Tiles Above A Bath Replaced With Bathroom Wall Panels
These two shots really emphasise the flexibility of our bathroom wall panels.
The existing bathroom tiles were shot. The grout had started to fail and some of the tiles had started to fall off the wall. The reason for this is usually down to slight movement in the bath. The bath is made from acrylic and flexes slightly when in use. This puts pressure on the tiles which is transferred to the grout. Grout does not tolerate any movement and will crack under this pressure.
Once there are small cracks in the grout, water gets behind the tile and starts causing havoc. Mould starts to appear in the grout and the adhesive stars to lose its grip as the plasterboard becomes saturated.
If this was to be re-tiled then all of the adhesive and the plaster would have to be removed and re-skimmed to ensure a smooth surface for tiling.
Instead, the customer opted to panel over the affected wall resulting in a clean, neat, waterproof finish that looks amazing without the need for plastering.
It continues to amaze us how popular tiles remain despite all of their shortcomings. The scene shown in the first photo is so common – we speak to customers on a daily basis who have problems with tiles failing – but people seem reluctant to try something different and continue to use a products that regularly fail (even more bizarre when the alternative is better and in most cases cheaper).