acrylic showers have thier place if you can live with it, it will be cheapest route. they do atleast dry out between showers, can be easily serviced. the only downfall of them is the wasted/lost space. In a average 32 acrylic the actual room inside is more like 28 1/2" and thats anywhere there is no shelf or handle, you loose another 9 inches in each corner, thats where they need the most support (for shipping) I am continuously asked about this question by my clients. Here is my opinion and why. I suggest the use of a poured cultured marble pan. we do the others but this is why. I do not like the way that the drain attaches to the liners in a wet-bed, I have been called back to 3 showers in the last 5 years where they have began to leak. none of the 3 were my fault, but all 3 had to have the floors removed, and rebuilt. all 3 was from the plumbers flange, 3 different plumbers were used by the homeowners. 2 leaked because the seal gave up on its own over time,(obviously they were not tight enough) plumbers had to pay me to redo. the 3rd I was paid by homeowner, because he admitted to plumber to using a toilet plunger to try and unclog the drain, that was full of hair. In doing so he blew out the seal, when the clog would not move. but there are more reasons than that. I have repeatedly been called in to redo showers here in the south (NC)because of mildew/mold. if you live in humid states rubber liners with wetbed is just not smart. it is just that a wetbed. Anyone can say what they want, seal it every year, or not the floor of a tile shower takes days/weeks to dry out after a shower. this combined with the fact that the floor and every wall contracts with temperature guarantees you that in a tile shower the corners Will crack no matter how small. relevent to leakage, no thats why the walls are sealed before the tile, it is enevitable that water will enter behind the tile in some small amounts. and move down to the pan. True they make caulking in every color that they make grout in, and should absolutly be used. but this does not take away from he fact that there is no possible way to keep water from getting under the tile level on a tile bottom shower floor. liners are not there incase the tile fails, its a working part of the shower system. and in this system (the cracks around the corners) there is an eco-system that is perfect for mold and mildew to survive, and spore out into the rest of your home continuously. cultured marble bases removes this continuous dampness, as well as having a standard flange that can be easily changed/worked on in case of any cause. Cultured marble pans are flanged on top, come in stardard sizes up to 4x5 feet, then you could build a bench all the way around the outside of that for a party shower. If you use cultured walls as well, corners are siliconed in, as well as a second sealed corner trim strip. so leakage is an impossibility, so is moisture retention. Recesses, and shelving no problem, even adding them later. smooth single no seamed surfaces are easy to clean and no maintainance. I make money if I do the tile, when I do bathroom remodels, I use outside contractor if they want the cultured marble and I make nothing for that. Facts are facts, I want my clients to get what they want, and what they need is info to make thier own decisions. Other people have said clean and dry your shower after use, I say what are they thinking. I want a VERY low maintainance place to get clean, not a place where I have to do maintainance every night, I wont dry me and the shower after every use. There is still the water in the cracks that you simply cannot get to to dry, along the bottom of the wall to floor seam. if you use the cultured marble base , and tile walls, you will have no worries as well, the possible problem is in the tile floor base.

kaysd asks: "Our contractor's estimate says he will install a moisture barrier and Hardie backer in the shower before tiling. Should I be requesting a different type of backer board for the shower?" We did a hybrid remodel of our shower eight years ago: "hybrid" in that we hired professionals to redo the plumbing and reframing of the wall that had to be torn out to replace the pipes serving the shower, but we did all of the tiling ourselves. The replacement wall surface on the shower plumbing wall before tiling was Hardiebacker. Because we are belt-and-suspenders homeowners and want everything as fail-safe as possible, we painted the Hardiebacker with Laticrete "Watertight Floor 'n' Wall Covering," a kind of rubber paint, before tiling it. The product is bright green, goes on easily with an ordinary paint roller and leaves a thick film of watertight rubber on the surface when it dries. It makes a tight grip to the Hardibacker and is an easy surface to tile over. We then used an amendment (Mapei Keraply) to the thinset that we used for the tile as the second set of suspenders, and epoxy grout after tiling for the extra belt. (We used the same thinset amendment and epoxy grout for the other walls, which, however, did not start off as Hardibacker, and we used the Laticrete Watertight and the same thinset amendment and grout for the floor, also.) The walls and floor of our shower are unconditionally watertight. If you are paying a contractor to do the work rather than doing it yourselves, the extra steps that we took may be overkill, but we are here to tell you that Hardibacker can work for a shower wall.

I have a Versailles pattern traveritne on my shower floor and with a great sealer, we have had no issues. I squeegee my glass and walls after every shower and wipe the threshold but the floor drains by itself and has been no more maintenance than tile. I will qualify that with a "yet", but I reseal it every year. I love the looks of marble but will never go that route again. We took up an entire of Botticino Fiorito in our master bath. Had it repolished once and within 2 years, it was bad in high traffic areas and in front of the vanities.

The home depot associate (tile specialist) suggested 1/16 spacers but use a flexible mortar to allow expansion/contraction. (I may not have said that correctly.) I will get advice on specific thinset and grout from my contact at the tile shop (who was a tile contractor). Thanks everyone!