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Minimal To No Grout Shower Tub Surrounds

8 years ago

We're thinking about a bathroom redo and I'd like to consider slab surrounds to minimize or get rid of grout, which is a PITA to clean.

I've looked at Corian, but wonder what other materials people use. Marble? Granite?

Featured Answer

Nancy in Mich

8 years ago

Swanstone has a shower pan and wall system. Your local manufactured fake marble dealer (Marblelite or the like) will have something similar that is more economical. US Marble and a company that makes a manufactured shower pan called Onyx (not the natural stone of the same name) are also out there with solid surface pans and shower walls.

Most or all of these are done with a shower pan that has a lip to accept the wall. Then after the shower pan is in place, either drywall or cement board is installed on your studs and the solid surface shower wall is installed onto that, placed carefully inside the lip of the shower pan, but not resting onto the shower pan. The corners are often caulked and the better companies provide a matching coved corner molding to install. There is a caulked line where the walls and pan meet, and this is the only caulk you ever have to maintain.

The shower pan must be installed properly for the system to work and last. Follow the manufacturer's instructions. Some are set into a bed of concrete.

You can get various sized niches for shampoos and such, and corner toe rests and even benches.

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Comments (6)

PRO
Cabot & Rowe
8 years ago
Natural stones come with higher than ceramic cleaning and maintenance. Marble is easily etched and stained. Granites vary tremendously. Some are very porous and can get stained with all sort of soap scum. Choose wisely. There are large format tiles such as Neolith and Forza stone which may solve your dilemma.

There are also stain proof grouts such as Fusion Pro, Plasma, and Flexcolor CQ. Add those grouts to a 48"x48" porcelain tile and you'll be as bullet proof as you can get.
User thanked Cabot & Rowe
silken1
8 years ago
We just ordered 2 slabs of Caesarstone 13mm quartz to use for our tub surround and a bit on the wall behind the toilet. It should be fairly low maintenance and basically no joints except on the 2 corners of the bath.

We are hoping to put two niches in the wall where the shower controls will also be. Any words of wisdom are welcome.
User thanked silken1
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once you install the cement board (so that it sits above the tub flange), fill in that channel with thinset, and let it harden. once hard, go ahead and install your Kerdi, so that it's sitting no more than 1/8" off the tub. Then you can seal it with Kerdi-fix. That's the "book" explanation. If it were me, I'd use the same color siliconized latex caulking as my grout and seal it with that. Reason being that then you wouldn't have to worry about the color of the Kerdi-fix sticking out from under the tile.
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nosoccermom
8 years ago
I've been thinking along similar lines. How big an issue are potentially crooked walls when using large format tiles?
Nancy in Mich
8 years ago
You might have the person who frames out the shower space straighten the crookedness of the walls, nosoccermom. As for large format tiles, I have seen 5ft x 2 ft tiles being sold on my local Craigslist. They are meant for both indoors and outside use - as home siding!
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StarCraft Custom Builders
8 years ago
Why don't you just use a stain proof grout?

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