Take a look at Swanstone, very attractive. We put one in and love it. It even has a non slip floor so you're safer. We ordered ours online and saved several hundred dollars. If you do that, use Ebates first and save even more $.

Arapaho, I am considering the same thing. Please post back when you decide.

And yayagal, I'd love to see a picture of yours.

I would go with solid surface before the fiberglass one piece units. They sound hollow and IMO look cheap.

I have solid surface. For looks I would prefer tile, but for cleaning it's much easier.

I had a leaky tile shower from a poor tile job when we built the house.

Tore the whole thing out and used a solid surface pan and tiled walls. It was not cheap, but I love it. Really solid feel, no way it will ever leak and no grout lines on the floor. It's called Alantra.

We are remodeling a building right now and I am putting a shower in (office). It has to be ADA. I didn't want to spend as much and the whole thing will be cultured marble -- pan and walls. No swirls, solid color.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Swanstone has come out with a "subway" tile look and I think a larger "8-inch" tile look, for their wall panels.

Just hoping their is no caulk involved in putting the pieces together.

Guessing Swanstone is similar to Corian?

Here is a link that might be useful: Swanstone

we have a cast iron shower pan in the master bath and i love it!! it has it's own threshold, so no tile worries there--- i think alot of leak issues occur at floor or threshold areas. our walls are tiled tho, so no help there...

arapaho,

There is no grout involved in Swan solid surface Subway Tile walls. (Hooray!) It is a solid panel with a tile look. It is similar to Corian but virtually indestructible, and of course extremely easy to clean and maintain. Hope this helps!

Chelsie Hellige
Swan Social Media Coordinator

Here is a link that might be useful: Swanstone

I would only put in a one piece unit if they are common in the updated houses in your neighborhood. Otherwise, I think they will be a serious minus for resale.

I agree with mntrdredux. I would not buy a house with a one piece unit in the master. They remind me of motels. I would tile.

Chelsie, thank you for the info. Might you have photos of actual showers with Swanstone?

Mtn, I agree about resale and no, they're not common in our neighborhood. After seeing the water damage behind the tile, I am trying to avoid that again. I wish there were more choices.

Cms, I hear you! Thank you for commenting.

arapaho,

I'll work on finding out if we've got some photos floating around of real showers using the Swan subway tile. It's one of our newest products, so we may only have the official product photos for them. I'll check!

Below is a link to the best pics on the website of these shower walls. Just click "view photos" under Subway Tile.

Here is a link that might be useful: Swan Subway Tile

arapaho - you know water infiltration issues put a serious kink in resale value regardless of what is standard in your area or you wouldn't be considering a solid surface. It's almost a damned if you do damned if you don't scenario if you can't find anyone competent to install tile !! Have you checked into doing a true lath and Portland shower? I know it's not easy finding people who still do that but we've never had water issues with ours over 20+ years.

Chelsie is there somewhere to get the specs and installation info on the Swan Subway Tiles? It looks like an interesting product to me and I can see applications for it. Curious about the sound and the rigidity of the pan, also. Most fiberglass pans fail at the drain joint from compression and they sound like echo chambers.

yayagal, thanks for you input on Swanstone. If you have a pic of your shower, I'd love to see it.

marti8a, have you made a decision yet? It's a tough one for sure.

beverly27, if you could post a pic that would be wonderful. I don't want to lessen the value of our home because we've tried very hard to make good decisions with all the changes we've made and care for it accordingly afterwards.

redlover, thanks for your input. It's my understanding that grout is porous, therefore you can't stop water from penetrating even when sealed. That is my real concern. I will look at Alantra and cultured marble.

busybee3, I like the sounds of your cast iron pan with built-in threshold. Can you share who makes it?

Chelsie, thanks for the links....and any other info you can supply.

dlm2000, thanks for your info. I really want to minimize the chance of water damage. I am not familiar at all with lath and Portland cement showers. Would you be willing to post a pic of yours?

arapaho you can't see anything different - whatever tile or stone you put on top of the Portland is what you see. What you get is a base or backing for your tile and grout that is a seamless (when done right) substrate. Even if water infiltrates behind the tile through a crack in the grout, there is nothing behind it to deteriorate, just cement. Our shower is cement walls and shower pan also - both covered with ceramic tile.

I have a swanstone base with porcelain tile walls. The swanstone base has a different feel and look then the typical fiberglass enclosure.

Here are some pics.

I am always kind of surprised that in established neighborhoods, that materials from house-to-house don't seem to vary very much. (I am guessing this is suburban). Where I live, if you take four houses in a row, all old enough to have some renovations, One is likely to have everything done one the cheap, two are likely to be in the middle and One is probably technically overimproved. The only person that seems to lose out at resale time here, is the over-improver. I know this from over improving and then selling several houses.But I remodel for how I want to live and know that the cheapo renovation will turn some people off but end up making money at sale time since property value is property value. I guess this varies a lot by locale.

Anyway, I think there is a big difference between a one piece acrylic or fiberglass insert and a solid surface surround and that many people will respond to the Solidity rather than the fact that it is not tile. Solid surface surrounds here are actually more expensive than the typical tile surround. (unless you use expensive tile, which most people do not.) I know this, because I was going to do a solid surface in a basement bath for maintenance reasons and it was much more expensive than buying a typical tile and paying the labor. However no big sheets of anything would fit down the stairs, I was lucky enough to determine before purchasing, so I will be going with a moderately priced tile.

I think the biggest negative response is to a perceived lack of quality with a hollow sounding surround.

We had a 36" shower and enlarged it to 42 x 60 and used materials from the onyx collection. I've mentioned it elsewhere on this site; however it must not be a commonly used product as I haven't heard others mention or recommend it much. I love it because it's so easy to clean. We didn't go with any decorative inserts because I care more about function than design and wanted something pretty neutral. The colors here are coconut walls with tiramisu base. When we renovated we did not move the shower head and since it doesn't spray directly toward the opening we eliminated the need for a shower door. The contractor is in the process of putting the same material around our jacuzzi tub where we removed 4" porcelain tile.
If we did anything wrong, the bench is a little low, but we would never sit in the shower so it's strictly used for shaving legs and the height works OK for that.

True confession: I absolutely hate to clean a shower so the shower was last wiped down/cleaned a few weeks ago, I didn't prep it for the pic. It is what it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.onyxcollection.com/

ineffablespace, thank you for responding. I haven't priced solid surface yet but I've heard it is pricey and the installer needs to definitely measure twice and cut once!

hilltop, great shower! I wish we had the space to expand as you did because I'd love to eliminate the door. Never heard of Onyx so I will follow your link.

As a side note, someone I know always cleaned their shower as a last step after taking a shower using inexpensive shampoo. When selling her home, the realtor asked how she kept the shower doors so clean.

dim2000,

Below is a link to all the Swan product brochures. You should be able to find all the specs you need here!

Hope this helps.

Chelsie Hellige
Swan Social Media Coordinator

Here is a link that might be useful: Swan Product Specs