Contemporary Showers

All contemporary shower installations can be classed as either exposed or concealed, most but not all contemporary shower installations are concealed. A concealed installation will have a shower valve that consists of a square, rectangular or rounded plate that sits on the wall and from which project 2 or 3 controls which operate the temperature and rate of flow. When a concealed contemporary shower valve is used the inlet and outlet pipes which carry the water to and away from the valve are completely hidden inside the wall. An exposed valve, on the other hand, will still have inlet pipes which feed the hot and cold water to the valve inside the wall but the outlet water feed(s) will come from the top and/or bottom of the valve on the outside of the wall and will be connected to the shower head(s) by a hose or chrome pipe (also called a rigid riser). Most exposed contemporary shower installations use a thermostatic bar valve, which is a chrome contemporary style valve in the shape of a square or round valve.

Contemporary shower valves will have 1, 2 or 3 outlets so they can supply the corresponding number of shower elements. So if you had a valve with three outlets these might supply an overhead shower, a detachable hand held shower on a slider rail and 4 body jets (all 4 jets supplied by a single outlet). Typically these are the three elements that, in various combinations, comprise the delivery part of a contemporary shower - an overhead or rain shower, a slide rail with a hand held shower and body jets.

All the elements of your contemporary shower are available in a wide range of shapes and sizes but you will have most choice in selecting handles for the shower valve. Manufacturers of shower valves commonly also manufacture taps and in most cases you should be able to find contemporary shower valves and bathroom taps with matching handles.