Acrylic sheeting or tiles in bathroom?

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Has anyone had experience of acrylic sheeting? I'm very tempted by it - principally to avoid the eternal problem of keeping grouting clean. It's going to be a lot more expensive than tiling however, so I wondered if anyone had any comments about it before I 'splash' out?

Yes we have it in our bathrooms and have fitted it for customers.

These guys do some nice ones, quite reasonable price too.

I do like what we have, but to be honest, I doubt I would go with it again. Nothing wrong with the product, it's just I know I will want to change it long before it reaches the end of it's life, so for that reason it seems expensive.

I have it in the guest shower because I am not good at tiling, not too keen.

why are you not keen piglet

Oh why's that Piglet John?

I hear what you say EauPeau. I'm so sick of the tiles we have - and have been for years. But it's probably easier to accept getting rid of perfectly ok tiles that you're just sick of than perfectly ok acrylic sheets that you're sick of but were also expensive to install!

At the moment nobody uses the bath in our main bathroom - even though there's an over the bath shower in there. They all (teenage boys), traipse through our bedroom to use the en suite which currently has a nice big open shower in it. So we're swapping them over. Having a small bath (still with a shower) installed in our en suite and a large shower to replace the bath in the main bathroom.

The grouting and sealant in the en suite is a real pain to maintain because the shower gets used 5 or 6 times a day. I'm trying to avoid similar problems with the new shower - hence my interest in acrylic sheeting but I'm not sure if I will like it and it would be an expensive mistake!

I have it in the bathroom and I'm not keen either. I wished I had gone for the tiles but was persuaded by the workman doing the bathroom. Walls are not 100% straight and there are areas where they have not perfectly slotted together. The trim that they fit into round the bath (instead of silicon sealant) isn't great either and you still get water getting into it and thus mould/mildew forming

If I did the bathroom again I would go for tiles and a darker grout

I'd be surprised if the acrylic is more expensive than tiling. Where we are tilers charge £££ per sq m to fit.

We have it and love it. It didn't cost more than tiles would for the same area and really easy to keep clean. However we went for acrylic and I kind of wish we had gone for the glass ones instead.

5am What's the difference between glass and acrylic?? Does it look much different?

5am, that is fab looking.

They are great to keep clean but there is no way they look better than tiles.

Acrylic is plastic.

Perspex is a trade name for clear acrylic. It is also used to make plastic baths and motorcycle windscreens.

It is not very good when clear, as it scratches quite easily, so is unsuitable for windows where it might get rubbed with a dry cloth (which would leave fine scratches from the dirt)

Right- we are planning a new bathroom sometime soon in the next 5 years (!) and trying to gather ideas. Cheers Piglet.