Home improvement: Seamless showers

Q: The grout in our tile shower kept getting black and moldy, no matter how many times we treated it, so we called a tile setter to give us an estimate to replace the tile. He said there was extensive water damage behind the tile, and we needed to hire a general contractor to tear it all out, replace the wallboard, wood framing and any other damaged material they might discover before he could install new tile.

We've decided against another tile shower because I'm tired of cleaning grout. We want something seamless, but I think acrylic shower stalls look cheap, and we can't seem to find one that will fit in the existing area, anyway. Is there any other type of smooth and seamless shower stall that looks attractive?

– Sandra Anderson

Sacramento

A: Smooth shower walls can be made from many different materials, including cultured marble, natural stone like granite, quartz surfaces such as CaesarStone or SileStone, or solid surface materials including Corian, Avonite, Hi-Macs and Gibralter, according to Ramiro Martinez, president and founder of Signature Surfaces, a kitchen and bath dealer in Sacramento.

"However, because those materials all are usually installed in sheets, there will be seams in the corners and on the bottom along the shower pan. And those joints create areas where you get mold, mildew and possible leaks because water could go through them just like grout in tile," he says. "So about 15 years ago, I developed a way to make totally seamless, watertight shower stalls from Corian and other solid surface materials that are as attractive as they are easy to keep clean."

Signature begins the process by installing a Corian shower pan that's custom made to fit in the existing floor space. There is no need to add waterproofing to the area, as is the case under tile, because water cannot penetrate solid surface material. Also, Corian shower pans can be retrofitted into older homes where premade shower pans often won't fit, because they are custom made with the drain holes cut wherever necessary.

The next step is to put up separate sheets of Corian on each wall and bond them with a bead of silicone.

"On site we glue extra pieces of material into each corner, then use a router and sand them so there are two invisible joints in each radius," Martinez says.

Signature can further customize a shower by coving around windows, adding seamless shampoo ledges and benches and even inlaying decorative strips of tiles or other colors of Corian high in the shower. With more than 130 colors of Corian available, Signature can create seamless showers that resemble natural stone such as granite or marble, but are easier to maintain.

"Acrylic and cultured marble must be cleaned with foamy cleansers to avoid scratching, and because natural stone such as granite is porous, you have a problem with soap scum and it needs to be sealed," Martinez says.

"What's nice about Corian is that it is all custom made so you get exactly what you need. We actually heat the material to 400 degrees to make it pliable so we can create a slope into the drain and bend the material around curves. We often make showers for the handicapped that you can roll right into."

That's what led Bob Ross of Davis to Signature Surfaces.

"Our old tile shower had developed a leak that spread under the shower pan and out into the surrounding room, ruining the carpet and the walls," he said.

"After that experience, we didn't want to go with another tile shower. Grout tends to dry out and crack, and it also builds up a lot of mold and mildew so we were looking for a solid surface without seams or grout.

"At the same time, we were also looking at the same time for a shower that you could just walk or roll a wheelchair into. My 95-year-old father-in-law who lives with us was having difficulty stepping in and out of our shower, and he can't get in and out of the bathtub."

Ross went to four Corian distributors, starting with the remodeling company that had done a great job installing Corian countertops in their kitchen a few years earlier, but was disappointed to find their showers had joints at the corners.

"They looked almost like fiberglass or acrylic, and there were actual seams in the floor and walls that I thought negated the whole idea of a solid surface Corian shower," he says. "When I heard that Signature Surfaces made a completely seamless, low-threshold shower that served both of purposes, that seemed like the thing to do."

After seeing a display, he also decided to have decorative grooves etched around the sinks in the matching Corian vanities that were installed in both the master and hall bathrooms.

Martinez worked with Ross to design a long (7- by 3½-foot) shower with a wall-mounted shower head on one end and a bench, handrails and hand-held shower unit on the other. He came out to measure the area the general contractor had roughed out, came back with the shower pan he had prefabricated in his shop, cut each piece for the walls, windows, shelf and bench out on the Rosses' patio, and assembled it on site.

"It may sound kind of silly, but I really look forward to stepping into that shower every morning," says Ross.