Author Topic: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.  (Read 3831 times)

jamesbond007

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Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« on: February 07, 2018, 10:58:23 AM »
We've thinking about remodeling or bathroom. Basically take out the shower tub and replace with a tiled walk-in style to make it look more modern. I am split on deciding whether to go with curtain or a sliding glass door. Curtains are easy to maintain and cheap to install. OTOH, a frameless glass door itself it costing around $400-$600 plus cleaning it would make it a tad more difficult to maintain. But it looks REALLY good and potentially increase my home value. Curtains have an ongoing monthly cost of replacing the plastic liner to keep it clean.


Also, the shower flooring itself, the contractor suggested a pre-made walk-in shower module made of plastic. I am thinking going all tile on the flooring too. Pre-made shower is cheaper and easy to install so less labor. Tiles are expensive and difficult to maintain due to grout. But tile flooring looks awesome.


What should I do? Extra $600 is not a concern for me. I am thinking more about "Is it worth the price difference?"
« Last Edit: February 07, 2018, 11:00:09 AM by jamesbond007 »

letired

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2018, 11:25:22 AM »
I don't know about the upkeep on sliding glass doors, but if I ever get to redo my shower, I'm definitely going for the fixed glass wall over a curtain and tile the entire thing. Honestly, I'm not sure what would be so difficult to maintain about a tile floor, especially if you go for narrow grout lines. Also, I hate plastic, so there's that. For me, it's absolutely worth the price difference in terms of enjoyment.

FWIW, I helped my friends redo their bathroom with the tile walls/floor and the fixed glass wall, and they keep a folding squeegee in the shower and use it on the walls after every shower. It cuts down on the cleaning and mildew issues significantly.

Lady SA

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2018, 11:28:41 AM »
Are you planning on selling the house?

I rent an apartment with a glass door shower, and I HATE it. HAAATTTEEE it. It looks cool, but my god is it a PITA to clean. Compounding this is we have hard water so I've just given up the fight against water spots. The door is one of those double-sliding ones, and moisture always gets trapped between the two doors where they overlap and gets kind of funky. I have vowed to never put glass doors in showers in our future house - never again!!

I vote for tile floor depending on the price difference.

My aunt and uncle have a gorgeous slate tile walk-in shower, that they tiled mostly themselves. It is basically a second room off the bathroom, separated by a wall. So there is no curtain or glass door, and it is AMAZING. The dark tile with sandy colored grout doesn't need much maintenance, either. That physical arrangement (adding a whole new wall) might not be workable in your space, of course.

former player

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2018, 11:28:50 AM »
Is there a bath elsewhere in the home?  You can limit resale if there isn't.  This does depend a bit on the market though - a small apartment in New York doesn't need a bath, a family house does.

My choices have been glass (a fixed panel, not the sliding doors) and tile.  Also electric underfloor heating, which feels great underfoot and really dries the shower area up quickly.

meghan88

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2018, 11:58:20 AM »
Are you planning on selling the house?

I rent an apartment with a glass door shower, and I HATE it. HAAATTTEEE it. It looks cool, but my god is it a PITA to clean. Compounding this is we have hard water so I've just given up the fight against water spots. The door is one of those double-sliding ones, and moisture always gets trapped between the two doors where they overlap and gets kind of funky. I have vowed to never put glass doors in showers in our future house - never again!!

I vote for tile floor depending on the price difference.

My aunt and uncle have a gorgeous slate tile walk-in shower, that they tiled mostly themselves. It is basically a second room off the bathroom, separated by a wall. So there is no curtain or glass door, and it is AMAZING. The dark tile with sandy colored grout doesn't need much maintenance, either. That physical arrangement (adding a whole new wall) might not be workable in your space, of course.

One more vote for an open shower (no glass door) if you have the space.  We have glass doors AND we have ridiculously hard water, which is a really bad combination.

Be sure to do a waterproof membrane under your tiles in the shower, such as Kerdi, RedGard or Blue Seal.  Check out the John Bridge Tile Forum for advice and inspiration.  You can start a thread, post your project details and pics, and get advice from the pros as you go.  It's fantastic.

And another vote for the electric underfloor heating.  I wanted it, we didn't do it, and I really regret it.

affordablehousing

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2018, 12:13:10 PM »
Home value under $400K, shower curtain fine, under $750K, go frameless glass, over $750K, build a tiled half wall and have no barrier. The floor should all be tiled regardless. No one should see plastic in a modern shower. If you want extra protection and less maintenance use epoxy grout. Use a small format tile for the shower floor and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't do one of those ridiculous mosaic glass accent strips. Those will be the reason people demo 2010's era bathrooms in 5 years.

