I know what a pain it is finding a bathroom remodeling contractor. As a matter of fact, I talked to a homeowner this week who said the wait time for a reputable contractor in her town was 2 years! Wow – 2 years, that’s crazy!

However, whether you’re doing a complete gut and bathroom redo or a makeover of your alcove with a bath to shower conversion, you’re investing a lot of money (likely in the range of $6,000 to $60,000). The stakes are high. If you hire an idiot, you could end up stranded with a job half-done trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces.

You need a smart bathroom contractor. Not necessarily one with the cheapest price, but one who knows their stuff and delivers value. You need a professional who knows how to run a project, work with you and is an expert in products and processes to get your job done efficiently and effectively.

So, in this tight labor market where do you find a needle-in-a-haystack contractor? During the quoting process how can you know if they’re someone you should work with, or can turn into the contractor from H-E-double-hockey sticks as your kids used to say?

Read 15 things smart bathroom remodelers never do so your money won’t go down the drain (OK – bad bathroom remodeling pun, but I’m sticking with it).

Your existing yellowed, stained, partially cracked (and not very clean-looking) fiberglass builders-grade shower is a disaster. It needs to be replaced.

Sure, in a perfect world (OK, it’s not the world you’re actually living in) you’d pay the highest-rated (which is usually the most expensive) bathroom remodeler in town to redo your shower (and entire bathroom if you have the money). They would transform your ugly-duckling space into a drool-worthy shower which would grace the pages of House Beautiful or Better Homes and Gardens.

Now, I’ll have to interrupt this vision for a ‘cold-splash’ of reality.

Your Budweiser-like ‘beer-budget’ (and seemingly never-ending expenses of your 2 kids and spouse) isn’t helping you one bit to fund your Dom-Perignon-champagne-esque bath and shower remodeling tastes.

You need a new shower but can’t afford to break the bank (OK – your kids have already done an excellent job of that anyway) making it happen.

The question is, how can you get a stylish shower on a tight budget?

To help you attack this challenge head-on, you’ll find 5 ½ (OK – the ½ idea is to add some intrigue) practical ideas to get a cool shower if your budget isn’t exactly ‘Bill-Gates-esque!’ Let’s check out the ideas.

You’ve probably heard of FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out), but I’ll bet you haven’t heard of FOFO. FOFO is the Fear of Figuring it Out …on the fly…. while blowing your hard-earned money in the process. I would tell you about FOFO’s cousin (FOFU – the Fear of F***ing Up), but I stopped swearing 15 years ago.

When it comes to remodeling (and shower remodeling mistakes in particular) FOFO and FOFU (for those of you who swear) are waaaay too common. You know the following facts are true from past projects:

• Fact #1) Mistakes can be costly.
• Fact #2) Remodeling mistakes can make the project drag on longer than a painting project done by ‘Eldon The Painter’ (he was the painter who never left on the old TV show, Murphy Brown).

Nobody (whether you’re DIY’ing the job or using a contractor) wants to shell out extra dough when better planning could have helped you get your job done for less.

In this article it’s my goal (as a guy whose team has worked with thousands of homeowners and contractors) to give you practical shower remodeling tips to reduce your mistakes. I want to save you time, money and aggravation.

So, let’s look at 11 shower remodeling mistakes you don’t need to make.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was 28 years old. My wife and I were cash-strapped first-time homeowners. I bought new carpet for a bathroom floor 3 times. Yes, you heard that right. I bought the same carpet 3 times because I made dumb mistakes and cut it wrong 2 previous times. My wife, Rose can tell you how mad I was.

Any of us who does home improvement (or bathroom remodeling projects) has a ‘blooper real’ of stupid mistakes (even if we don’t publicly ‘fess up’ to them). These screw- ups may be accompanied by some ‘choice words’ (which Mom might still wash our mouths out with soap – BTW does anyone do that anymore? – if she heard them). In addition, these remodeling mistakes suck up money, delay the project and are painful to deal with.

No one likes going back to the store (whether it’s the ‘big box’ down the road or making another on-line purchase etc.) and dishing out more money because we messed up.

It’s for this reason I wrote this post. I’ve seen (and had to console many homeowners and remodeling contractors alike) when they’ve made dumb mistakes buying or installing shower wall panels or the accessories which go with these panels.

