I hate grout, also. I had a nasty tile shower (builders 4x4 tiles) and I just replaced it with very substantial pure white cultured marble. I love it and it feels like my shower even got bigger!

I also didn't want a cheap acrylic, and I was almost talked into tile by a large plumbing company in town. I suddenly came to my senses when I realized that this was totally not what I wanted (just before signing the contract).

The tiled shower with a new (cheap) shower valve was $3500 (all materials and labor). I got a handyman to install my cultured marble shower and shower valve for $2200 (all materials except for the nice Grohe shower valve, which I bought). I'm sure the materials was much much less based on other quotes he gave me, but I was so happy to be saving money.

We did both. A local company poured us a very thick & substantial shower pan. We then tiled the 3 sides and put a glass door on the front. So far all is well. Love the floor - no grout to keep clean & no leaks. We use a squeegee on the tiles & have had no trouble so far with the grout. Good luck with yours.

A properly built tiled shower won't leak. We have a custom tiled shower in our master bedroom and a fiberglass shower in the kids' bath. I find the tile much easier to maintain and clean. And the kids are grown and out of the house so that shower doesn't get used much!

terriks is right--a properly built & waterproofed shower won't leak. Our shower/tile guy was meticulous on this point. Acrylic is more difficult to clean IMO--especially those textured bottoms. So my vote is for tile hands down.

As far as keeping it clean...there are several things you can do now in the planning & building stage to help with this:

1) Use larger tiles (12x12, 10x13, 9x18, etc). Larger tiles mean less grout.

2) Use a smaller grout line--1/16" or narrower. Not all tile can do this. Stone tile typically can and certain porcelain/ceramic tiles--it has to do with the type of edge the tile have. Your tile guy can help you with this. I can tell you from personal experience that Florida Tile's Pristine & Renaissance styles will work for this.

3) Use unsanded grout--sand in the grout gives anything that wants to grow a place to hold on and grow. Unsanded helps eliminate this and also has a smoother look.

4) Put a squeegee in the shower and use it after each one--helps eliminate things growing as well as water spots.

Hope this helps!

The down side of unsanded grout is that it tends to shrink somewhat and lacks the strength of sanded. Annual sealing is recommended. Sanded requires a minimum of 1/8" joint, however.

Dry your shower after use and use a liquid soap as most bar soap has animal fat as a binder/filler and your shower will look good indefinately.

We have a very narrow bench in the shower about 16" high, but only 8" deep. It is not enough to sit on, but enough to lift and shave your legs. People like that. For a shower I had in another house I had them use a piece of Granite on the top of the bench to match the granite on the vanity.

For my current shower room, on the shower floor, I used Epoxy grout (Lacticrete) which doesn't need to be sealed, but it does cost more money, and we had to buy more than one container to cover a 31"x33" floor. but then again, we used a pebble floor so that takes a lot more grout than normal since it has a lot of gaps to fill.

I love tiled showers over plastic walls (we have 12"x24" tiles installed horizontally). The entire bathroom from wall to ceiling is tiled with the same tile.

I agree - a well built shower should not leak. Mine is also on the second floor. It is very important that the shower pan is made correctly. You can also get a prefab shower pan which can then be tiled over. since it is one piece, it is good for preventing leaks.

I have a custom sized shower so that was not an option. Our shower pan was built the traditional way using a sloped pre-floor made from a packed down cement "mud" mixture, then Oatley shower pan liner, then the cement mud mix again. It is critical this is done correctly. I highly recommend John Bridge's website to see examples of properly made shower pans and tiling.

We also have 2 recessed boxes built into the shower for shampoo, etc.. and no problems. One wall opposite the shower is in the hallway so we would notice if it leaked.

When we redid that room - we did not use any green sheet rock - which I think is pretty much banned now - you can google why green drywall is so bad.

Basically, we had ALL the walls in the bathroom done in cement board which is over kill. Then all the gaps were covered with special fiber tape made for cement boards/thin set. Then "all" gaps and corners were filled with thinset making sure to feather so that the walls stayed relatively flat. Normal mesh fiber tape can not be used b/c it eventually will get eaten by the chemicals in thinset. The special mesh tape is available in any big box store and is usually gray colored as opposed to White or Yellow for the normal mesh tape they use when they mud new drywall.

Then the walls and niche boxes were all painted with 2 coats of Redguard which is a water-proofing rubber like material. Lacticrete makes a similar product called Hydroban I think. The Thinset and tile were then put directly over the Redguard (after it dried a couple days).

This bathroom is completely tiled - every wall, floor to ceiling - which is why we just went ahead and painted all the walls with Redguard. Normally it is only necessary in the shower area - but it was easier to just tell the painter to paint the whole room with red rubber.

for the walls we used unsanded grout, but in the shower floor and curb and bench we used Epoxy grout of the same color. We used the Lacticrete brand for this because they had a larger selection of colors and it was easily available at Lowes.

Just to clarify a little, the shower walls will be tiled and I am leaning toward doing a large tile on the walls. It was the floor that I was undecided about, tiled or acyrlic. Maybe even cast iron if you can still do that (no 1 has mentioned that to me). I am a little confused on what is cultured marble floor. I thought marble is very pourious. I live in NY so not as damp as the S but still some consurn.

The contracted that we where considering said he does tile floors like a pool with a vynil liner. Does this sound right what is the best base? They do mud job on top to lay tiles.

Cultured marble is a resin (plastic) with ground marble mixed in.

Where can cultured marble bases be purchased?

rtmom2 , we are in NY, and recently (3 yrs ago?) installed a Kohler cast iron shower pan in our guest bathroom shower. The bathroom is long-ish, but very narrow, and was a powder room that we converted to a full bathroom with the addition of the shower. The shower walls are tiled, and we have a frameless glass shower door.

Originally had ordered what we thought was a fiberglass shower pan (also Kohler). When it arrived, we discovered it not only was acrylic (which we did not want), but also did not have no-slip grips, which was a must for us (aging parents would be using that shower when visiting). Sent that one right back, and ordered the cast iron pan. Love it. Solid, sturdy, looks great. More $ than acrylic and fiberglass, but much less than a tiled floor.

We have tile on the shower walls and ceiling. DH used Hardibacker (cement board) for the shower walls, and coated them with Hydroban, a waterproofing membrane that is rolled or brushed on, like paint (a "lovely" pea-soup green color paint!).

FWIW, this bathroom is on the ground floor of a bi-level/hi ranch just north of NYC.

What are the pros and cons of acrylic compared to fiberglass, compared to cultured marble? For example, someone said that one of them (I think it was acrylic) stains easily.

>Where can cultured marble bases be purchased?

Look in your local yellow pages. Even the small town where I live has a fabricator for these. If you're in any kind of metro area there should be a bunch.

Have you thought about using dumawall tiles that interlock with no grout and a preformed shower pan and or bench?