Acrylic walls panels rather than tiling for bathroom

[BigSkies2022]

Hello. I am at the beginning of renovating a bathroom - stripping it of bath, turning it into more of a wetroom with a big shower. My plumber has thrown a slightly curve ball by suggesting cap and cove vinyl flooring and acrylic wall panels instead of tiles. He says its 'bomb-proof' and won't need maintenance.

Intrigued! does anyone have any experience of these materials/method, and if so, can you recommend any particular suppliers/websites. There seems to be a huge range even of brands, and I'm not sure how they differ.

Thanks.

I have considered these a number of times but always gone with tiles. If water gets behind the panels it's game over. Several builders / bathroom fitters have said a
Something along those lines.

We’ve got something called aqua board in our en suite. It looks quite swish, like being in a hotel and we haven’t had any problems with it so far.

I've got that instead of tiles and did in previous house too . A million times easier to maintain

If you can not , then do . We have it in downstairs loo , looks bloody ridiculous . ( all we need is a disco ball !) also in shower room , not a fan , I think looks cheap ( wasn’t !) could it be plumber can do this himself as opposed to tiling?

Its very low maintenance as long as you dont use a scratchy scrubber thing on it.

It is a very modern and sleek look.

Its much faster to install and so should have a lower labour cost for that.

It is much more reliable for the long term as there are much fewer seams for leaks to spring into.

It doesnt work that well if you dont have plumb and flat walls to install it over as you can see the waves more easily than with tile.

I would go for plain matt white rather than one which is a fake marble pattern as then it looks sleek rather than fake marble.

Just make sure they use the correct adhesive: ours shows through every time we use the shower!

He's a brilliant tiler - has already done one bathroom of ours, about to start on the second, and that will be tiled. This proposal came for a rental property which I've had for 20 years and which needs a new bathroom. He suggested panelling to avoid the maintenance involved in sealant and grout deterioration. Tenants, even tidy ones, just don't make the same effort to clean as I do, and so a bathroom that is really robust and didn't have to be redone annually to stay looking hygienic and clean would be great.

But I am curious about stuff like finish, feel, does it look tacky? You can get panels that are printed to look like tiles/marble/whatever - is that a bit naff? Does it have a funny sound, not like stepping on/touching regular porcelain tiling? (this may sound odd, but I have been driven mad by a squelchy underlay on a carpet). Is it shiny?

I'm getting my bathroom done starting in two weeks and have gone with this. I saw it in my son's flat and really liked it.

Thank you for replying. He said he would send some pictures of work he's done using these materials, so maybe I can ask if the clients are willing to let me go and have a look.

It is brilliant. Perfect for a rental property

@KeeeeeepDancing - can you recommend a particular product?

Bathroom wall panels come in a range of designs and finishes. I was impressed by them from staying in hotels, most hotel en suites have them now. My daughter had her bathroom walls done. No problems after 4 years. Would recommend them

We have it. Hate it. Big regret. Looks tacky.

Maybe OK in a rental property and cheaper than tiling but my parents had this in their shower room and it just looks cheap to me, nowhere near as nice as even basic tiles.
It looks like the finish on a Premier Inn bathroom and I would never choose it personally but accept that it's easier maintenance.
Guess it depends whether it's a top spec rental property...

Agree with the premier inn comment. It’s low maintenance therefore low budget. Which is great for a premier inn style rental (clean, functional), but off putting at the higher end of the market.

I love mine. You never ever have to clean grouting again. I rest my case

Hmm I'm not keen. Look like the shower in a static caravan to me

I like them - no problems with water getting behind (how would it?!), no issues with grout getting mouldy/falling out, it's warm, so no bending over and accidentally touching a bare bit to a freezing cold tile etc.

I used the lightweight extruded stuff on my ceiling and it was brilliant - no discolouration (which is what I was mainly worried about) you can actually clean it, and no-one had to spend ages with their neck cranked back putting up plasterboard/plastering/painting.

I agree, you have to pick carefully to get something that looks good, but from a maintenance point of view it's streets ahead of tiles

Until a couple of years ago I saw an awful lot of bathrooms as part of my job and sadly I only saw a couple of what I'd think of as stylish, classy bathrooms and wet rooms with shower panels/ acrylic board. They are always too flat and shiny and plastic looking and IMO make it look as if every expense has been spared when refitting the bathroom. I particularly dislike the big shiny silver edging they seem to put everywhere to finish the edges. Builders love it because it's quick and cheap to do and speeds a bathroom job up no end. Ditto the vinyl-coved floors. They're what every caravan and housing association and council flat comes with, designed to be leak-proof and do away with the problem of skirting. If aesthetics aren't an issue for you, then fine, but I don't think shower panels and coved vinyl floors are likely to add any value to your home (may even devalue it), whereas a really beautifully designed bathroom with good tiles should.

The only shower panels I have thought looked great were really bold and in homes where the owners really cared about style. There was bright shiny orange shower enclosure in a fab bathroom where they'd also used an orange-and-white patterned wallpaper and it didn't look cheap. In another house the designer owner had had the shower panels printed with a huge version of a black and white photo he'd taken. There was also a Dutch couple who I think had bought their shower panels in the Netherlands: theirs were a lovely warm dark blue with a trailing white flower pattern and it made the shower a really special feature. In all these cases they had all used tiles around the bath and basin so that the showers looked like a planned feature and not a money-saving move.

This grout cleaner works very well IME: you shouldn't need to regrout, just apply this and then scrub down.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HG-Grout-Cleaner-grout-cleaner/dp/B000IU3VQW/ref=asc_df_B000IU3VQW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232020729251&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3547866243785610032&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007460&hvtargid=pla-420702608839&psc=1&mcid=4cedf66c4d1c3349ad8f79a8b90b8532&th=1&psc=1

I responded to your OP before reading your later response. The shower panels and vinyl coved floor are fine for a lower-end rental. I have a contact who has a number of rentals in this area and he pays a cleaner to go to each house once a month and clean the oven/ hob and shower and the loos (limescale remover etc). It's not wildly expensive and apparently it stops problems building up. It's written into the contract that tenants have to give access to the cleaner every month. Most of them love it.

Mmm, interesting range of views. I've been scurrying about online, and I like the look of the Mermaid Brilliance/Elite range. I think it could work certainly for the shower, and then maybe I'd use large plain tiles and paint in the non-wet and less humid areas. I'm not a fan of metal trims, and in the bathrooms in my own home, pay extra to have the tiles mitred. But the Mermaid Brilliance range trims come in matching colours to the panels, so you don't have a contrasting edge; and the Elite range is trimless.

it's a rental property, and will remain so in my lifetime, so I don't need to love it but it does need to be highly functional, well-designed and nice/not ugly rather than beautiful!

Lots to talk to my bathroom fitter about. Off to look at cap and cove options, see if I can find something that doesn't look like a hospital.

We are in a rental owned by a guy who owns a bathroom shop and fleet of plumbers. We have it. It had had to be removed three times in 5 years for mould growth and had gone back in fine every time. Very low maintenance

Tiles win every time IMO can't stand wet wall / wall boards makes me think of caravans

Works well on walk in showers. But I wouldn't want it everywhere.

I checked out Mermaid Panels UK on Instagram. Some lovely showers.