We are about to appoint a bathroom Company to refurb our bathroom and we think NAIM are expensive - the first quote I had - said to Mrs D - does that include the rest of the house !
anyone got experance of either Nuance or Shower wall shower panels and advise ? Nuance and Shower wall seem to be the best on the market ?
Thank you
I had Shower wall panels fitted over my existing tiles a couple of years ago. I was a bit a sceptical of the whole thing but there are plenty of colour variations so easily found a match for 15 year + old tiles (bathroom was done all in same tiles).
Looks fantastic easily to clean and the way to go nowadays for showers.
Whilst I can tile installation is a professional job but most decent plumbers are geared up to fitting shower panels these days.
Just had the bath removed and a walk in shower installed in its place this month. Luckily I had a stock of unused wall and floor tiles stowed away in the tool shed. Our builder was an excellent all round crasftman: the acid test being, you would never know there was a bath there before the work was done. Took just under a week.
The shower panels are from a company called Eastbrook. No problems.
One thing we did want was a threshold as level as possible with easy access. Its now a large area so you need large anti-slip mats.
We had brochures from the weekend advertisers. Avoid. Its an area you want to get right.
What sells houses? Bathrooms and kitchens.
I think we used Aqua Panels in our two shower rooms (last house).
Not sure if brand exists now.
I installed one set and plumber did the other, as a diy person they were quite straightforward but fortunately I didn’t have to cut them.
Personally find them preferable to tiles but new house is tiled and no plans to change anything at this time. If I did it would be Aqua Panels again.
We had new bathrooms fitted 6 months ago, both with nuance panels in showers having completely de-tiled the rooms first. Way better than tiles from cleaning perspective, no grout to get mucky and, as mentioned, different textures are available. We have one in a matt type texture and the other in a shiny sparkly one (woohoo!) Both seem equally fine.
The guy who did our bathrooms did say he’d been asked to fit them over tiles before but wouldn’t recommend it, who knows what lurks beneath a set of decades old shower tiles???
He also said he’d come across rooms, usually in commercial buildings, with several layers of old tiles and then board put on top of each other, the rooms end up half the size they should be!
We looked at shower-wall (or similar) panels for our bathroom we finished earlier this year. In the end we went for tiles and paid a guy £250 to fit them. Going for proper tiles (fitted) was much the same cost and it does look a lot nicer than panels. Even the tiler we got in, who tried his utmost to convince us to go for panels, agrees that the final tiled shower area does look much nicer than with panels. We went for a smallish tile with sculptured surface; an effect not possible with panels. The tiler said he couldn’t remember the last time he’d fitting tiles instead of panels but he agreed the proper tiles do look better than panels.
A few observations from recent experience:
1- while a dedicated bathroom installation company will do an end to end job, some can be very expensive when compared to a plumber/bathroom fitter. Obviously, it depends on the scope & complexity of the works involved. The boards are easy to fit.
The plumbing and bathroom game has RRP/list prices which many a plumbing supplier will readily discount 15/20% IME (often more) - although think hard about using one of the internet suppliers as, IME, if you get something which doesn’t fit/is broken (quite regular), it can be a job to sort things out - meantime the job ain’t getting done.
As an example, my bathroom refurb came in <£7k, which was a total rip-out, re-plaster, fully-tiled et al, whereas the local ‘bathroom shop’ wanted to start at £12k.
2- Nuance (all good from what I’ve seen) and others have differing ranges of boards and supply packs for showers, which often leave large off-cuts, which can be used for other finishings.
I think the boards are great but come with pro’s and con’s e.g. if going over existing tiles, you lose some room-space and you have to be mindful of finishing against the ceilings and around other objects/door-frames (noting you can get bull-nose boards).
I understand tile trims are often used for the top when the board stops short of the ceiling.
Also, if you have an un-square corner, the board fitment can tolerate this - plus pipework can be hidden in behind the boards, potentially removing the need to deep-channel/chase a wall.
A relative who has a small fully-tiled bathroom had boarding installed to facilitate a new shower enclosure, and the board finish matched well to the existing tiles. It looks very neat.
Be mindful of patterned boards though as, it seems, the joins (e.g. marble veining) don’t always align.
As an avid DIY-er, and competent (jointly with my wife) at designing bathrooms (and kitchens) - more imaginatively than seems common, and at very considerably lower cost, that is what I do and would recommend, even if you feel you need to leave plumbing to plumbers. Regarding plumbing, if I do myself I know there are no botches or corners cut, while I ensure future access to anything that may deteriorate (like shower controller) for future maintenance purposes
In my most recent bathroom I used panels for the shower. These were from the Allure range from Performpanel. The panel pattern I used had a choice of core material, moisture resistant MDF, Exterior grade MDF and Marine ply. I chose marine ply on the basis of being the most resistant in the (highly unlikely) event of any joints eventually leaking.
Panels are so quick and easy to fix compared to tiles, don’t suffer from discolouring grout, and have fewer joints to potentially deteriorate, and indeed with the nature of the joints, at least using the corner and shower train trims that I used, deterioration is less likely than tiles unless the tiles are on a very solid surface.
I used Performpanel’s coulour anodised aluminium internal corners, and their ‘panseal sealing strip’ at the bottom. The panels overlap the lip of the shower tray, and were stuck to the wall with Stixall, and using silicone sealant, well bedded in to prevent any possibility of leaks. The bottom seals were fitted as recommended by the manufacturer. For some joints where the silicone would be visible I used a coloured silicone (green to match the panels)
It was easy to fit and still looks brand new after 8 years of daily use.
(I used offcuts from the shower panels as bath splashbacks, trimmed with the manufacturer’s quadrant trims, and the same vertical internal corners as in the shower, both saving money creating a co-ordinated effect.)
I would have no hesitation in using such panels in my next bathroom project, however I would also consider terrazzo sheets.
Incidentally, a tip for the shower: a pressure equaliser before a mixer valve can help performance and longevity of a thermostatic valve, which I have found very effective in conjunction with acombi boiler system.
I’m away from home for a few days, otherwise I’d post a photo.
great review thanks for the advise, we have asked the bathroom fitter to fit shower wall panels
also notted on power shower, we have gone for 1400mm x 800mm resin non slip with 8mm glass and fliper
only issue now is they can’t start until Oct
If someone in the plumbing and building game at this time says they can start next week, they’re probably not the person(s) to have.
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