The Lemon Fool

About to get the bathroom refurbished and we saw PVC wall paneling the other day which we are considering as an alternative to wall tiles. It will be cheaper, quicker to install and wont suffer from grout deterioration or mould.

I have not been made aware of any negatives but I am sure there must be some. Does anyone have any experience at using PVC wall panels? Comments appreciated

EssDeeAitch wrote:I have not been made aware of any negatives but I am sure there must be some.

The negative is they look terrible, particularly where the panels join and the (often) nasty trim used.

AF62 wrote:

EssDeeAitch wrote:I have not been made aware of any negatives but I am sure there must be some.

The negative is they look terrible, particularly where the panels join and the (often) nasty trim used.

I've never fitted any, but did stay in a self catering place last year which had them in the shower and the only joins were at the inside corners and they looked about the same as anything else done with bathroom mastic.

The panelling looked much, much better than 90% of tiling does.

I'll certainly be going for it next time I have to decorate a shower or bathroom.


Of course, as with tiles, totally naff patterns can be selected

Slarti

What does it mean 'naff' ?

richlist wrote:What does it mean 'naff' ?

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/naff
"Lacking taste or style"

In my idle research when thinking about re-doing our shower room I found "pine plank effect" panels, ones that gave a landscape view of a beach, ones that gave a landscape view of an alpine meadow and other tasteful things.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:

richlist wrote:What does it mean 'naff' ?

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/naff
"Lacking taste or style"

In my idle research when thinking about re-doing our shower room I found "pine plank effect" panels, ones that gave a landscape view of a beach, ones that gave a landscape view of an alpine meadow and other tasteful things.

Slarti

I was looking more at the faux tiles, very tasty (gulp! I hope you don't think that's naff). No sparkles or glitter for us thank you very much.

EssDeeAitch wrote:I was looking more at the faux tiles, very tasty (gulp! I hope you don't think that's naff). No sparkles or glitter for us thank you very much.

The one that caught my eye (but Mrs S may change my mind) was a graduated blue, getting more and more translucent the nearer it got to the floor.
If you're using plastic might as well show off some of its superiority over other materials.

Slarti

I have white PVC paneling in my bathroom. Getting on for nearly 16 years now. It’s the silicone around the bath etc that you have to watch. I’ve had to rescilione a few times as it has just got grubby and black over time in parts regardless of whether it’s a dedicated anti mould bathroom silicone.

After a long look and discussions with our plumber, it's conventional wall tiles after all. But thanks to all who posted replies, much appreciated

We recently moved into a house which has this, floor to ceiling around all four walls of the bathroom and it looks TERRIBLE! It feels like we live in a care home. This is mainly because of the pattern they have chosen - a sort of light brown marble effect. I saw something very similar recently on a Youtube clip of the Terry Wogan chat show from the 80s.

However we did stay in an airbnb recently which had wetwall, but it was a sort of textured fake bamboo style and looked really good, although it was only around the bath/shower, with the rest of the room being conventional tiles.

So I would say be careful of the pattern you choose, and don't do the whole room in it.

Cheers
StepOne

PS. Anyone know how easy/difficult it will be to remove this stuff?, or whether it can be tiled on top?

StepOne wrote:PS. Anyone know how easy/difficult it will be to remove this stuff?, or whether it can be tiled on top?

I would imagine that the only difficulty in removing the surface will be at the edges, e.g. where it interfaces with tiles or other wall coverings.

As far as tiling over is concerned, I believe there is a special part of hell reserved for people who tile over tiles, with another area reserved for people who refuse to remove existing sinks/cisterns etc before tiling. (You tile the whole wall then mount the basin/cistern etc on the tiled wall).
Tiling over tiles whilst failing to remove basins/cisterns, sends you to the VIP section of hell.

PochiSoldi

StepOne wrote:We recently moved into a house which has this, floor to ceiling around all four walls of the bathroom and it looks TERRIBLE! It feels like we live in a care home. This is mainly because of the pattern they have chosen - a sort of light brown marble effect. I saw something very similar recently on a Youtube clip of the Terry Wogan chat show from the 80s.

So I would say be careful of the pattern you choose, and don't do the whole room in it.

Cheers
StepOne

PS. Anyone know how easy/difficult it will be to remove this stuff?, or whether it can be tiled on top?

The chap at the store where we looked at PVC panels told us that care homes do indeed pick bland patterns, matt finish. Apparently, a gloss finish can spook residents suffering from dementia if they see their reflection when showering.

I do not much like any tiles, but need to have them in the shower and around the wash hand basin. I hate fully tiled bathrooms no matter how tastefully done. They are cold and soulless, or at least they look cold and soulless. When you can have a fair amount of the wall painted you can change the colour easily if you want and I think it just looks altogether cleaner, and it is much cheaper. Decent tiles are expensive.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:I do not much like any tiles, but need to have them in the shower and around the wash hand basin. I hate fully tiled bathrooms no matter how tastefully done. They are cold and soulless, or at least they look cold and soulless. When you can have a fair amount of the wall painted you can change the colour easily if you want and I think it just looks altogether cleaner, and it is much cheaper. Decent tiles are expensive.

Dod

Totally agree Dod. To add insult to injury this house also has the entire kitchen tiled, floor to ceiling. I guess this was historic as the previous residents clearly didn't fancy removing them when they put the new kitchen in, and so just painted over them a not-very-appealing battleship grey.

Cheers,
StepOne

Snorvey wrote:I got 'Wetwall' PVC panelling fitted just over a year ago in an enclosed shower after a talking to a joiner friend who has had theirs fitted for a few years.

I love the stuff. Easy to clean, it looks great and, as you say, easy to install (the bathroom fitters put ours up). I've been told that the most you would have to do is perhaps re-mastic the joints a good few years down the line.

I second "Wetwall". We had it fitted in the loft conversion bathroom, looks great and realy easy to clean.

john

PVC panelling is used in many hotel bathrooms and always looks ok to me.

in our quite old house , much of the (solid) wall plastering had deteriorated .

i have used traditional pine cladding , simply nailed straight on with panel pins .

we find it very good , easy to paint , very easy to hang or move pictures/mirrors etc.

and an extra layer of insulation - looks and feels warm .

i did the same in the bathroom - suits us fine.

no doubt many would be horrified - but it could suit some.