Ceramalite or laminex panels for shower walls?

[JB]

Can anyone relate good or bad experiences using either of these products? They seem pretty similar. One advantage of the laminex panels is availability of mouldings for joins. I need to install three walls, 1800H x 900W.

[Guy]

Rusty
It is cheaper to tile than use them, nearly twice the cost. You can buy decent tiles for about $14 m2 plus a tub of adhesive for $32 + grout, 5m2 would be sufficent for 3 walls around the average shower.
If the walls are in good codition iwould tile, as on top of those pannels you need there adhesive ( liquid nails works)
As limipanel is about $200 a sheet, you would save some money

[scooter]

We installed the Ceramilite, quite happy with the results.

Different materials, ceramilite is basically tempered hardboard (masonite) covered back & front with a hard proprietary coating; lamipanel is phenolic laminate (ie. thick laminex).

If you go the ceramilite, get twice as much adhesive as you need, then return what you don't use. Our shower was prevously tiles over a sound cement screed. The tiles came off OK, leaving the screed in good nick, but we used more adhesive than the directions stated, ended up doing the midnight run to Safeway halfway through a sheet for more liquid nails.


Good luck...........cheers............Sean

[JB]

Thanks for the replies.

I'd tile if I was confident of doing a good job, but I'm not. Having never tiled before I'm afraid I'll end up with a botched job that looks lousy or ends up costing me more to fix.

[KevM]

Can anyone relate good or bad experiences using either of these products? They seem pretty similar. One advantage of the laminex panels is availability of mouldings for joins. I need to install three walls, 1800H x 900W.

I installed Ceramilite in the en-suite around five years ago based on SWMBO desire to eliminate the grout joints which over the years discolour.

Would I use it again - no

Why - When scrubbing the silicon lines along the bottom of the shower with a tooth brush, (I did use the Ceramilite silicon sealer) I found that when scrubbing into the corners with a toothbrush, the head hit the opposite wall causing bruising of the masonite and the finished surface has lifted. The masonite colour contrasts markedly against the pale white/blue pastel colours of the ceramilite. Still trying to come up with a suitable fix.

A very sharp, fine toothed saw is also required to cut the ceramilite without chipping the finished surface.

[silentC]

Personally I'd always prefer tiles. However, some people hate cleaning tiled shower enclosures, hence a preference for this stuff, although as Kev has pointed out, that might not be all it's cracked up to be.

We have Lamipanel in our shower (put there by previous inhabitants). It's OK to clean but the joining strips and so on look a bit tacky.

Tiling isn't that hard, you just need to lay it out right. Having said that, I just paid someone to do ours because I hate it. It's about $30-35 a sq. metre to lay.

[Sturdee]

I have covered the walls of our shower with a product made by Hardy's which was a cement sheet with a baked on smooth white enamel type surface. I bought it when Bunnings took over Hardwarehouse and stored it for about 4 years untill I was ready to use it. It has been in our shower for about 6 years and no problems.

It was about the same cost as tiles but my wife preferred it as cleaning it is so much easier. At the time I let her make the choice of this or tiling and she is still happy not having to clean the grout between the tiles. It was easier to install as well.

Peter.

[soundman]

I did my mothers bathroom in lamipanel a number of years ago.
I have no beef with the panel its self, but the extrusions for joining & trimming it are crap.
I would look for an alternative trim option.
cheers

[Jack52]

I agree with soundman on this one.

Have lamipanel in bathroon for at least 10 years. Has worn well and is easy to clean but joins are rubbish.


Cheers
Jack

[JB]

Many thanks for the responses.

I've bought two inside corner trims which I agree look cheap and nasty, but do they work and last? If not I'll look for alternatives (does anyone know of any), but if they work okay then I think I could live with them.

[renomart]

The Halifax Vogel Group (and I'm not talking about English folk dancers here) have a brilliant product called Seratone. It is a high density, oil tempered fibreboard coated with a 120 & 160 micron polyurethane paint.

This stuff looks fantastic, is hard wearing and it is available in a good range of colours esp. metallics. It is ideal for wet areas. It is also good for splashbacks, the metallics look like glass.

The joiners are colour matched anodised aluminium and are good quality.

Check out the installation instructions so you can get a better handle on what this product is like.

[journeyman Mick]

The Halifax Vogel Group (and I'm not talking about English folk dancers here)...............

Hey,
we're not that silly, everyone knows that they make bread don't they?:confused:

Mick

[scooter]

Didn't Rebecca Gibney star in that ?

[pedro the swift]

Hello to all, new here. Looks like I will be looking in fairly often to get tips.
Re Ceramalite vs Lampanel.
I did a bathroom/shower recess many years ago in another state with Lamipanel. My first adventure in bathroom reno. It went very well and I was extremely pleased with the result. Found Lamipanel easy to work with and install.
I definetly prefer it to tiles, particularly in timber walled framed homes as they tend to move and tiles crack off the wall. Grout is hard to clean and also needs redoing every so often.
I have recently completed a reno to our ensuite shower etc in Lamipanel and it turned out very well.(my opinion). If I work out how to I may post some pics.
I looked at Ceramalite but decided against it because it seemed to be a lot thinner than Lamipanel and I didnt like the "tile" lookalike grooves.
I am planning to do the main bathroom again in Lamipanel because the tiles are coming away from the villaboard. Its only the grout holdong them in place.
I have seen a friends place where they had what looked like Ceramlite around the bath/shower and it had stared to delaminate badly due to moisture getting under the edge, I suspect. They replaced it with tiles!

[JB]

Welcome Pedro. A couple of questions...did you fix the Lamipanel to cement sheeting or similar, or ust onto ooden studs?

What about the joining and trimming details. Are you happy with them, or did you find some alternatives?