any tips for fitting shower wall panels

[sawdust1]

Customer has some shower wall panels coming Thursday.
Never used any before, looks easy to install but their is always mistakes to be made.
They are to expensive to get wrong.
The make they have on order is Atlantis .
Shall be doing the whole room with them 5 in total.
Any fitting tips please !

 

[LancsRick]

I've done these in a couple of scenarios, once was just a corner quadrant shower, a single board on each face. The other time was a row of 4 boards on one wall and a single on the other corner face.

My advice/tips would be..
- Dry fit them first, and any wedges or similar you need to position them precisely, get in place first. Due to the sheer area that you apply grab adhesive to, you cannot adjust the board
- They are heavy (typically 15-18mm MR MDF with double laminate face). I'd suggest it's a 2-man job. That's not because one person can't handle them, they can, but if you run into any problems when fitting, you'll be stuffed on your own
- If you're drilling or cutting them, treat like veneered material. The coating is more forgiving than veneer, but work on the principle of taping to avoid chips etc.
- Don't try and fit them flush to the ceiling. I tried that on the corner shower, and it's a nightmare because nothing is ever square. I'd suggest ending at least a tile-height lower, and using tiles or similar to add a trim to the top.

Off the top of my head that's probably it.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I quite agree: they are horribly heavy - seem to be glass reinforced concrete!

Ours, and the tiles, stop about 9" below the ceiling, for similar reasons to above. My tiler fitted them, about 5 years ago, but they intersect with plywood on two corners (3 sides of the cubicle are tiled, two of those are ply), and there's been no problem so far. They go down to the floor, alongside the shower base, which he said was the way to do it. I was nervous, but again there have been no leaks (actual tiles go over the tray, obviously).

We were totally anal about getting everything flat, well supported and well jointed, and the sealant at the base. It's worked so far, as I said.

 

[edcruwys]

I fitted some recently (made by Shore Laminates in Scotland) in an offset quadrant and had to create a joint also. I battoned out the wall first to create space for the pipework and to square everything out. There will probably be comprehensive printed instructions (as my supplier included) but you can also find them here https://www.wetwall.com/shower-panel-in ... ting-tips/. All the sealants and adhesives were also supplied with aluminium corner and jointing profiles. I actually didnt use the alu joiners, prefering to make an invisible routed joint.
My single most important tip is to make sure you have additional solvent based grab adhesive and plenty of silicone sealant on hand because once you start installing there is no time to stop. Rehearse everything first and don't drink coffee before you start.

 

[Neil S]

We fitted aquapanel, the mistake I made was that I thought the standard stud wall spacing would be fine. However after I started to fit them I realised they are horribly heavy and are more friable and crumbly than plaster board is. This means that the screws very easily sink right through them. It appears to be aerated cement sandwiched between a woven mesh. I was quite worried that they would not hold the weight of the tiles and adhesive on top. If I was to do it again I would fit a few more vertical studs to make the fixings more regular. As said dry fit before to make sure you get a flat surface. It is very easy to have a change of direction when two pannels come together. However if you have large tiles and they end up spanning that join there will be big gaps to fill with adhesive.

HTH

Neil

 

[Rorschach]

Wait, what are we talking about here, I am thinking the patterned plastic coated waterproof panels, everyone else seems to be talking about cement backer board for tiles?

 

[LancsRick]

I'm not, I'm talking about the laminate boards

 

[Neil S]

Ah, yes
I've just googled the OPs Atlantis wall panels and they appear to be a single sheet solution to the finished face of a shower. No concrete backing boards or tiling required.

*Cough* Carry on please. Ignore everything I said.

-Neil

 

[sawdust1]

Yes we are talking about Decor panels, Neil s was off topic with the Aqua panels which are a tile backing board.
Their are lots of makes of these laminated boards and the way to go these days. Quicker than tiles and no grout lines
but expensive. Maybe not that great when compared with tiles taking into account cost of tiles / adhesive / grout and
labour fitting. On this job was worked out roughly £200 more than tiles.
Will be fitting next week so will see how it goes, so thanks for all the advise, taken on board.