MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Hi
Looking at bathroom refurb, main problem is shower tiles, the current solution is tiles (9” by 6” I’d say), it’s fine BUT it’s gone the traditional way of the grout wearing and discolouring etc, also it collects dirt etc round the mastic seal to join the shower tray to the tiles, we’re in a really hard water area so get limescale as well. So the missus drives me mad by getting me to try and keep it clean and pointing out that a new one would be cleaner and won’t get dirty. This in turn drives me mad is I’m sure a new one will get just as dirty.
Anyway, I think a new one would ‘weather’ in the much same way given time, and it won’t make any difference to the limescale but was wondering if a panel solution with a lot less joins and dirt etc hidey holes(*possibly) might stay fresher longer. Anybody got any experience of how well they weather, how easy they are to clean, drawbacks, pluses etc etc.
Ta
We did our whole (small) bathroom and shower with panels. From memory I think that they were 11mm thick, click together Mermaid. They click together and were fixed to the bare brick walls with the appropriate mastic. Been done over four years and still looking good, dry them off with a Karcher window cleaner after use to save on cleaning!
Part of the solution is to get a water softener installed. Has made the cleaning and maintenance of our bathrooms so much easier.
We have just had our bathroom done, the panel stuff is ok, but it’s just that, doesn’t look as nice as a good wall of tiles.
Don’t go for white grout either
We've used Multipanel a few times, neat hidden joints if going bigger than a boards size. As easy to clean as shower glass, just run a squeegy over it.
Load of colour and pattern choices. Any extra cost in purchase price is saved in labour time to fit.
Both our bathrooms are panelled and I fully recommend them. Tiles just strike me as a bit dirty now.
I was in the “panels” are cheap looking council camp” all wrong we have the Linda barker stuff it’s excellent and so easy to maintain.
I was slightly concerned about the joints/waterproofness etc but we have an unused length lying in garden for over a year unprotected it’s still not showing any signs of water damage !!
I've done ours in panels. You can certainly get cheap looking ones that find their way into budget hotels but there are plenty of nice ones too. A lot depends on how you do the joins. We have very few and they align with the shower screen so disappear. Having spent days ripping out the old tiles the panels were quick to fit, and will be easy to remove for any future remodel. Very happy with it and vastly superior to tiles. Doubt I'll ever fit tiles in a bathroom again.
I've just done two walls of my bathroom in panels, the second bathroom I have done this way. I would definitely recommend them, though you do need to be very careful with any cuts you need to make, as mistakes are expensive if you need to replace an entire panel rather than one tile!
The most difficult one was fitting a panel between a corner and round the top corner of a doorframe, while also getting the holes for the shower pipes lined up correctly. Measure many, many times, cut once...
It can help having a contrast strip of something (e.g. mosaic tiles) at the top where they stay clean, so you're not trying to precisely fit a huge panel tight against floor/shower tray/bath and ceiling at the same time.
Pretty much what maccyb just said.
We've recently done all around the bath/shower. Never done tiling before so can't compare but this was pretty simple. But, really difficult to measure and cut if the walls arean't completely straight and square as you are starting with a very straight and square 2.4x1m panel and then adding the other panels from there. Overall I'm happy with the finish and it is very easy to keep clean and wipe down. It's only been 6 months so can't comment on longevity yet.
We have an extension planned for next year which includes adding 2 new showers - I'll definitely be using the panels again for those.
How well prepped do the walls need to be?
I guess holes in the wall are better than raised tile adhesive.