Look into Corian slabs.

Getting your water treated is a MUST. Ugly hard water deposits are cleanable off of a solid surface. But you aren't cleaning them out of your pipes. They will slowly close over and reduce volume and pressure.

In many ways, Cor-Ten Steel is a good solution.

Consider a shower curtain the surrounds you 361 degrees while you are showering.

Corian or another solid surface. No grout. Keep it polished and it will laugh at the hard water.

This video also talks about options for the shower floor. Ways to avoid or minimize grout. The floor is even more susceptible to staining.

We also have hard water. When we first moved into our home we were busy with other things and didn't get the water softener up and running right away. It wasn't hard to do but we were also thinking it can't be that bad right? It didn't take long before we had an orange stripe on our shower wall. We got that baby working pronto. A water softener is a must.

And after cleaning grout in previous showers, I was done with tiles. Luckily our builder used cultured marble so that's what we have now. I love it. It's been 6 years and I'd pick it again.

Do not use real marble or any natural stone. Acid cleaners will damage them -and someone will try using an acid cleaner to get the hard water deposits off.

Fix your water. Get an iron remover and a softener, if that's the issue.

Otherwise it's a problem for your appliances, your toilets, your laundry, everything.

we have had 2 water softeners & our water is still awful

If you have had 2 softeners and your water is still poor quality, then your treatment company is poor quality.

Per Jake The Wonderdog's comment above, it sounds like your water has more a problem with iron than with hardness. Certainly you may have both but orange staining is related to high levels of iron in your water. The iron may either be in your water supply or it may be leaching from any iron pipe you may have in your home's plumbing. Sometime folks use galvanized iron pipe nipples in parts of the plumbing, often the tub faucet for example. So you may want to do a little more research before selecting water filters, softeners, appliances because your selection may be different for hard water vs. for iron in your water. By definition, hardness is primarily calcium and magnesium and they leave crusty deposits after the water has evaporated. Metals like iron and manganese leave black or orange stains, probably anywhere you have a drip or where water runs down the surface of your fixtures...sinks, tubs, toilet. Iron and manganese sometimes makes water taste earthy but people sometimes prefer the flavor of water that has just a little hardness. Too much hardness and you may feel like you are drinking water from a puddle on a limestone ledge!

If you just had hardness, one option is just to dry your sink/tub/faucets after use. Most of the lime will go with the water you soak into the towel. Iron may bond to the appliance so drying may not work so well for it.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I’ll look into the suggestions.

Agree that you need a better company to fix the water issues. I thought my rust stains were from high iron in the water. Switched companies and was told that my iron was not very high, was told to use a specific type of salt in the system (NOT the iron removing salt I was using) and my water is dramatically improved. My hair too.

@Shadywillowfarm can you tell me the specific salt you’re using?

Diamond Crystal brand Bright &Soft Salt Pellets. We get the water tested every year and it also goes through a neutralizer.

Start with a water test. Seriously - it will cost you less than $100 and could save you a lot of headaches. Sounds like you have iron, but how much is the question? If you have less than 10 ppm or so, you could probably use an oversized softener with high capacity media and the salt in the green bags. If it's more than 10ppm it will be a lot more difficult to treat. You also need to know how much hardness you have, as well as manganese. The pH and various other factors will be important too. So step 1 is get a water test.

@diggity_dude is absolutely right - start with a water test by a lab, not a treatment company. Be sure you get your sample before any water treatment such as neutralizer or softener.

You can treat low levels of iron with a softener using resin made for iron and oversized.

But you need an iron filter if it's higher - as he stated.

I'd be much more concerned about getting the water fixed than fixing the tile in the shower. Fixing the water goes to the source of the problem and, again, solves it throughout the house.

If you are going to send your water sample off to a lab yourself, make sure you know what to ask for. My state university extension service has recommendations on the website. Some tests you can do at home.