Our customer, Mr Perkins, chose one of our panels when he decided to tidy up a problem bathroom.
The first photo above is a typical situation that many of our customers find themselves in: they use the bath to shower in but the walls have just not been designed for this operation. In this instance the walls have a combination of tiles and wallpaper. Tiles can are designed for shower use but even so they can still cause issues. Wallpaper is just not suitable for this application and should never be used in conjunction with a shower – even the waterproof wallpapers that give the impression of being the perfect solution will struggle to cope.
The damage caused by the shower is all too evident in the first photo.
Damage To The Walls
Using the wrong wall covering can cause long term damage to the area as plaster can blow, wallpaper can peel off and mould can start to grow. If the problem persists then wet rot can take hold which can spread and cause even more problems.
Indicators that you have an issue include mould growth in the grout and black spots coming through the silicone sealant. Both will need addressing as they will only get worse so it is best to act sooner rather than later. Even tiled walls, whice are designed to be used in showers, can cause problems if the grout fails or was incorrectly specified/applied in the first place.
Panelling To The Rescue!
One of the great benefits to our panels is that they can be installed over the existing walls with hardly any preparation necessary.
Our customer’s wall has been transformed by applying cladding to the walls around the bath – going straight over the existing surfaces. Where possible you should remove any surfaces that have mould contamination but if this is not possible going over the area with the panels will kill any mould eventually – mould requires permanent moisture to grow so once you prevent moisture getting to the area the mould will eventually die off.
Other Advantages
In the second photo you can see that the shower mixer valve has supply pipes running down on the surface of the wall – these could have been buried in the wall and the panels used to cover over the pipes to hide them completely. For an existing bathroom such as this the walls would have to be chased out with a grinder, but with a new installation you could batten out the walls past the pipe work and then panel over the lot. You can even fit the panels to a removable panel in case you want to gain access at any time. This is not usually possible with tiles as they tend not to adhere too well to wooden sheets and the grout will almost certainly crack due to the different levels of expansion between the wood and the ceramic.