My goal in this article is simple. I’m going to identify 9 dumb mistakes with shower and bathroom wall panels. Then I’ll offer up ideas to make sure you’re not a ‘victim’ of them, and help you save money and aggravation along the way. Let’s check out the 9 dumb mistakes.

You dream of owning the luxury shower you saw on Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines. You saw an article in House Beautiful with a shower to die for. It had marble floors, Brizo fixtures, Toto toilets and you thought to yourself, “With this shower it won’t look like I live in generic ‘builder-special’ (sarcasm intended) home anymore.”

These luxury showers and bathrooms you see on TV or in fancy magazines, while completely drool-worthy, aren’t your reality!  

Maybe your life resembles the following …

Example #1) You’ve started your family and now have a two-year-old. You stretched to buy the home in the walkable neighborhood. You want to kick up your version of This Old Bathroom (‘er that would be your master bathroom). Money is tight, but you still want it to look cool. But how?

Example #2) You’re getting close to becoming an empty nester (which sounds weird to say). You plan to be in this home another 5 years. However, the bathroom in your ‘Chevrolet-esque’ neighborhood doesn’t justify ‘Mercedes-Benz’ shower products.

In addition, you’re tired of moldy, brown grout joints, the dated builders-grade shower pan and flimsy framed shower doors. However, you’re not going to sink a lot of bucks into a fancy bathroom remodel. How can you improve this shower on a budget, but not have it look cheap at the end?

In this article, I’ll tackle the hard question…the how. We’ll look at how to remodel your shower on a budget (without buying junk) and not have to do the following:

• Have your 2-year-old run around without diapers because you spent all the money on the remodel.

• Put off adding money into the already-too-small college fund for your 14-year-old daughter because your budget was blown up on the shower remodel.

• Spend ALL your kid’s inheritance pretending to be your own version of Joanna Gaines or Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor (if you remember him).

While I’m (partially) joking about the three points above, it just makes good common ‘cents’ (OK – bad play on words, but I’m goin’ with it anyway) to be thoughtful (and careful) with how and where you spend money on your next shower remodel.

In this article I’ll share 7 practical tips to stretch your shower remodeling budget – without buying junky products (do flimsy framed shower doors and fiberglass shower surrounds ring a bell?) which are as disposable as your last pack of razor blades. Let’s check out the 7 tips.

You’ve told your spouse either this old nasty shower goes, or they’re sleeping in the garage. You’re burning up your keyboard searching the Internet for the perfect shower wall panel system for your master bathroom. You’re SOOOO done with tile grout joints!

Every manufacturer, supplier and installer claim their system is the greatest thing since the invention of the Blackberry (oops – maybe a bad example there). Yes, their pictures are pretty. However, there’s so much sales hype on their web pages it’s hard to know what to believe.

You need to cut through the B.S. You need the straight scoop. You don’t want to buy a system only to find out later you paid too much, or it was a pain in the rear to install. You want to get going but not make a choice you’ll regret. This is (hopefully) the last time you’re remodeling this bathroom.

If this describes your situation, you’re exactly who this article is for.

Below, I’ll dish out 7 brutally honest shower wall panel tips to help you figure out the best decision for your job. You may ask why I’m writing this?

Well – you see I’ve been around the shower wall panel block before (not that there is such an actual block – otherwise, it would look kind of funny). My business has bought, used and sold 6 shower wall panel systems over the years. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the (mostly) ugly of systems we’ve pulled off to install better wall surrounds.

To tell you the truth, there’s even some wall panel systems my company has sold and installed my wife of 34 years (Rose) would never have allowed me to put in our house (yes – you can see who would be the driver of the remodeling bus in our house!). Not that these systems were bad or non-functional. It’s that systems like acrylic (which we used to sell back in our early wall panel days) look cheap and plasticky. You see, Rose ain’t goin’ for that!

So, my goal in this article is to, as Randy Jackson used to say, ‘Keep it real dog.’ I’ll give you 7 brutally honest tips (from my POV) to help you choose the right shower wall panels for your project. I want to save you time, money and aggravation with time-sucking Internet research.

You’re tired of debating the subject with your husband Steve. You’ve argued whether it’s better to use a waterproof, grout-free shower wall panel system or opt for a completely customizable ceramic tile shower. You want the wall panels (after all Steve’s never picked up your way-too-used scrub brush) and he thinks the ceramic tile shower is far more stylish.

