Shower Remodeling: Tile vs. Panels
The last few years has produced a move in building materials, expanding on what has traditionally been available. A remodel is no longer limited to just what was on the market when a house was originally built. You can now build a deck with composite decking, which lasts much longer than regular wood and is easier to maintain. There are a wide variety of options for kitchen tiling that are cheaper and easier to clean. Bamboo flooring is attractive, and more environmentally friendly than prior options, and you can get the look of expensive marble countertops in your kitchen for a fraction of the price using granite. Most of the newer options have longer lifetimes, cheaper costs, and more ease of maintenance than more traditional building materials.
This trend extends, of course, into your bathroom.
If you’re thinking about a bathroom remodel in Cincinnati, Ohio, there are lots of things to consider. How much are you going to replace? What color scheme do you want to use? Are you going to install a fancy shower stall, or a bathtub? Do you have venting, and where would you install it, if you don’t? Does the paint color you want come in a variety that is designed to be resistant to damp borne mold? How long will it last before you have to repaint? And are the light bulbs that fit in that fixture you want to install over the medicine cabinet easy to find replacements for? How much more effort are you willing to put in to maintain the bathroom of your dreams?
We’re all familiar with the unique pleasure of walking down the aisle at the home remodeling stores and looking at the tiles available and imagining what we’d do if we were remodeling our bathrooms. They’re available in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and styles, and they’re beautiful. Tile is the most customizable option for remodeling your bathroom because of that fact. You’re not stuck with just one color or style, and can do just about anything you can imagine as long as the design you want to create fits the space available.
There are types of tile to fit every budget and aesthetic. While the most popular in terms of durability, cost, and variety are tiles made of ceramic or porcelain, you can also get bathroom tiles in glass, granite, limestone, marble, natural stone, slate, or distinctive and unique materials, like terra cotta and travertine. Some come with a design already built in or painted on, while others allow you to lay them out to create the look you want, interspersing sizes, colors, and materials. The options for what you can do with tiles in your bathroom are endless, and maybe a little overwhelming, too.
The downside is maintenance. Many households keep old toothbrushes on hand just to scrub at the grout between the tiles to clean them, and it’s hard to keep on top of it. There are plenty of cleaning sprays on the market designed to keep the mold at bay, but you’re encouraged to spray after every single shower. That can be hard to remember, and hard to ensure gets done properly unless you live alone. Not to mention the cost of keeping the spray stocked.
If you’ve seen an older bathroom, you’ve probably also seen cracked and broken tiles around the bathtubs. Maybe it would be a simple matter of pulling out the broken tile and putting in a new one, but if that style or color isn’t available anymore then the fix gets a lot more complicated, and you may end up just replacing all the tiles around the bathtub. If the flexibility and beauty is enough for you to be willing to do the upkeep, tile is still a beautiful traditional option for your bathroom.
However, just like you can get granite countertops that imitate the most expensive marble for your kitchen, you can now get laminate wall panels installed around your shower area instead of tile.
Wall panels are extremely easy to clean, with no joins between small tiles to scrub. No need to hang on to those old toothbrushes and remember to spray! Just spray with a regular cleaner and wipe them down on your routine cleaning days and they’re good to go. They are also waterproof for the duration of their lifetime, not getting small cracks for water to slip through. Oh, and that lifetime? It’s virtually unlimited, depending on what option you go with. These wall panels last a very long time and look good for the same amount of time.
The wall panels may not have the flexibility to customize your look that tiles have, but there are a wide variety of options on the market now, so you’re sure to find a design that fits your desires. If you’ve always wanted a marble shower, that’s well within your means now with an attractive wall panel, and it will be hard to tell it’s not real marble until you touch it. It will be less cold during your morning shower as well, not holding as much chill as tile does. You can even get wall panels that look like you’ve lined your shower with wood, something that wouldn’t be feasible with the real material. There are even some on the market with unique and trendy textures!
The installation is simpler and faster as well, saving you money during the remodel, or stress during your own DIY remodel. While the different types of panels have different installation methods, many of them are easy enough to cut and hang right over the drywall – though we recommend you do your research on the specific panels you’re looking at before attempting to do that yourself!
While we here at Third Generation Restoration love the flexibility and design possibility of tile, we prefer the durability and ease of maintenance provided by laminate wall panels. We’d love to talk with you about options and show you the variety of color schemes, patterns, and designs the wall panels come in. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised and rethinking some of your original design plans.
Third Generation Restoration is a home remodeling company located in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are proud to live here, and to serve the city and surrounding neighborhoods. We’re a family owned and operated company that takes great pride in our service and the quality of our work. We want your remodel to be the smoothest remodel experience you could imagine, and our hope is to win your trust. Our clients are our friends, family, and neighbors, so their satisfaction is important to us. It’s our goal to help you design a home you can love through this generation, and beyond. Give us a call today and let us tell you what we can do for you.
