Shower walls - aqua panels or tiles?

Question

Time to do up the shower - heavily used (approx 5 times a day or so).

Corner rectangle enclosure and tray already ordered - just need to decide what to put on the walls.

Older shower had tiles, with 1.5-2mm of white grout in between, and it was far from satisfactory:

- grout was cracking every few years and had to be re-done (I am 100% sure that the wall behind was not the cause).

- The grout (white) was very hard to keep clean-looking.

- Silicone bead between the tiles and the tray failed on a couple of occasions over the 10 year life of the shower, and had to be replaced.

- Despite using very good quality silicone it was very hard to keep the mould away, so I had to give it the bleach-treatment a couple of times (very successful).

We are considering using aqua panel instead or tiles as a result - something similar to these

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Any experience with these anyone? i.e.

- How easy to keep clean?

- Can you safely remove and re-do the silicone at the bottom if needed without damaging the boards?

- etc

TIA.

newshound · Accepted Answer

Very easy to keep the boards clean. I don't get mould at the corners but it does develop eventually at the tray and/or other awkward joins. The board surface is pretty tough so in principle should be easy enough to trim back silicone with scalpel, etc, and then re-do. I'd never tile a shower again in a normal domestic setting.

spuorgelgoog · Answer

Definately a sheet product although I have some reservations about the MDF backed varieties.

As for the shower base, you may be able to find one with an upstand that goes behind the panel, meaning that seal joint isn't critical.

Owain

newshound · Answer

Agreed, that is definitely the best sort.

Iggy · Answer

I'd only go with Acrylic. Splashwall and Vistelle have very good setups withseam, corner and end Caps, so the caulk is exposed very little to moisture andair for mold to occur at all. I've got Acrylic and it still looks new everywhereafter 20-years. See and scroll down for the Caps. Splashwall -  Vistelle -

tabbypurr · Answer

Sounds like you had no problem removing the mould, but were for some reason reluctant to do it. NT

JoeJoe · Answer

Thanks for the tip.  Are they made from solid gold?

Tim Lamb · Answer

In message ,               writes Yes. Mind I have only used the waterproof ply versions. (Grant  Westfield?) No (reported:-) issues with cleaning. Have a look at Rubber Duck bathroom offerings. 'kin expensive but price  probably based on equivalent tiling cost.

JoeJoe · Answer

That is a really good idea - never seen or heard of them before. Any pointers please?  (online or otherwise). I am after a 900 x 1000 tray BTW.

Iggy · Answer

Yep, compared to the tile garbage and its hack installation you've had. Or, youcan buy more enclosure glass and put that on the walls, but the adhesive choicehas to be visibly made for it. Quite incredibly, I couldn't find anyplace thatsells entire Acrylic Kits. In other parts of the world you can get them realcheap and have a caulkless future.

JoeJoe · Answer

That was the first thing I was looking for when investigating a new setup - zero maintenance requirements. Like you, I was very surprised by the lack of availability considering how simple they are to make and how common they are in places such as North America.

spuorgelgoog · Answer

I can't find them right now -- possibly they went out of fashion about the same time as avocado bathrooms? but this site has some useful looking things eg  Owain

Shower walls - aqua panels or tiles?

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