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Please recommend shower wall panels


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Dear all, I am ordering bathroom "stuff" for our build  and we want wall panels for our shower rather than tiles, can people please recommend good kit. I have read on here about the rubbish bottom panel seal and the way around it ( thanks JSH and Nick). Thanks,

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I've used one brand exclusively, on three bathrooms now, the oldest being around 8 years old.  I would not use anything other than AB Multipanel.  It has a birch ply core, so is far stiffer and easier to cut and fit, plus it has a very good hydrolock joint system, that really does work long term.

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I fitted Mermaid acrylic / Perspex ( unsure exactly what tbh ) panels and wasn't exactly "blown away". :/

The same company supplied again, but with the ply core, as JSH mentions, and they were far more robust and retained their shape well. The acrylic / flexible panels were very hard to get bonded to the wall uniformly, as in not being able to see every pressure point where you've pressed the panel into the bond / adhesive, so I really would avoid those ( non-ply ) ones. 

Mermaid as a brand are ok, but I believe you'll be paying a premium for the name though. Maybe compare with J's supplier and see what the difference is ;)

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/07/2017 at 18:57, joe90 said:

 I have read on here about the rubbish bottom panel seal and the way around it ( thanks JSH and Nick). Thanks,

Do you know where on buildhub you found this?

Does the Multipanel have the same issue regarding the bottom seal?

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15 minutes ago, jfb said:

Do you know where on buildhub you found this?

Does the Multipanel have the same issue regarding the bottom seal?

 

 

Multipanel is the one that has the rubbish bottom seal.  However, it's easy to get around this by not using the gutter-like sealing kit they supply, and just using a decent sealant at the base.  The problem with their kit is that it has a shallow channel that the panel sits in, and no matter how well you try and seal it, water ends up sitting at the bottom edge of the panel and swells up the ply.

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Another vote for Multipanel.  I got mine from Jewsons (a LOT cheaper than the rip off prices certain bathroom stores were quoting, and more local to me).They have loads of samples of all the different colours so you can see what they really look like.

 

And as above, do NOT use their bottom edge trim.  I just finished the panel a few mm above the tiles. Sealed the gap with stixall, then a bead of silicone to make it look nice.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Okay.  I doubtwe'll use the panels for the whole room so I guess the dry side of the room will be plastered. 

 

image.png.6c60852e62002025b8f7fb75114a3edc.png 

this is pretty much the plan of ours except the shower will be on the left hand wall and the door will be facing the loo.  Thanks @Crofter I have pinched your plan.?

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I fixed ours direct to the timber frame. The logic behind that was only half the room is done with multipanel.  The dry end of the room is plasterboard, that too is fixed direct to the timber frame. So there is a level transition between the multipanel and the plasterboard.

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Not mentioned yet - but think about where you are starting and finishing to make sure your shower gubbins is in the right place.

 

 What I mean is that Multipanels work superbly for a long time, but what if eg there is a waterleak in a pipe behind the panel?

 

They work well because they are sealed in so thoroughly. If you have the Aqualok joints they also undo tidily iirc from one end only.

 

How will you maintain the shower gubbins?

 

As a landlord role I obsess about maintenance, because it is damned expensive to have empty properties.

 

What I have done in my last 2 bathrooms (Little Brown Bungalow - Panels) and the one I have just written about (Home - tiles), is to put a 100-150mm stud section where the gubbins goes (rather than a shelf at the other end) and also make sure it is behind the last panel in the run. Piccie below of the thing in the Accessible Bathroom which is also about the need for shower cut-offs which the self-builder who did the house deemed unnecessary.

 

It is not ideal, but it will at least be easier.

 

An alternative is accessibility from behind. What do others do?

 

Just another thing to think about ?. It may be that there never is a leak, but you increase (says Murphy) the probability if you do not cater for the possibility ?.

 

Ferdinand

 

IMG_0829-s.jpg

Edited by Ferdinand
Stopping onoff being a smutty 13 year old.
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Re the siting of isolation valves.

 

I wanted each appliance to have it's own isolator in an easy accessible place. But I wanted to achieve this without making the pipe runs, especially the hot pipe run any longer than they have to be.

 

What I settled on was a central distribution point, which has ended up in the space above the ceiling in the utility room.  This puts all the isolators together, and it will be finished with a mini loft hatch to lift out to get to them.  As this is just the utility room I don't mind having this little loft hatch there. 

 

 

HW_manifod.thumb.jpg.18955970cee6da0860104edae05bf86e.jpg

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On 12/07/2017 at 19:03, JSHarris said:

I've used one brand exclusively, on three bathrooms now, the oldest being around 8 years old.  I would not use anything other than AB Multipanel.  It has a birch ply core, so is far stiffer and easier to cut and fit, plus it has a very good hydrolock joint system, that really does work long term.

Sounds like what we have. I've since seen some awful PVC type panels in other houses. They even look cheap from a distance. The ply was easy to work with and I had enough off cuts to do sink splashbacks in two other bathrooms - justifies the higher price.

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