What comes to mind when you think about shower wall materials? Immediately, most people would think tile, acrylic, or fiberglass shower surrounds.

You know, the regular bathroom wall stuff.

Well, what if I told you there was an easy-to-install option that's cheaper than tile but looks exactly like it?

(crowd gasps)

Yes, my friend, I’m talking about laminate wall panels for your shower! Mike Foti, president of Innovate Building Solutions, talked with me and shared his expansive laminate wall panel knowledge for you to create a beautiful, safe bathroom.

Mike and I both share the same passion that bathrooms should be accessible and chic. Laminate wall panels are a great solution to help you achieve that!

Please watch the video below or keep reading the blog post to learn more about why laminate wall panels are a great option for your bathroom!

What are laminate wall panels?

Laminate wall panels are a high pressure laminate on the front surface over a marine grade plywood with a vapor backing, which makes them waterproof. The panel is a 3/8 of an inch thick and each panel weighs 26 pounds. They click and lock together, kind of like laminate flooring.

Innovate Building Solutions inventory 29 different patterns for people to choose from.

Who can install laminate wall panels?

Anyone can install laminate wall panels whether it be contractors or weekend warriors. What's really neat about them is you can use laminate wall panels in any size bathroom. You’re not limited to where you can use them.

How long have laminate wall panels been around?

Fibo, Innovate Building Solution’s manufacturing partner, has been making the product for 41 years in Europe. In 2017, they decided to launch the product in the United States.

What makes laminate wall panels unique?

If you look at most wall panels on the market most of them are molded. There's some kind of material that goes into a mold and presses it down and it creates a pattern, whether it's a tile or stone pattern.

When you look at those products, you can look and say, Oh, that's a plastic part that's made to look like the real thing. You don't look at it and say, Oh, wow, that's that's tile or that stone.

We do installation work and we were wrapping up a job and another crew that was working on their job came across and were talking to our guys and they said, “Hey, dude, that's a cool looking tile job”.

And it wasn't tile.

It is actually how it's manufactured. So let's say you had a white tile with a gray joint. What happens when it's built? There are gray layers of laminate that are going to go over the marine gray plywood, and then there are white layers with laminate over it. So what you get is a situation where there is depth to that and that depth makes it look realistic, that sort of three dimensional quality.

Probably the biggest difference in these panels is they look like the real thing.

And then the other is sort of size and form. You know, if you look at, let's say a cultured marble panel system, a six inch panel for a back wall of a standard tub area might weigh 120 pounds. That's obviously very heavy. And it's hard to get into the bathroom or even if you look at a piece of acrylic or fiberglass, when you bring that in, that thing is flapping all around. It's not easy to work with because it just a little cumbersome.

Laminate wall panels that are two foot by actually two foot by eight foot, and it's a rigid board. It’s easier to install because you can click and lock them together; it's something that one person could do. You don't have to have too two people.

The finish quality is better, it's thicker. The 3/8 of an inch thick. A lot of fiberglass or acrylic might be eighth inch or thinner than that. It's a better finished look.

What if something goes wrong with the laminate wall panels?

It has a lifetime guarantee. As a matter of fact, our company has been out selling this line of laminate wall panels since 2018 and we have not had one knock on laminate warranty claim. We've been in business since 1977, and the last thing we want to do is represent a technology, a product that is not going to hold up. It's not a place we want to be.

We've never represented what I'd call cheap products. If you want cheap, you're probably going to have to go to the home center. Yes, the laminate wall panels are a little bit more pricey than the acrylic, but when you're talking about the long term use of it, you've got a lifetime warranty on a product. How many acrylic kids shower kids have lifetime warranties?

laminate wall panels are easy to clean

When you look at a lot of the systems that are in people's homes, which are mostly fiberglass one piece surrounds that the builder put in when the home was built, a lot of times you'll see that they're cracking or they're yellowing. People have tried all sorts of things to get them clean and it just drives them nuts!

So you really want a product that’s going to not only hold up well, but that you can clean easily and gives you the style. If you're going to be redoing things, most of us want to upgrade. They want it to be nicer than the old bathroom. It should be nice looking remodeling. No one wants to settle for anything that looks institutional.

Laminate wall panels can be used in an accessible remodeling because you're not going to have the cleaning challenges you might have with a fiberglass product where you just can't get the doggone thing clean.

With a tiled bathroom, the last thing people want to do is get on their knees and scrub the grout joint. What people don't realize is grout joints are not made to be waterproof. The waterproofing of the tile job is behind the tile. If you get moisture behind there’s not a good waterproof backer system behind it, you can get kind of mold and mildew that sort of built in that wall.

There's an entire industry built around cleaning grout. So it's nice to not have the expense of that or have to take that on yourself, which is obviously nobody's favorite job. That's why laminate wall panels are so great for accessibility and aging in place, because no matter if you're injured or if you're ill, you have a shower that is easier to clean.

