This is a solid surface wall panel next to the toilet that will continue into the shower.

Joe, I'd love to find the guy that's doing quality solid surface work at $45 sq. ft.

Haven't seen those prices since maybe last century.

Eek! So a solid surface shower would run me well over $4,000 for a 3'x4' shower? I think I will save this idea for my forever home. Thank you!

4K-5K would be about average for any shower, solid surface or tile with appropriate waterproofing.

Thanks, lwo, I forgot that solid surface in a shower has not only all the aforementioned advantages, but remains cost competitive with tile too.

xedos: Of course $45.00 psf is low, but in certain areas with certain materials it's realistic.

Joseph,

I have a custom shower pan in Corian with a rectangular cutout in one corner and fully coved sides and am getting a custom vanity with a coved lip around three sides and the sink made out of matching Corian, and here, it's more like $180 a square foot, but this is more complex than flat work, I guess.

But I have a question. I am really kind of obsessed with coved corners (all of my bathrooms will or do have coved tile corners vertically and horizontally).

Would you be able to fabricate a shower that ended up being one piece, with fused seams that was coved in all the corners or would it somehow need a joint for stress reduction, and how would you attach it to the house?

In my experience, caulk is needed in square corners for joints because of movement of different plains, of course, but I have almost never seen a coved corner crack in the cove, even though it's attached to two planes.

So could you make a shower that was essentially a seamless capsule, and how much would you charge Joseph? I would multiply that by 3-4X and then I would know what it would cost here. :)

palimpsest:

I did a completely coved Corian shower many years ago. It was a lot of work and I charged accordingly. I wrote an article about it in Solid Surface magazine which is now out of print. The trick is to hang the coved panels French cleat style which will accommodate more movement than siliconing directly to a substrate. This was 20 years ago and I haven't gotten a callback, so it apparently works.

To be successful, and it's counterintuitive, the fabricator has to bring the walls to the panels, not panel to the walls. You build a nice square and flat shower in the shop and bring the out-of-square and out-of-plumb walls to it with shims on site.

Of course, these shower projects are too few and far between and too risky for most fabricators when they're making money kicking tops out the door. They've got to send their best guy and when he's not supervising the kids, big trouble can happen quickly and trouble costs money. And reputation.

Let your fabricator know you're interested in an all cove shower and that you're prepared to pay for it. You never know.

I am actually doing coved tile in my shower. I just want to know what the possibilities are. (The current under construction bathroom is all coved corners-- vertical and horizontal-- and almost all full tiles. (Just slivers off of some) The bathroom dimensions were based on the tile dimension which was easier because it's 2" tile.)

We are planning one on a 4.25 increment which is going to be much more complicated.

But I like the idea of a completely monolithic construction as well.

How would how would you find a Corian fabricator? The only place around here that sells Corian/comparable are big box stores. I love the idea since I hate tile and grout!

Casandra383:

See if you can post your location and job on www.thefabricatornetwork.com.

Casandra383: you could also contact a kitchen and bath design firm through NKBA.org (National Kitchen & Bath Association). In my area, the Corian fabricators usually don't sell directly to the client and although they do the installs for both independent design firms and the box stores, I'd rather go through an ind. design firm or even an locally owned "lumber yard" or plumbing supply store if they have a kitchen and bath department with "designers" (this is where NKBA can be helpful in finding qualified people; ie in the Upstate/Albany, NY area: Curtis Lumber, Security Supply, FW Webb). Or, any good contractor who specializes in kitchens or baths should have an account with a fabricator. Good luck!

