Within every building, there are rooms designed for all sorts of purposes.  Some are used to work in, some are made to cook in, and some are designed for your entire company to gather. One term used to define the specific use of several areas in your building is “wet area.”

A wet area is a space that is supplied with water, such as a kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room.  While offering great comfort and convenience to your place of business, they must also be designed in a way that keeps them safe for both you and the environment. These design details include several different factors, including making sure that your wet areas are large enough to perform all of their functions, have waterproof flooring, and adequate ventilation.

One important, and often overlooked, detail in designing your wet area is the lighting.  Wet area lighting serves two major purposes.  The first is safety.  Wet areas must be properly lit so that the people who use them are made aware of any dangerous objects or obstacles.  The second major purpose is convenience.  While stumbling around in a poorly lit, wet area can be inherently dangerous; it also makes it extremely difficult for the occupant to complete any of their tasks.  Wet area lighting must do all this in a climate that is different from every other area of the house.

In order to accomplish these two purposes, wet area lighting needs to work together with any natural lighting in order to make sure that all surfaces are illuminated as well as the room occupant.  It is important that surfaces are illuminated without any shadow.

Another important consideration with wet lighting is that the lighting instrument needs to be durable against damp conditions.  A wet area is, or necessity, often filled with water and it is extremely common for wet area lighting fixtures to be exposed to moisture.

One final consideration when choosing wet area lighting is to make sure the lighting fixture does not allow any moist air to travel into tight spaces.  This means that you need to have lighting that is close fitting to the surrounding walls/features or does not create any concealed spaces. This will help reduce the amount of unhealthy mold or fungus that grows within the wet area.

Many lighting companies offer lighting bulbs and instruments that have a special wet-location rating or grading.  When looking into purchasing lighting for your wet areas, take a look at the lights that have been specifically designed to add security and comfort to these areas of your building.