Anonymous wrote:I would add the traditional shower head. What's the downside?

Cost.

The slider bar requires drilled holes in the shower wall so it's more of a commitment.

Anonymous wrote:We have the sliding bar in a kids bathroom. Its great as I put the bar lower so they still mount the handheld on it to shower normally but its at a lower angle for them.

PP here. This describes a good use/reason for a slide bar - when you have pretty different height people showering in the same bathroom (including if someone is injured/older and sitting). Another is if you want to have the shower hit at say your low back.

But if you just want flexibility to use a handheld for say dog washing or cleaning the shower or a specific body part, all you need is a mounted handheld.

We have the sliding bar in a kids bathroom. Its great as I put the bar lower so they still mount the handheld on it to shower normally but its at a lower angle for them.

For the purposes you named, you don’t need the slide bar, as you’d be holding the shower head in your hand to spray it around dog/feet, so I’d just get a mounted head that can be detached to be a handheld (those are a lot cheaper than the handheld on slider bar).

I would add the traditional shower head. What's the downside?

This is common in Europe in most showers. It’s fine.

It seems to me you answered your question.

It’s fine but if you’re redoing the bathroom, I would do a shower head and a handheld sprayer. I would just do that in any shower I’m redoing, because I think the extra cost is small in the big scheme and it’s the best set up.

Has anyone done this for a utility shower/ mudroom shower? We're thinking of doing it for our basement, where we would mostly be washing our dog or dirty feet. Seems like the slider bar option would be fine when someone needs to take a shower there for some reason? Already have 3 real showers in other parts of the house.