Hi there.   I've not been on here for quite a while, but I'm now planning another bathroom refurbishment.

I'm going to be making a custom shower enclosure.   Not decided between a  wetroom type floor or a custom tray.  What I really am struggling to find is a decent wall panel solution.

There seem to be lots of laminated mdf and ply based panel products around, but these all rely on very good edge sealing for their longevity.  Being a belt and braces kind of guy, I don't want to rely on a bead of silicone sealant for the integrity of the walls over several years.

Is there anything else out there?

I'm thinking along the lines of some kind of scratch resistant plastic or resin based sheet material that's not as heavy as glass.  Would need to be offered in a decent range of colours.  Maybe even different surface textures ( e.g. high gloss, flat, stone texture).

Any ideas or even first hand experience?

Thanks Scruff.

Never thought of glass fibre sheet, but I guess that would work.  I'll be tiling the rest of the room anyway, but I'm really leaning towards some kind of wall panel approach to the shower area.  It's not waterproofing I'm worried about particularly (tanked and tiled shower in our other bathroom about 11 years ago and no water ingress problems there).

It's more from a cleaning / care point if view: the grout (BAL powder mix) in our current shower seems to take a bit of keeping clean after a few years of use.   The idea of continuous wall panels with no grout appeals in that respect.  Accepting there'll be sealing at panel joints, but this will be largely cosmetic and I wouldn't be worrying about relying on it to prevent the panels themselves from failing.

Just need to find something that looks nice and doesn't weigh a tonne!

Any ideas?

I know it works if done properly.

To keep our grout clean in the shower I spray regularly with diluted bleach using a small Hozelock pump up plant sprayer. If done regularly it hardly it ever needs physical scrubbing. Our shower is used about 6 times a day.