The Problem of the Bathroom
Only a few years ago, sanitary conveniences, which were very crude when compared with those of to-day, were considered luxuries; to-day they are necessities, demanded for our physical comfort and welfare. The old-fashioned Saturday tubbing was a much dreaded and messy event; but with sanitary house plumbing, bathing became a pleasure and a valuable adjunct to good health. It is, therefore, interesting to note the treatments of the present bathroom.
The average house to-day contains at least two bathrooms, the simplest equipment being a water-closet, lavatory, and tub, the two latter fixtures supplied with hot and cold water supply pipes. From these three fixtures of the simplest kind, installed in a room not smaller than 5 ft. 6 in. × 6 ft. 6 in., we may enlarge the scheme to contain a shower-bath, with floor receptor to catch the water, a sitz or foot-bath, double lavatories, if for the owner's bath, with marble or porcelain pier slabs for toilet articles. These fixtures may be simple in pattern, of enameled iron or of porcelain or marble, in a room having tile or marble floors and wainscot. There are, happily, inexpensive fixtures of good quality that are just as efficient as the most expensive ones, and the plainer the lines of the fixtures the more beautiful they will appear in the finished bath; heavy ornamentation in color or molded design should be avoided—it is not so easily kept clean, nor is it so beautiful.
In many houses having but one servant, a separate bath is provided for her use, and in a house costing $8,000 it is customary to provide a private bath connecting with the owner's chamber, as well as a general bath for the family and guests, and a servants' bath in the attic. The importance the bath and sanitary plumbing have attained is shown by the fact that seven or eight per cent of the cost of a house is taken for plumbing, and in houses costing from $8,000 to $15,000, three bathrooms are installed.
Two oval lavatories are generally representative of the latest convenience for the modern bathroom
The model servants' bath should have a floor of small hexagonal white, unglazed tile with hard plastered walls, above a sanitary base, painted with four coats of moisture-resisting paint and equipped with a five-foot enameled iron tub, quiet syphon-jet closet, with oak seat and tank, and a plain pattern enameled iron lavatory. A medicine closet should be built in the wall over it, having a mirror set in the door. The fixtures cannot be properly set in an area less than 5 ft. 6 in. × 6 ft. 6 in., and 5 ft. 6 in. × 7 ft. 6 in. would be much better.
The owner's bath is largely a matter of personal taste and cost. Usually this has a floor of 2 in. white, unglazed hexagonal tile, with a 4 × 6 in. white glazed tile for walls, with cap and sanitary base, marble thresholds and plinth blocks. The height of the wainscot is optional; but 4 ft. 6 in. is usual, with the walls and ceilings above it oil painted. The room should not be smaller than 8 ft. × 10 ft. and may open from the owner's chamber or dressing-room. Its equipment usually comprises two lavatories of vitreous china, placed at least six inches apart, unless a double lavatory is used in one slab, over which may be a medicine closet built into the wall with mirror door set in; the bathroom door should have a full-length mirror. In the illustration that appears on page [95] is shown a silent syphon-jet closet with low-down tank finished in mahogany. The "low-down combinations," as they are called, are made in oak, cherry, mahogany, and white enamel. The tub should be at least 5 ft. long, of enameled iron or porcelain, finished on both sides if enameled, and supported on porcelain block feet, with standing waste and mixing cocks. The tub must be set far enough from the wall to permit cleaning.
