Shower panels - are they any good and what are some good brands?

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We're redoing our en suite this winter as a DIY project. I like the idea of using shower panels (in the whole room not just the shower area) as I dislike cleaning grout and we've stayed in a couple of hotels that had them and were impressed.

Are they easy to cut and self install for a very competent DIYer? And what are some good brands? Are there any pitfalls? Thanks.

We had shower panels installed in our bathrooms a few years ago and I can’t wait to redo and will use tiles next time. The panels can be damaged quite easily if you have excitable children. You need to keep on top of cleaning them as you would with tiles as soap still discolours the panels.
For us it was down to cost but I do wish I had spent more and done it right first time.

I’ve had them and would say they are not easy to damage and the lack of grout is a bonus it depends whether you like the look of them rubberduckbathrooms.co.uk have a good range by lots of different brands. If you are competent at diy they are easy to fit and quicker than tiling but can cost a lot more than tiles depending what you buy

we looked into them when redoing our bathroom but quickly discovered that the 'naice' ones are also very expensive.
we didn't want our bathroom to end up looking like a hospital stall so went with tiles.

We tried panels instead of tiles and grout and hated them, in the shower they still got mould etc. We changed back to tiles for the bathroom but had a Kinedo shower installed. It’s like a glass cubicle and there is no grout or sealant. https://kinedo.co.uk/10-shower-enclosures

i know some people with them who are happy but they do tend to have a corner joint which looks like it can trap dirt and my builder and plumber told me to avoid them - can’t remember why - personally I would always go with tiles and if you install large rectified tiles with very small grout lines it does minimise any grout maintenance. I have 1200x600 tiles in my main bathroom and the grout lines are minimal.

I have them just in a shower in one bathroom. Brand new so not sure how practical they will end up being. Take into account matching patterns like with wallpaper. They don't look great. The main bathroom is fully tiled with dark grout and you can't beat it. Ive seen whole rooms panelled as it just screams caravan to me.

I have them but just in the shower cubicle as it is an en-suite. No corner profiles as the panels are acrylic. I am not sure how a child would damage one. There are really cheap ones, similar to what would be used in a motorhome which would compress as they are twin wall plastic. Mine is a solid panel made with acrylic and aluminum.

Easy to clean, easy to use a window vac on as no grout lines to bump over, no discoloured grout, we love it. If I was doing a bathroom I would definitely choose this. It is not cheap but very easy to instal, we did ours ourselves. You tank the walls then put adhesive on the walls and push the panel against the adhesive. Any gaps in a run are filled with sealant not trim. Ours were from Rock Salt Prints, be warned the page loads with some serious in your face designs but they have loads of different designs and they will cut panels to size and centre the design.

We've done both ways. Tiles much better aesthetically but panels were less work.

We did our shower room with panels and would 100% do it again.

I don’t like painted walls or wallpaper in a bathroom and I much prefer the look of panels all over to tiles. We also did our floor in the same stuff and I like the continuous look it created. The panels we bought were for either floors or walls.

Thanks all. It's just the 2 of us here. I'm not too concerned about the corner joint as the ones I have seen in person have looked fine and H is skilled at DIY. If we do go for panels we will probably go mid range rather than very expensive as we're intending to move in the next couple of years - we're doing this renovation partly because the en suite is so grotty it will put buyers off.

The shower is in a corner on the same wall as the window and we had intended to do the entire window wall in panels but having measured up I now think we will just do the shower corner and half the height of the (opposite) wall that the basin and loo are on. It seems like panels come in 1 metre widths and we'd end up with an awkward thin one somewhere.

The window vac is a good point as we already use one. I also didn't know you could use the panels on floors, something to look into.

Do any of you with panels have a niche in the shower for bottles etc? We currently do and it's useful but a pain to clean so not sure whether to keep ours or not.

The panels don't get mouldy if you clean them! It's really easy. Normal bathroom cleaner. Rub. Wash off. Squeegee dry.

Much prefer to tiles and grout.

Not sure about "hospital look". Ours are nice and glittery!

I really like the thin acrylic ones that look like glass but they are more spendy

They are easier to clean, but they can have more issues than tiles, regarding functionality. Such as lasting watertightness, small cracks could lead to leakage. Doesn't mean such problems are inevitably just tiles are more reliable.

We got them fitted in our new house about 3 weeks ago and they are great, you can't wash them with bleach but they require very little maintenance and washing anyway.

Our old rental of 15 years had them in the shower cubicle and they where the only thing that didn't rot or break in that awful bathroom. The tiles where a nightmare (also some floor tiles cracked/broke but the paneling never did, not sure what PP did to break them).

We got a mix of Super 7 and Zest panels... I would suggest mixing them we did one texture print/colored feature wall and the rest matt white. I find it can look a bit hospital/prison-y/fake if the whole thing is the same one but it is personal preference.