Seamless panels or tile with grout lines: how each wall cleans, goes up and looks, and which suits your bathroom.
Panels or Tile
Panels give you seamless walls that wipe clean and go up quickly, while tile gives you far more choice of look and asks for grout upkeep in return.
Neither is better for every bathroom. It comes down to how the shower gets used, who cleans it, and how much the pattern on the wall matters to you.
Here is how the two kinds of wall compare, side by side:
Cultured marble and acrylic
Ceramic and porcelain
The Materials
Wall panel
Cultured marble is a cast wall-panel material made for showers and tub surrounds, and it goes up seamless, cleans easily and comes in many colors.
Because the panels are cast rather than cut from stone, the wall reads as one smooth face with no grout lines to keep after, which is why homeowners often call it "seamless shower walls".
Wall panel
Acrylic walls and one-piece units are vacuum-formed to order in cast acrylic, and they come mostly in white and biscuit.
Because each unit is made to order, it comes in many sizes and shapes, so a one-piece tub and shower unit can be matched to the alcove you have. The color range is narrower than cultured marble; the trade-off is a wall formed in one piece.
Tile
Tile is the better choice for a custom or "curbless shower" where the pattern matters, and large-format tile keeps the grout lines to a minimum.
Tile tends to earn its grout in these bathrooms:
Still Deciding
Not sure which wall suits your bathroom? We look at it with you and quote the whole job before we start.
Monday through Saturday. We answer or call back the same working day.
Behind the Wall
Whichever finish goes on, the waterproofing and the wall board behind it decide how long the shower lasts.
Visible finishes are only part of what makes a bathroom last. Behind tile, that means "cement board", the water-resistant panel the tile is set on, with a "waterproofing membrane" over it before a single tile goes up.
These are the layers that protect what is underneath:
Free Estimates
Cultured marble, acrylic or tile: call, and we come out, measure the shower and put the whole job in writing before any work starts.
Calls outside our hours go to voicemail and we return them the next working morning.
