I just finished a Swanstone install over a 72" Laurel Mountain whirlpool tub. This is the second Swanstone surround I have done. (I got a lot better at it this time) I was a professional tile installer for 10 years and didn't want the maintenance of grout in a tub area. Here is what you should know about Swanstone: 1) There is caulking (and the associated periodic maintenance) in the corners where the panels meet and also at the base of the panels where they meet the tub. This will have to be re-done every 3-5 years if you dry your tub/shower after use. If you don't towel down your walls, you'll need to do it more frequently. 2) Swanstone requires carbide blades to cut. Dont even think about reusing a carbide blade for cutting other materials after it has been used on Swanstone. Even carbide dulls quickly when cutting this material. YouÂll destroy a hole saw and probably 3 or more scroll saw/saber saw blades during your installation. Plus a 40 tooth finish grade carbide circular blade. Consider it part of the price of your project. Make sure you have extras before you even start. 3) Scribing and coping the panel walls so they fit closely in the corners and against the tub is a must. Swanstone is easy to sand with a belt sander (makes a mess, use a good respirator). An Accuscribe tool makes this a lot easier. 4) 2 people are required to move and dry fit the panels. They are unwieldy and the material is very dense. Both people need good dry leather gloves on. The edges, when cut with carbide blades, are sharp. 5) You want a really solid backer board behind Swanstone. The panels are a quarter inch thick so they can bow unless adhered to something that is quite rigid. I used Durrock cement backer board. The backer board should be primed with a good primer (Zinsser) before installing the Swanstone product. 6) Acetone!! They say you can clean the Swanstone product well enough with alcohol before caulking. DonÂt waste your time with alcohol. Use acetone. In my experience, Swanstone is impervious to acetone and you will create a much faster drying and oil free bonding surface for silicone caulk with acetone. I wiped all sides and edges with acetone to remove all oil and fine dust after cutting & coping and dry fitting prior to installation. The bond to the walls is very strong. 7) The biggest headache is the required 2x4 bracing. Setting this up is a royal PITA. Use masking tape to hold vertical 2x4Âs in place against the panels while you position and wedge into place the horizontal 2x4Âs that create the side to side pressure. Measure the inside dimension between the vertical 2x4Âs exactly and then add 1/16 of an inch, this is enough to create sufficient side to side pressure. Make sure you pre-drill holes at an angle through the horizontal braces so that you can screw them to the vertical braces. If a horizontal 2x4 falls out, it will damage your tub and you get to start all over. Bracing the back wall panel with shims takes time and patience. Do not be in a hurry, you have plenty of time before the silicone adhesive sets up. 8) A word on framing: Use Timberstrand studs behind the cement backer board. This will draw a lot of comments from folks, but here is the line of logic: Timberstrand is delivered with a much lower moisture content than any other kind of stud except steel. It is also perfectly straight & square. Due to its low moisture content, it undergoes much less dimensional change once installed. This is critical behind tub & shower walls. Timber strand is 3 times more expensive than regular lumber, but it is worth it in this area. When you frame with it, take the time to get everything perfectly square and plumb and you will have a much easier time with coping and fitting the Swanstone panels. Further up in this thread, there was a comment made about redoing grout in tile after 3 years. Yeah, that is true in my experience if the lumber behind the backer board was "wet" (high moisture content) when the tile was installed. This is common. Problem is, it becomes a self perpetuating problem that requires major tear out and remodeling in pretty short order. The cycle goes like this: Tile & grout is installed over high moisture content lumber. The lumber twists and shrinks as it dries out causing micro fine cracks in the grout (grout is brittle). Folks shower and the walls get wet which introduces more moisture that gets behind the grout and ultimately the tile. Do this daily for a year or so and the backer board is now wet. The backer board transfers moisture to the studs so they undergo expansion causing bigger gaps to appear in the grout and more water to be added to the system. Leave it untreated for 5 years and your studs will begin to rot and tile starts falling off the walls. Plus you have mold growing in cracks in your grout that is really tough to keep out. IÂve done two bathrooms in my current house with pretty intricate tile work. They are beautiful! Nothing looks as nice as well done tile. However, both are occasional use bathrooms that get used maybe 10 times per year. I did Durrock over steel studs in both tiled shower areas and they should hold up for 20+ years with nothing more than yearly resealing of the grout. The two daily use shower areas are Swanstone over Durrock with Timberstrand studs in one and steel studs in the other. They should now hold up for 20+ years as well with twice daily use and once every three years re-caulking of the seams.

sheepdog55, I think they do make them now at a 96 inch height. I think at the time we ordered, there was a major delay in manufacturing or something. We looked at a few different Swanstone vendors and could only get the 72 inch height in the specified color and size. You might have luck finding the taller height now. I absolutely understand what you are saying about minimizing vs. eliminating grout lines. As you can see, we have quite a few grout lines in our accent tile. However, our old shower was the same height as where the Swanstone hits so we figure the accent tile isn't really a big gamble in water damage, especially considering the waterproofing measures we took. It sounds like your idea would be lovely!

@wdccruise I didn't mean they were comparable nor was I criticizing cast iron shower pans - I've had cast iron bathtubs and kitchen sinks and I love the material, so I'm heavily leaning toward that choice. The shower will be replacing a large soaking tub that we never use, so I'm basically starting with a blank slate and trying to decide which way to go. Curbless is nice and we are an older couple so designing for the future makes sense. The designer is strongly recommending a tiled shower pan but I detest grout, especially when there's so much of it in mosaic tile installations. Lots to think about before making a big expense...

It looks like you want a tub that is wider, longer and possibly deeper than your current one. There is a good chance that you will need a larger conventional water heater or an on-demand water heater to fill it properly. If you use a pocket door anywhere, be sure it is a solid core door to reduce sound transfer. If this were my bathroom, I'd remove the closet but leave a partition wall against which the door would open. Then I'd move the toilet far enough toward that wall to put a new tub roughly where the current one is. I'd put any money saved on extensive channeling toward a Toto Neorest toilet.