FIence!

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2018, 12:23:00 PM »
and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't do one of those ridiculous mosaic glass accent strips. Those will be the reason people demo 2010's era bathrooms in 5 years.

+1,000

Unless hearing "Your house looks just like a Staybridge Suites!" is the goal.

GuitarStv

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2018, 12:27:14 PM »
I don't know about the upkeep on sliding glass doors, but if I ever get to redo my shower, I'm definitely going for the fixed glass wall over a curtain and tile the entire thing. Honestly, I'm not sure what would be so difficult to maintain about a tile floor, especially if you go for narrow grout lines. Also, I hate plastic, so there's that. For me, it's absolutely worth the price difference in terms of enjoyment.

FWIW, I helped my friends redo their bathroom with the tile walls/floor and the fixed glass wall, and they keep a folding squeegee in the shower and use it on the walls after every shower. It cuts down on the cleaning and mildew issues significantly.

I figure that a clear glass door would be a PITA, but wouldn't a frosted glass door have nearly all the benefits of the clear one but be significantly easier to keep looking clean?

Cadman

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2018, 12:49:56 PM »
Are you sure the contractor wasn't suggesting the plastic shower pan to put the tile over? It use to be you prepared your own sloped mortar bed over backer of choice, but they eventually leak and rot. Pre-made pans for your tile are the way to go.

Regarding glass, I grew up with sliding glass (frosted) doors and they looked awful, showed soap scum and were a pain to clean properly. Yet I installed clear glass sliding doors in our current bathroom and have no problem keeping them clean by simply using a squeegee after use. We're on well-water, but a softener has made all the difference (in cleaning, rust removal and increasing life of fixtures and plumbing).

Shelley

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2018, 12:50:17 PM »
Interior designer here... if you plan to resell in the next say 5 years I would see the frameless glass screen as an investment, otherwise I would do the curtain and you can always put the glass in before you sell if the space has been configured correctly. This way you can sell with a nice new screen, without the daily hassles of watermarks etc.

With regard to the shower base, go with tile. We have a premade shower base in one bathroom, and we shower over an acrylic bath in the other. Both take every little bit of dirt really quickly, and have got scratched from anything that’s walked in on feet. I agree about steering away from the mosaics or any type of designer strip insert, a plain classic quality tile will age best for resale.

Most important is to get lighting right! It’s an expensive thing to redo so get it right first time so that there are no shadows on your face at the mirror.

TGod

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2018, 02:45:08 PM »
We have recently done 2 bathrooms both with big custom showers, one a double shower in our master and the other a single shower. We have built them so one end has pony wall across half the front so that we could put glass on if we want and we could also then add a frameless door. In the end we didn't put any glass in either of them. Both are wide open and water is not an issue. I REALLY hate cleaning glass and in our other house that we reno'd we had lots of glass in the shower and it always looked scummy. If we were selling and we needed to put glass in we could easily do that but for us no glass or curtain and they look great.

Capt j-rod

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2018, 04:18:24 PM »
I had a beautiful tile shower in my old house... I hated cleaning that damn thing. This house is all fiberglass one piece showers. Wipe it down and walk away. Not gonna be in any magazines, but I'm not scrubbing grout lines either.

letired

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2018, 05:49:01 PM »
I don't know about the upkeep on sliding glass doors, but if I ever get to redo my shower, I'm definitely going for the fixed glass wall over a curtain and tile the entire thing. Honestly, I'm not sure what would be so difficult to maintain about a tile floor, especially if you go for narrow grout lines. Also, I hate plastic, so there's that. For me, it's absolutely worth the price difference in terms of enjoyment.

FWIW, I helped my friends redo their bathroom with the tile walls/floor and the fixed glass wall, and they keep a folding squeegee in the shower and use it on the walls after every shower. It cuts down on the cleaning and mildew issues significantly.

I figure that a clear glass door would be a PITA, but wouldn't a frosted glass door have nearly all the benefits of the clear one but be significantly easier to keep looking clean?

The squeegee is to help with moisture management more than keep it looking nice. Taking 30 seconds to wipe down the shower knocks the humidity down enough that (combined with the exhaust fan on a timer) they get very little mildew and they only need to actually scrub the shower every few months. The looking nice is just a bonus :)

Pigeon

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2018, 07:52:53 PM »
I would chew off my left leg before I put in a glass door of any type. I've had them in a few houses and never again will i try to keep one of those things clean.

lbmustache

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2018, 08:08:15 PM »
I would chew off my left leg before I put in a glass door of any type. I've had them in a few houses and never again will i try to keep one of those things clean.

Agree. Get a nice shower curtain or just do an open shower... although I've never understood how water stays contained with those!!

