"Dick" LeadWinger wrote in message
...
On 11 Jan 2006 11:00:38 -0800, wrote:

We need to redo our tub surround. I followed the mold on the caulk up
under the tiles which turned out to be all soggy mastic and crumbling
plaster underneath. Fortunately, there's concrete board under the
plaster so at least we won't have to redo that. Don't ask me why they
decided to plaster over the concrete board and under the tiles.

Our replacement choices are basically either more tile in a proper
thinset cement this time or a Fiberglas® tub surround. We've had bad
past experiences with tile in thinset--the cement crumbled and it was a
bear to remove the whole mess. We've also not had terrific experiences
with fiberglas--I think it looks cheap to start with and looks
permanently grubby within a couple of years and it leaked eventually,
too.

So what would your first choice for a shower surround be? What's the
most waterproof choice out there?

We have been very happy with our fake marble enclosures. We have also
been very unhappy with tiles that eventually leak and get moldy.
The enclosure in our shower and tub look like some kind of synthetic
marble. They are in 3 pieces. One for each wall. I can't imagine
that it will ever leak. Not as elegant as tile, but sure doesn't have
the problems of tile either. And it still looks beautiful after 15
years.

We used acrylic panels and are very happy with the appearance after 8 years.
At the time, we were told that fiberglass would not hold up as well, which
is
why we decided to use acrylic even though it was more expensive.