Hi everyone, we have a 1.7m x 1.0m shower recess in our new townhouse, and the dumb builder just installed one of those 1m x 850mm preformed Acrylic shower bases at the far end of the alcove, put tiles the 3 side walls, and then fitted one of those horrible glass pivotek doors on the front, so from the glass door to the back wall it is only 850mm, which is way too narrow for a shower, and this has left an 850mm section outside the shower door that gets wet when we open the door, and the tiles on the floor are slippery when they get wey, so we need to have a towel or mat on the floor to stand on while drying off.

I plan to rip the shower base off the floor back to concrete, and rip out the tiles and wall lining back to the stud framing, this will then create a 1.7m long x 1.000m wide open end walk in shower (see attached drawing)

I still don't know what i will use on the floor yet, but ideally i would like to scabble the 1.7m x 1m concrete floor from 0 at the opening end, down to 20mm at the far end wall, and then have a 1.7m x 1.0m Aluminium floor pan made to silicon to the concrete, and then fix 9mm thick Villaboard over the stud framing to sit on the lip around to top edge of the pan.

I would then set the required waterproofing membrane over the Villaboard, and then i want to silicon 1.5 or 2mm thick Brushed Aluminium sheets on the 3 side walls up to a height of 2.1m, and have it sitting over the side walls of the floor pan to prevent water from getting thru the bottom of the walls.

The Aluminium sheets will be just plain Milled sheets that come with a shiny finish (easily scratches) but i will be sanding the surface with 120grit glass paper using an orbital sander until it has an etched finish, i want it to have an industrial look without having to powdercoat it, or use any other treatment on the surface that will alter it's natural appearance.

If i do have an Aluminium floor pan made i would like to do the same etching/sanding on that as well, and maybe apply some type of non slip tape to the floor to prevent possible slipping.

Here is my Question.

I am just wondering if Aluminium would be fine being exposed to water like this, and is there a product that i can wipe over the etched surface before it is used to prevent it from tarnishing (Oxidize) and then re-applied every now and then to keep it looking original.

I have attached a couple of plans for you to get an idea of what i intend to do.




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