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Bathrooms Design Dilemma Buying and Selling Homes

Which shower pan would you choose with this marble-look wall tile?

24 days ago

last modified: 24 days ago

We're redoing our master shower before we list our house to sell. We currently have boring off-white cultured marble shower walls and floor.

We've picked a 12"x24" porcelain wall tile and are going to use a herringbone tile in the niche, both shown below.
Now we just have to choose the shower floor. We did not like our previous home's tile shower floor, because of how much we disliked scrubbing all the grout and trying to keep it looking clean. We feel others may feel the same.
A cast iron shower pan is more than we hoped to spend.

The remaining options we've found include a plain white acrylic shower pan, the second option shown below, which I worry may look cheap and not hold up well. The other option is a marble-look stone composite pan, shown below with the wall tile above it. The veining pattern matches closely to the pattern in the wall tile, but it's more of a blue-gray, whereas the wall tile gray lacks any blue undertone.

Our walls are a pale blue, so they both look fine in the space. But do they look bad together?

Which shower pan would you prefer, the solid-white acrylic or stone composite with blue-gray veining?

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

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Comments (4)

amystoller
24 days ago
Is there anything really wrong with the bathroom as it is now? If not, I wouldn't bother re-doing it while trying to anticipate what others might want. "Boring" is not a bar to a sale; it may be an advantage. Just make sure that it is always, always ultra clean and that everything that has a function works as it is supposed to.
kandrewspa
24 days ago
Unless the shower is leaking and won't pass the pre-sale home inspection there is no need to replace it. If you really have to do it, then the plain white shower pan looks better with the tile you selected. However, you haven't said what the rest of the bathroom looks like. Is the new shower tile going to go with it? You can repaint pretty easily, but if the flooring and vanity don't go with it you are creating a new problem while trying to solve this problem.
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Lenore, who is installing the granite slab shower? Start there and make your priority be hiring a VERY experienced tile professional - one you have vetted carefully to insure that their qualifications meet your design requirements and product selections. Stone slab installations are not for the B team, and especially in a wet area. Can it be done? Yes, depending upon the structure over which a solid surface stone is installed and the methods used. We install solid surface shower walls regularly, but from an empty cavity which we build to meet all specific design and installation specifications, including the pan. A solid stone slab cannot be supported by the pan (it is not meant to support a slab wall). A slab wall is pinned and tied so it is self supported, not supported by a pan. This is a very complex installation. A LOT to consider. As one example, the thickness of your slab? 2cm. 3cm? (effects the weight load on the space). And I could go on. After you have carefully vetted the qualified tile contractor, have this conversation with them. If you question or want to clarify their recommendations, check back or seek professional advice from other qualified sources. Please consult with a professional onsite. Good luck with your project.
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When you said that the labor is ALOT more time consuming, does that mean you have to be more careful cutting and setting the tiles due to the "less forgiving material"? That's part of it. When it comes to stone, especially polished stone, if it's not perfect, you'll see it, and you'll feel it. I've said many times it's all in the reflection, because reflections don't lie. Look at the picture above of the reflection in the shower wall tile. See how the reflection is continuous from one tile to the next? If the tile isn't set perfectly flat, that reflection will be broken all to hell. That takes alot of time (as well as alot of skill) to get it that perfect. I don't mean to be tooting my own horn here. I'm trying to help you understand why the need for the extra time, and therefore, the added expense. Just because someone can set tile, doesn't necessarily mean they're competent to set stone. what marble was used? Any sense of the cost of materials? The white is carrara, and although I'd know the name if I heard it, I can't remember the name of the grey marble mosaics. As for cost, the carrara isn't much (as marble goes!)-- maybe 6-7.00 a foot. The chair rali, pencil liner, and mosaic listello, on the other hand, are a different story. Each chair rail and pencil liner is about 22.00 a piece, and the mosaic listello's 32.00 a foot. so for every linear foot of that wainscot, the price is 76.00. This is not exactly an economy bathroom! LOL I know the greymosaics weren't cheap, either, and they're also used on the floor for the "dots" as well as that piece on the wall.
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tlynn1960
24 days ago
What will be the bathroom floor tile? What is the vanity coutertop? Both materials impact the choices for the shower tiles.

I would not go to the expense to redo a shower and use an acrylic pan with large format tiles.

I also don't care for the marble-look pan, marble-look walls and marble-look herringbone niche...too much color variation and all the angled gray streaks will more than likely be too busy.

I dislike a tiled niche that doesn't relate (layout or tile) to anything else, plus all those perimeter small cuts in the niche will be a nightmare unless you have a highly experienced tile master.

Between your choices and your current "boring off-white cultured marble shower" I'd rather keep the boring shower. Price the house accordingly.
susan49417
24 days ago
Unless there is a structural issue with the bathroom, don't spend the money trying to update to what you think mught be more appealing to buyers. Personally, I don't like the shower pan and tiles.....just looks like you bought a bunch of discontinued items on sale to flip a house. Your changes would discourage me from buying not entice me.

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