If you can't find Corian you could consider using quartz for solid surface shower walls. Most of the major quartz companies such as Caesarstone and Cambria will make a thin slab that is about 1.3 cm. It needs to be special ordered and not all colors are usually available. We used Caesarstone Dreamy Marfil for our tub/shower surround and carried it behind the toilet at wainscot height. The fabricator was able to cut it for 2 shower niches as well and put in a couple of our contrasting granite pieces in the niches for the back and bottom piece. They did a beautiful job. The Caesarstone was less $$ for the thin slabs whereas Cambria charged more . Both were special order, but no big deal and ours didn't take extra long to arrive or anything.

silken1 makes a good case, but I would charge more to install 1/2" quartz than 1/4" Corian mostly because of the difference in the delicacy of the materials before they're installed. If the Corian were steel, the estone would be a chocolate chip cookie metaphorically speaking. Okay, maybe a brownie. Even a chewy one.

A customer is going to pay me for bearing the risk of breaking a panel or they're going to pay to replace the panel when I break it.

You must send the "A" team on this job. $9.00-an-hour Jimmy doesn't even get to look at this stuff, let alone unload a cut piece from the truck. Since you bring the walls to the panels, not the panels to the walls, someone needs to know how to shim to plumb and square too.

Our granite fabricators (excellent reputation and been in the business for 30 years) did ours. We paid the same type of rates as a granite or quartz backsplash or countertop install. They came and templated after our tub was in and the wall and niches were painted with RedGuard. It took 2 or 3 guys to lift the long side of the tub wall piece in. They shimmed it ever so slightly off of the tub. They also borrowed all of our shower and faucet parts so they could make sure they were cutting all of those holes correctly and of course had to template exactly where they were to go. It all went without a hitch (maybe we were lucky). The fit is beautiful and they did a base in the niches using a small piece of our granite (actually it is Fusion quartzite) that has a slightly extended lip with an ogee finish. The back of the niche is granite as well. It wasn't cheap but hopefully it is here to stay till we are too old to live here. Hiring someone to do all of the tiling would have cost a fair bit as well, and they told us it isn't that fragile as there is some flex to it when it is that thin. When all is said and done, it is close to the same thickness as a layer of some porcelain tiles with a coat of mud behind them.

It's an option if someone can't find other solid surface materials or can't find the look they want. I live on the prairies in Canada and we were happy to have this option.

silken1, do you have a picture or two that you could post?

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I am researching Corian showers for a (hopefully) upcoming bath remodel and I too was hoping for an all-coved, no-seams solution. However, I thought that was the whole point of Corian showers, not that it was an unusual and expensive special construction method. How are Corian showers normally constructed, if not with coved corners? Are the joints glued or caulked? Does that provide opportunities for leaks and/or mold/mildew?

"How are Corian showers normally constructed, if not with coved corners?"

That's a budget, more than a technical question. I've built coved Corian showers; they are labor intensive, but seamless and grout and mildew free. I used silicone joints in my shower at home.

"Are the joints glued or caulked?"

Either. I like coved walls with a flexible color matched caulk joint between the wall panel bottom and the top of the coved pan.

"Does that provide opportunities for leaks and/or mold/mildew?"

You can use drywall behind solid surface walls; no water is getting through. There are no leaks or mold or mildew. Mildew can't live on solid surface. That's why architects specify it for operating rooms in hospitals.

Don't let your framer fuss with the walls too much. I bring the walls to the panels with shims and hang the panels on French cleats to allow movement.

Thank you Joseph! I was actually referring to mold/mildew around the seams - I know my tile shower definitely gets mildewy around the caulk (and looks especially bad around clear silicone, since you can see the black but can't scrub it away). Do you encounter that problem? If so, how frequently do you find you have to recaulk?

I would also appreciate any advice you could offer regarding finding a skilled fabricator in my area. I have started researching GCs for the project but from what I'm hearing, many of them really push tile and as much as I love the look of it, I am just DONE scrubbing grout.

bio:

Contact the International Surface Fabricators Association for a referral, please.

I've never experienced mildew or mold on silicone on solid surface.

Cool idea and look. However, the shiplap grooves have got to present a bit more of a cleaning issue...if you have water that leaves any kind of marks when it dries, or soap scum. True, might not mildew like tile, but certainly you'd be needing to clean those grooves.

I've had Corian shower walls for many years and it's awesome! It's the easiest material to keep clean and it looks like new even after years of heavy !