damage of cleaning products, do not buy anything that has a strong odor or contains aggressive solvents, chlorine and ammonia.
- Make sure that the packaging of the product says “non-toxic”.
- While cleaning, you can wear a respirator mask and then ventilate the room.
By the way, it is not only cleaning products that pose a threat to health, but also... ordinary curtains, as well as air fresheners. The danger is PVC curtains. This compound releases volatile organic compounds into the air, which negatively affect nervous system and can cause cancer. It is better to replace such curtains with more environmentally friendly ones.
Included unnatural air fresheners and aerosols contain substances that irritate lung tissue, cause headaches and dull the sense of smell. It is better to abandon them and replace them with flowers or scented candles.
Biological threat
In the bathroom there are ideal conditions for the growth and development of fungus and mold- heat and humidity. Lack of proper ventilation, old pipes and high humidity lead to unexpected neighbors. There are over 100,000 types of fungi that can exist in the bathroom. Black Aspergillus settles there more often than others ( Aspergillus niger). If there is a black coating in your bathroom, then you are familiar with this type firsthand.
Fungi are scary not only from an aesthetic point of view. It is not the mold itself that poses a danger to our health, but millions of spores, which it releases into the surrounding space. We inhale them along with the air - this is how they end up in the respiratory and circulatory system. A healthy immune system successfully resists them. If the immune system is weakened, then black mold can cause bronchial asthma, allergic sinusitis, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis(often leading to death) and other diseases. Allergy sufferers, children and the elderly are most prone to the effects of mold waste products.
What to do?
The fungus must be removed. To eliminate the enemy completely, you need repair, during which professionals will treat the room with a special preparation.
If repairs are not yet part of your plans, you need to treat the damaged surfaces with hot strong solution soda and washing powder (a spoonful of powder, a pack of soda in a bucket of water). This composition creates an alkaline environment from which the fungus dies. Unfortunately, the spores that it manages to release before death can hide deep under the tiles, and after some time the mold will be reborn. To prevent this from happening, treatment is carried out once every 1-2 months (or at the first appearance of fungi).
Prepared by Olga Kulinkovich, September 7, 2011.
Newspaper "Zvyazda", original at Belarusian language: http://zvyazda.minsk.by/ru/pril/article.php?id=85499
