We have a 36 x 36 shower in our master bath that has a fiberglass base and tile walls. The tile is leaking and we would like to replace the walls. We had a "bath fitter" type company come give us an estimate for their acrylic wall insert - $4000. Our home improvement guy (that we really trust) can put in cultured marble for us for around $2000. What are the advantages of an acrylic insert vs. cultured marble. Seems like acrylic will last longer but is it worth that much more? The house is 12 years old (not very well built) and we plan to stay here at least another 5 years or so. Thanks for any input anyone has!

Cultured marble is usually ground stone dispersed in an acrylic resin. The "acrylic" that you were quoted is probably solid acrylic. The problem with both of them is that they can be scratched fairly easily.

I'd go with ceramic or porcelin tile. Once you remove you old tile you will know if the original wall board is OK to reuse. I would like to see you remove it if it is anything less than Hardiboard or wonderboard, or cement board. Folks used to use greenboard or blueboard, no longer acceptable for wet areas. By the way, both guys are taking you to the cleaners. My labor for installing Hardibacker, tiles and grouting would be under $1k plus materials.

Thanks for the info. If we use the cultured marble for the walls only is the scratching easily going to be a problem? As long as we don't use harsh cleaners on the walls? We do not want to use tile again ballengerb1. My question is what do you think of cultured marble vs. acrylic.

If you're careful, you can minimize the scratch problem. Eventually, however, it will get scratched.

Both products are softer than ceramic but installation techniques and costs are similar, that's why I recommend ceramic. Can you explain why you'd rather not have tile. Many folks do have ciltured marble in their bathrooms and are Ok with the results but it is softer and harder to keep clean over the long run.

I'd rather not have tile just because of the upkeep - grout getting dirty/moldy, needed cleaned and sealed every year, etc. Also, everyone's opinion of our shower seems to be that the tile might pop out again like it did before - whether that's because the base of the shower is not set in concrete or just poor construction of the house or who knows what.

Not sure who is giving this advice but they are off. Today you can buy a 2 part epoxy grout that never stains. Is the cultured marble you are consiering a complete unit or tiles?

The marble would be a complete unit. Wouldn't the grout still need sealed periodically? What if the tiles shifted? Could this cause them to loosen as they have already done in the shower? We now cannot use the shower because of loose tiles. We had a leak down into the study below.

No, the stainless grout is really great. Like any surface you need to wipe down the tile and grout but maybe once a month. The tiles shifted because they were not installed correctly or the job is very, very old. When we lay ceramic tile its mortared onto Hardibacker board woth modified thinset mortar. I have no nidea how old your shower is and who did the work. I have done showers this way for 25 years and never had one call back.

The house is only 12 years old but it was built by Ryland and it is definitely not quality work. So you are saying that if the tiles are put in correctly that they will not shift? Even if the base shifts or was not installed properly?