$$$$$$$$$ and absolutely flat walls required.

Thanks Sophie. I should have guessed it would be expensive but was hoping the ease of installation would offset some of the material costs. I'll probably stick with tile since I need to stay on budget and the shower is not one of the places I would choose to splurge. Since it will be a Southwestern style house tile, will be a better fit ascetically anyway but I was curious about this product.

What about pure white cultured marble ?

Cultured marble is softer, and when that gel coat gets scratched, it's toast. It isn't solid all the way through.

We are doing this right now with our bathroom reno. It is a tub with shower surround rather than a walk in shower, although as far as function goes, it wouldn't be much different. We were going to tile, but decided as we age in place, we didn't want to deal with maintaining grout lines in a tub and shower that gets used daily. I was told somewhere on this forum that if we hired a professional tile setter to do the tiling and grouting, then installing the quartz may not be so much more expensive. We would have done our own tiling, but hope the extra cost is worth it in the end. One thing we found, is that there are only certain brands of quartz that make the 1/2 inch (13mm) thickness. And some have only limited patterns. Caesarstone is what we chose and of all their patterns, only about 10 were made this thin. Cambria made some or all this thin. But surprisingly, the quote we got thru the Costco program for Cambria was higher and the discount didn't apply because it was 'special order'. So ordering the Caesarstone thru our granite supplier was a better price with a discount of $500 per slab because it is less material. I believe Silestone also makes the thin slabs

If you go this route, shop around because there was no uniform pricing for the thinner material. At least where I live. And some places didn't want to work with the thin stuff. Ours isn't in yet. We hope to have templating done in the next week or so.

qbryant - http://www.onyxcollection.com/ is another option.

I really like the idea behind it ... but that sample shower wall looks so sad and boring.

I guess it depends what pattern you pick if it's boring or not.

I agree, the very basic white stone they used in the display isn't exciting to me either but they do offer it in other quartz patterns which might spice it up a bit. But it will probably never match a nice tile pattern. It was the upkeep or lack of upkeep that was appealing to me though.

Great info here. I'm strongly considering a solid surround for a tub shower. I think the wisest choice for me is to stick with a curtain vs. glass enclosure, so it would be a bit of a waste to have a $$$ elaborate tile design.

I hope saving money on tiling and the glass enclosure will balance out with a solid surround.

I really need to go to a few local showrooms to see them in person.

You could probably even find a nice marble look alike in the quartz to make the shower look like slabs of marble. We are using Dreamy Marfil by Caesarstone and hoping it will compliment the granite we are using on the vanity.

We are using a variety of slab materials in our shower surrounds.

• 1/2 inch recycled glass material - locally made - called Environite. The nice thing about it is that you can not only choose your glass chip colors, but you can do cool patterns on it!
• Large format porcelain tiles / cintered materials like Stonepeak or Neolith or the like - and having it look like marble - but much better for a shower environment.

Hate grout. Like the more "solid" look of the larger tile or glass product.

We are trying Kohler Choreograph shower walls, but they are not installed yet. Just doing a plain white.

We used large format porcelain tiles and used quartz on the edge/curb surfaces, shower bench, and the niche. It was the contractor's idea and though it looks great and functions beautifully, he said it was a lot of exacting work. Tile would have been much easier and faster. Ties in well with the vanity counter.

The walls don't need to be flat; they can be shimmed to flat and plumb.

I don't know how the Kohler price compares, didn't consider the other options. We are not using any of the alcoves, I worried about that increasing the degree of difficulty for the install. I did not purchase from HD but they had pretty competitive prices.

Jannicone, I LOVE the marble look of the samples you showed above. Are those large-formate porcelain tiles? Who makes that and where did you find it?

I just got a quote of $12,000 but the price went up by sq/ft and is now much higher than it was originally quoted when I wanted to do my kitchen counters. I don't know what I am going to do now because I hate grout and I could use large format tiles but that doesn't fix my problem. I hate the material for the premade showers finishes. Back to the drawing board. I maybe budgeting have my shower done once again before I die.

When I had our tub surround done with the thinner quartz about 3 years ago, Caesarstone charged less for the thinner stuff and Cambria charged moremore for it. Compared to the thicker countertop slabs. So maybe look at what Caesarstone offers in the thin slabs. We usedused dreamy marfil which is quite neutral but a bit of a marble look.

Calandra:

You should check out some of the latest Corian colors. For a grout-free shower, Corian and other solid surfaces remain unmatched especially if repairability, sanitation, maintenance, and looks are high on your list.

Corian, Swanstone, Kohler Choreoraph, and Transolid are all covered in this thread. We have been talking about solid surface showers here for years. You can search the forum by using the search function at the top of the page. My 37 x 63 Transolid shower cost under $4000 and that included a sheet of the material to cover the ceiling with and the shower pan. [Here is the thread on solid surfaces that is most recent.[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/kohler-choreograph-dsvw-vd~3420698?n=216)

I think that the Corian, Choreograph and Swanstone showers I have seen pictures of look the best. Not as shiny as quartz, but nice. And a multitude of color and pattern choices with Swanstone or Corian. Someone posted recently, though, that they can't find Corian showers any longer. Don't know if that is true.

I‘be also started using the thick solid acrylic panels from Luxury Bath. It’s a better looking system than most. They have several stone looks, including travertine and marble. And it is far less expensive than stone. They also have a great looking subway pattern that never needs to worry about cleaning grout. It also contains Microban, which inhibits microbial growth. A Windex spritz and a quick wipe with a microfiber is all that it takes. Easy peasy.