Honey, I'm in Mississippi where we have some pretty pitiful trailers in some very rural and unsophisticated areas and I guarantee you that none of these folks would even consider doing something so cheesy as put linoleum on the shower wall. Even folks with limited incomes know better than to throw it away by devalueing their home so much, much less compromising it's structural integrity.

Our house had vinyl flooring as a tub surround with a marble pattern. Not only was it ugly, it did leak. I can't believe I lived with it for fifteen years......

This is a forum where we can share our sucesses and challenges and be open to thinking outside of the box just a little. In my case, I was working with a mobile home and it was very much an improvement and it looked very nice even after my three or so years of use. Beyond the appearance, it was sealed much better and didn't leak around the trim like the original did so the structural integrety was improved, not compromised. As for the budget, I wouldn't propose a good quality linoleum with waterproof glue as a cheap alternative.

I would have loved to seen pictures of this. I'm looking for a backsplash for my tub with a handheld shower. All they sell at Home Depot and Lowe's is this white backsplash, but I don't like it. I was hoping to find something with a print or some color. I live in an adobe and I don't want to block the window so I was thinking about 4 feet high in the middle and possibly higher on the two sides.

Thanks for your comment Mister1969. It's interesting to see the different perspectives and responses folks have provided. It's good to see your installations have also been trouble-free. Maybe the shower surround materials manufacturers will take a hint and create some more interesting patterns for us and maybe experiment with some more water-repellent surfaces. I seldom visit the area where my old house is but maybe next time I'm up that way I can drop in and see how the surround held up. The pattern was great but I was "floored" by how well the linoleum surround repelled water and didn't even accumulate soap scum or water deposits.

Linoleum as a rule is not waterproof. That's the reason you don't see linoleum advocated as a surface in wet areas like showers. There are manufacturers that don't even recommend using their products on a bathroom floor due to possible exposure to water.

Linoleum is generally made from linseed oil, natural resins, and wood or cork flour. With repeated wetting it can absorb moisture, swell, and develop a sand-papery texture. On a shower, that texture can then allow even more moisture in and can hold soap scum and skin cell residue on the surface, accelerating damage.

I'd say linoleum is not a great choice in a shower.

Unlike linoleum, vinyl is waterproof. If someone want's to go that route, it'd be a better choice than linoleum.

There's nothing wrong with presenting alternative methods and materials. But you do have to be prepared for push back if the materials or methods written about are questionable in one way or another, especially in a wet environment like a shower.

Interesting...so do we have a semantics issue here? I put down tile in my garage that is clearly vinyl, VCT in fact, and yes, it's known to be really durable and waterproof but certainly wouldn't be good as a shower wall covering in its 12" X 12" format as I used on my garage floor. Do they make vinyl flooring in large-format rolls with a good choice of shower-appropriate patterns? The material I used in the shower surround described above was in big rolls and has a very slick shiny surface on top and a cream-colored composite-looking material on the back (the wood, cork, flour stuff?) that will absorb water if so exposed. I THINK linoleum flooring is known to be quite waterproof and great for bathroom floors but certainly would be destroyed if water gets under it through seams, holes, or big spills that run under the flooring. I got a few push back comments here, just like I got in person as I was exploring the possibility, from folks who said I shouldn't even think of using linoleum in a shower stall....so yes, no surprises about the push back but I thought I could avoid the issues people said would occur and showed it could be done quite successfully, and another more professional installer apparently has too. The only reason I would recommend considering linoleum is if the installer feels he can install it so water can't reach the backing, the homeowner wants a pattern outside those offered by more typical materials, and if someone is tired of dealing with shower wall residues.

"Interesting...so do we have a semantics issue here?"

Could be. The terms are used interchangeably, but in reality they are two very different materials. Both materials come in sheets or tiles. If you held a sample of each in your hands, you'd easily note the differences.

Linoleum is made from natural materials, is pretty friendly for the chemically sensitive crowd, and usually has a natural jute fiber backing on it. Essentially, it's 100% biodegradable. It's generally a through-color product so scratches, even deep ones, don't show a contrasting color as the core is the same color as the surface. It's only somewhat flexible and can be somewhat difficult to cut.

Vinyl is essentially "plastic". The colors and designs are usually printed on the surface only, so scratches that go through the surface can show the contrasting color of the core material. It's very flexible, very easy to bend and cut.

I thought I was the first to think of using vinyl flooring for the shower! But can anyone post pics of what it really looks like. I'm stumped on how to join the vinyl to the shower pan floor that you stand on, and how to protect it at the top. Another forum mentioned caulking a plastic trim into the seamed corners (He seamed them to prevent cracking from too strong of a crease.) Pics please!!!

Recently stayed at a Hilton in NY city which had very nice walls covered with LVT. Semantically speaking LVT is luxury vinyl tile. Working on a concept for my own shower using this material. Beautiful and creative use of materials in my opinion.

I am going to use lino on my wall . I have a shower on the wall in the bath It will be 50" high from the top of the bath with an edging strip at the top edges and of course the bottom where it joins the bath . I will post pics before and after when I have finished it and maybe give an update after 6 months again .

Sandy Slade, I am interested in your project as a Marmoleum owner whose dog's bowl sat on a carpet square on our linoleum. We did not know that as he was drinking, at the end of his life, he often also peed on the square of carpet. His urine was so dilute that it never smelled. So the carpet square remained damp. After his death, we picked up the square and learned about the wetness. It had actually caused the linoleum to mold. It smelled pretty bad and discolored the flooring. I was able to make the smell go away over time, but the stain remains. This is real linoleum - the natural product made of jute, wood dust, cork, pigment and linseed oil. Not vinyl flooring, which is often called linoleum by the general population, but is actually plastic and other things.

I had a luxury sheet vinyl applied to our bathroom floor in our last house. It was thick and did not bend well. We had leftovers and they were rolled up and put into the basement. It became brittle in just a few years, or the weight of the thick roll flattened it down upon itself and it cracked and split because it was bending, not staying in a roll when it fell or was set on its side instead if sitting on end. I could not imagine it going around the corners of a shower, so there would have to be seams there.

My solid surface shower has seams at the corners, but it also came with sealant and corner cove molding to cover the seams. I believe that Swanstone and or Corian solid surface showers have these corner moldings available. These might be helpful for your experiment with a vinyl shower (I really do not think you meant real linoleum, but are planning to use vinyl).

Thank you for your telling me your experience and the edging strip advice . I was going to use tile edging but the smallest I could find was only 6mm so too deep for what I wanted it for. Corian is out of my price range I am afraid but hopefully in the future .I will not be taking it in to the corner or around as all my walls are not perfect . I hoped to cut it a cm away from the corner and put edging strip stuck in the corner over the edge of the lino then another at the top and loads of sealant after that so fingers crossed . At the moment there is nothing on the wall so can not use the shower at present so It is and even if it only lasts a short while it will be better than at the moment.. Usually things I do temporary last longer than I expect as I go quite mad with glues, sealants nails screws or what ever I have here already . Thank you again.

You should be able to order just the corner molding.Home Depot can get it for you.

Thanks I will see if any of our diy places have it to see what the price is like here in England . Home depots sound really good in America .x

Ask if they have or can order "solid surface" corner moldings. That is the generic name for the material that Corian and Swanstone are made of, in case you have access to different brand names of it.