What shower pans go with laminate wall panels?

So the first thing people would need to know is you can use anything you want. Whenever you're designing a shower, the first place to start is with the pan. I call it the foundation of the shower because if you make the wrong pan selection, you can't put a new pan in without removing the walls.

Low profile shower pans are very popular. Low profile means that the curb height would you step in might be anywhere from an inch up to about three inches in height.

So low profile I think is perfectly acceptable and works for most people but not everybody. There are some people that maybe they need the assistance of a ramp. They need a ramped or a beveled edge shower pan.

You can use any type of pan, whether it was fiberglass, acrylic, cultured, stone solid surface. I like the ones that are more solid surface. We have a pan that comes in a very modern looking white matte, black matte, gray, white marble, black marble, driftwood options. It's only 1 and 1/6” tall and a solid pour that results in two tons of weight capacity. That’s perfect to accommodate a family member who’s larger bodied or they need to get in there with some type of equipment, like a shower chair.

Can you install grab bars in laminate wall panels?

Yes! Laminate wall panels can go up over either OSB, which stands for Oriented Strand Board, which is a version of plywood that’s a half inch thick behind the wall or over strips of OSB. What I would recommend is to have good blocking or wood behind that so that when you're putting the grab bar in there it doesn’t come off the wall.

You can certainly install the grab bars anywhere in the laminate wall panel system.

Good and bad times to use laminate wall panels

When somebody says, “hey, this product can be used everywhere for everything”, they're usually not telling you the truth. If you are doing a steam shower, laminate wall panels are not recommended in the steam shower.

Or if somebody said to me, “Hey Mike, I'm looking for the absolute cheapest thing I can get. We're just going to fix this home up.. We're trying to sell it in a short period of time,” I might recommend things like fiberglass or acrylic.

Install laminate wall panels when you want something nice and grout free and are able to budget for a mid-priced, upper middle priced bathroom remodel.

What do most people not know about laminate wall panels?

Yeah, well, I would say that in this country, most people wouldn't know much about it prior to 2018. One of things they may miss is that laminate wall panels are 100% waterproof, not only with laminate up front, but there's a hybrid polymer sealant between the panels. The marine grade plywood is the same stuff used on boats.

The one thing I would tell people to not miss is really the education about the products you may choose. That education will help them to make better decisions, which will save them time and money down the road.

The other thing is to physically see the product. There are lots of products you can look at a picture on the internet. Then you buy something and feel so excited about it, and when it arrives on your doorstep, you're like, “Oh, boy, that's not what I thought it was.” And you're disappointed.

What I would always recommend to people is don't miss out on getting a sample of the product. If you can visit a showroom that actually has it. That's the ultimate see touch, feel it. If you get a sample. I know our company, we're sending samples out all the time now. Why? Well, because the sample will help you feel it and how thick it is and how it interlocks together. And because, you know, you want to make sure that it feels good to you because you're the only one that ultimately matters.

Use a bathroom visualizer that'll show you what the bathroom is going to look like. If you're investing in your bathroom, you want to make sure that it’s safe, works for you, and looks good, too.

What's the most important thing in making smart bathroom decisions?

The most important thing in making smart bathroom decisions is to educate yourself and think about the long run. We can't always have a crystal ball to know how things will evolve. However, we can be thoughtful and design spaces that are not only safe and simple, but are stylish.

And so I would tell people, don't just design your bathroom for today, but think about how tomorrow might be different. Is it possible that maybe Mom and Dad might come live with you and would the bathroom work for them if they did? Can you design it in a way that will be a truly universal design, yet sacrifice style or simplicity of cleaning it?

Read blogs, listen to videos, and do things to educate yourself. Don't be afraid to reach out to people to get input and insight. Why make decisions in a vacuum? Reach out, be smart, be thorough and thoughtful, and you'll make less mistakes.

If you call Innovate Building Solutions at 877-668-5888, there are people that would be glad to help you. And our people specialize in this area. We're not selling 40,000 stock keeping units like you might find a home center. We're focused in on this area. Our people really understand and will ask better questions and get you better solutions.

Did we answer your questions about laminate wall panels?

If you’d like to learn more about laminate wall panels for your shower, go here and here. Sign up for the Innovate Building Solutions Newsletter here (plus you get a free e-book!).

Questions? Contact me here or ask them in the comments below!

Do you have laminate wall panels in your shower? Please share your experience in the comments below! Would you recommend it to your friends and family?

(Pssssttttt . . . did you know we have an awesome online course for people who have a hard time wiping after using the toilet? It’s an awkward topic that you can learn how to solve in the comfort and privacy of your own home! Learn more about the course HERE!)