What do you think Corian, cultured marble, or Swanstone are? They are plastic. with some fillers. But the main component is plastic. Unless you pick natural stone, that’s what all the walls will be. With the exception of the limited size cast iron hernia inducing pans from Kohler, so will all the bases be plastic plus as well.

The fact that some mouthbreathing 40 year veteran of always doing it wrong didn’t waterproof your installation correctly does not mean that all tile professionals are so inept. Hire a better qualified tile professional, and have zero fears you will end up with rot and mold again..

https://whytile.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Leaky_Showers_Brochure.pdf

"They are plastic. with some fillers. But the main component is plastic. Unless you pick natural stone, that’s what all the walls will be."

VAD:

You say that as if it's a bug rather than a feature. A properly installed groutless Corian shower will outperform any tile.

It is the OP that seems to have an issue with cheap vs expensive plastic. ”When I search I keep getting vendors who seem to really only sell acrylic, pvc, or other plastic solutions.”

Just pointing out that expensive or cheap, it is all plastic. If you object to one, you object to it all. You do not get to turn your nose up at a $500 white acrylic hotel bathroom insert if you are putting in a 20K Swanstone shower, or 40K quartz shower, that just happens to include a bit of filler with the acrylic.

The issue was with the quality of the specific products not neccesarily the full formulation. The samples they gave me of PVC felt very thin and the looked like the design was just printed on whereas I've felt even something like Corian before which is feels nicer and more substantial. My big concern with a very thin plastic shell type product is as my house continues to settle or something gets dropped its more likely to crack. Whereas from what I read something like swanstone or other "synthetic stones" could be more easily repaired.

The pricing also seemed rediculius for PVC when for similar money I could get tile with close to same labor costs.

In addition, due to hard water that has result in staining, my goals was to have at least a seamless type of base. I also saw some of these systems can integrate some type of non-slip properties into the design (is this usually just a coating or is it a physical texture?).

Beyond bad workmanship, there were other mistakes apparently made (maybe by the plumber). So the goal here is to try to find someone who installs these products so I can then do a full value/cost analysis vs redoing everything in tile again.

"Just pointing out that expensive or cheap, it is all plastic. If you object to one, you object to it all. You do not get to turn your nose up at a $500 white acrylic hotel bathroom insert if you are putting in a 20K Swanstone shower, or 40K quartz shower, that just happens to include a bit of filler with the acrylic."

VAD:

Sorry, but that comment is a logical fallacy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition

Cheap plastic is cheap, and looks it. Expensive solid surface materials do not look 30X better than what the cheap ones cost. What looks better and more 30x more upscale is a nicely tiled shower with a good design, done by a qualified tile professional.

BTW, grout is decorative, not a waterproofing component. If you had a bad batch of grout, the shower would still be fully waterproof, if it were built correctly. You can shower in a properly waterproofed shower without it even having any tile on it. The fact that yours wasn't built correctly doesn't mean that a future one could not be.

If going to the tile route is there any advantage to going with a "bathroom remodel contractor" vs just going to a tile shop and using their people?