The question is, how can you end this debate? Do you and Steve really know all the points (and counterpoints), the positives and negatives of both choices? How can you wrap your arms around this debate and FINALLY get something done? You want to make a purchase and get on with your bathroom remodel.

In this article my goal is simple. It’s to give you the pros and cons of shower wall panels vs. ceramic tile. Sure, I’ll fess up and tell you I do have my favorite (and will reveal it at the end). However, there are things to like (and dislike) about each choice. Now, without further delay, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of shower wall panels vs. tile.

When it comes to a bowl of Graeters Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, in my book bigger is always better. My wife Rose (who is also a Doctor), has a slightly different opinion. She thinks my obsession with the big bowls of ice cream I eat at the end of the night is a bad idea. She brings up the fat content. She mentions my cholesterol. She mentions grams of sugar.

I say to my ‘delusional self,’ where’s is Rose coming up with all this crap anyway?

When it comes to shower wall panels (much like my desire for big bowls of chocolate chip), it’s assumed by professional contractors and DIY homeowners that bigger is always better. However, this simply is not the case.

In this article I’m going to dish out (no – you’re not getting my ice cream), 5 reasons you should pause before assuming bigger one-piece shower wall panels are best for your next bathroom remodel.

At the end of the article, let me know if you agree that smaller can be better (in shower wall panels, not in my ice cream consumption).

If your bathroom is stuck in a 1990’s ‘builders-grade’ time-warp we get it (and we see it daily looking at bathroom remodeling jobs also). A pitted bright brass 3’ x 3’ stand-up shower with flimsy doors. This shower feels like an old-fashioned phone booth. It stands next to a mega-sized drop-in Jacuzzi tub. This huge space-wasting dust collecting monster is never even used any more. The stained oak double-bowl vanity with raised paneled doors really looks dated.

Sure, this bathroom WAS hot…. back in the day. You’ve concluded its time to reinvent this behind-the-times space.

You’re not only looking for an updated bathroom design style which you’ll love using today, but one which will live well for many ‘tomorrows’ to come. What design style can that be?

I would argue that bathroom design style is contemporary.

In this article I’ll look at 7 reasons I (and my team) love contemporary bathroom design (and why we believe you will too).

Updated March 31, 2019

If your tile and fiberglass shower and tub wall surround panels today are a disaster, you’re not alone.  Moldy, dirty tile grout joints. Yellowed, stained and cracked fiberglass. You know you don’t want to stare at (or deal with the maintenance of) these products any more.

So, you’re burning a digital trail on Google attempting to find a high-quality, high-style option to blow up the ugliness which is your shower wall surrounds today. Your ‘digital tire-kicking’ has led you to 3 common options:

• Option #1 – Bath-in-a-Day acrylic wall panels – These 1/8” thick (or should I say thin) panels aren’t impressive. They’re pressed out of a mold (and look it). You can’t find a DIY kit to save your life (note- the reason for this is the ‘Bath-in-a-Day’ franchises want to come out to hard-close you in an old-fashioned Tin-Men-esque style).
• Option #2 – Decorative PVC composite wall panels – These ¼” thick panels have many bold patterns. They’re simple to install. You’re just not sure if you want so much pattern in your walls – or if the designs fit your interior design theme.
• Option #3 – Cultured marble or solid surface wall panels – These man-made 3/8” thick wall panels (which look like marble, granite and stone) are built like a tank. They’re durable. They’re rock-solid. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’re traditional – but you want a contemporary look. They’re heavy (a 60” wide panel will weigh about 130 pounds and takes 2 people to install). They’re an option, but their look and installation scare you.

You start to think, is there a contemporary, higher-quality, simple to install option which beats the ‘usual’ choices?

The short answer is – YES. That option would be…

Laminated shower & tub wall panels

If you haven’t grown up in Europe you may be saying, “What in the ‘H-E-Double Hockey sticks’ (you’re using this term because this is a ‘family-friendly’ blog post) are laminated wall panels and why should I give a hoot?”

In this article my goal is to help you get your arms around that question by giving you information about 11 frequently asked questions about this product. You’ll see why 1/3 of the homes in Norway use these bathroom panels. You’ll see why they’re getting HOT, HOT, HOT in the United States as well. Let’s dig in.