Astatine

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2018, 08:17:10 PM »
I've had shower curtains in a bunch of rental properties that I lived in over the years. Ugh. They are the worst. Maybe they're done better in the US than in cheap crappy rentals where I used to live, but they always ended up sticking to me while I showered, as in, wrapping around my legs. Feels revolting particularly in winter. (the only way to not have that happen was to have the shower curtain outside of the tub or the shower recess, but then it defeated the purpose of having a shower curtain, ie keeping the water from getting all over the bathroom.) If I see a shower curtain in a bathroom, I always think ugh, cheap and nasty and yuk. (clearly I have Feelings about shower curtains ;))

I have  ye olde frosted glass shower doors (about 40+ years old) which have been fine, but I don't have hard water.

lbmustache

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2018, 08:19:40 PM »
I've had shower curtains in a bunch of rental properties that I lived in over the years. Ugh. They are the worst. Maybe they're done better in the US than in cheap crappy rentals where I used to live, but they always ended up sticking to me while I showered, as in, wrapping around my legs. Feels revolting particularly in winter. (the only way to not have that happen was to have the shower curtain outside of the tub or the shower recess, but then it defeated the purpose of having a shower curtain, ie keeping the water from getting all over the bathroom.) If I see a shower curtain in a bathroom, I always think ugh, cheap and nasty and yuk. (clearly I have Feelings about shower curtains ;))

I have  ye olde frosted glass shower doors (about 40+ years old) which have been fine, but I don't have hard water.

They usually have magnets or weights at the bottom to keep them from moving away from the edge of the tub! :)

Astatine

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2018, 08:28:07 PM »
I've had shower curtains in a bunch of rental properties that I lived in over the years. Ugh. They are the worst. Maybe they're done better in the US than in cheap crappy rentals where I used to live, but they always ended up sticking to me while I showered, as in, wrapping around my legs. Feels revolting particularly in winter. (the only way to not have that happen was to have the shower curtain outside of the tub or the shower recess, but then it defeated the purpose of having a shower curtain, ie keeping the water from getting all over the bathroom.) If I see a shower curtain in a bathroom, I always think ugh, cheap and nasty and yuk. (clearly I have Feelings about shower curtains ;))

I have  ye olde frosted glass shower doors (about 40+ years old) which have been fine, but I don't have hard water.

They usually have magnets or weights at the bottom to keep them from moving away from the edge of the tub! :)

Really? I've never seen that here (admittedly, when I was renting in places with shower curtains and the shower curtains needed to be replaced because of mold, I only ever bought cheap ones to replace them because I didn't have much money at the time). That seems sensible.

I don't think I'm ever going to get over my association of shower curtain/cheap crappy rental property though. I'm renovating mid-year (kitchen and bathroom) and will definitely be getting glass screens again.

jamesbond007

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2018, 10:25:36 PM »
Great suggestions. Here is what I am thinking after I read through this thread. Will get the tile flooring done. Will by 12in X 24 inch tiles to minimize the grout. For the wall, I saw Quartz set of 3 walls for $399. I like it because there is ZERO grout needed. Have the contractor build a 6-inch step instead of a smaller 3 inch so I can have a shower curtain hanging in the shower. I am not planning to sell my house anytime soon. So, when the time comes to sell, I will spend the $600 to get a nice glass door for the appeal. I believe this will keep my pockets and DW happy.

Imma

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #19 on: February 08, 2018, 02:15:08 AM »
I've never had issues with shower curtains. They don't wrap around my legs, they don't get mildew, I don't need a plastic liner, I just put it in the washing machine every now and then.

I hate glass doors. I had one falling on top of me once (it was old and badly installed) but even when they don't fall over, they're still a lot of work to clean. We recently re-tiled our bathroom and we choose tiles that were easy to clean. You can also tile them without grout if that's what you're concerned about. Tiles are pretty cheap, ours cost about €10/square meter. We needed 4,5 m2 for the entire floor. We chose a good quality, neutral looking tile. If you only need to tile a small area, you can find people online selling their leftover tiles for next to nothing. You can buy very fancy tiles for 10 times as much as we paid, but the more fashionable your tiles are now, the more old-fashioned they will be a in a few years.

Shelley

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Re: Remodeling bathroom. Need your opinion on material.
« Reply #20 on: February 08, 2018, 02:05:21 PM »
The US and Europe certainly do shower curtains better than here in Australia. Majority are just thin plastic that does stick to your legs. I’ve attached tablecloth weights to the edge in the past to stop the issue, and in our old disgusting bathroom I actually glued part of it to the floor! I think you have made a great choice OP.