Bathroom shower walls without the grout lines

The first thing most people ask about a shower is how to get rid of the grout lines. It is a fair question. Grout is the part that stains, holds mildew and needs scrubbing, and there is a lot of it on a tiled wall.

Nothing is truly seamless, but you can go from hundreds of grout lines down to a handful of caulked joints, and that is most of the win. Here are five ways to get there for a bathroom shower, and what each one asks of you.

1. Waterproof laminate

Waterproof laminate, such as Wetwall, is decorative laminate bonded to a waterproof composite core. The panels lock together tongue and groove and use no grout at all, and with simple prep they can be installed straight over existing tile.

This is usually the quickest and least expensive route. The surface reads as laminate rather than as stone, so it suits someone who wants the grout gone more than they want a stone look.

2. Cultured marble

Cultured marble, such as Wolf, is cast from polymer resins and natural minerals into one non-porous piece. There is nothing to seal and nothing to regrout.

Panels can be made to almost any length, depth or shape, including angled and notched walls. Some patterns even print faux grout lines, if you want the look of tile without the upkeep of it.

3. Composite panels

Composite panels, such as Kohler's Choreograph, come in set sizes from 32 by 72 inches up to 60 by 96 inches. They are a stone and fiber composite roughly 3/8 of an inch thick.

The corner joints are designed to conceal the caulk, so the finished wall reads as one continuous surface instead of a set of pieces.

4. Large format porcelain

Large format porcelain means slabs sold at plywood size and larger, which can cover a whole shower wall in a single piece. Porcelain is non-porous and never needs sealing, so you are left with two or three discrete seams in place of a grid.

It is heavy, and it wants an installer who has handled slabs before, which is worth asking about up front.

5. Thin quartz cladding

Thin quartz cladding is the 1 cm slabs: the same quartz used on countertops, cut light enough to hang on a wall. It is non-porous and grout free, and it never needs sealing or polishing. Warm water and a soft cloth is the whole maintenance routine.

It is the most expensive of the five, and it is the one that looks it.

How to choose between them

Which of these is right depends on your budget, on what is behind your walls, and on how you want the finished shower to feel. A few questions help sort them out:

• Is there tile on the wall now? Waterproof laminate can go over existing tile with simple prep, which is part of why it is the quickest route.
• Is the wall an odd shape? Cultured marble can be made for angled and notched walls.
• Do you want one continuous look? Composite panels hide the caulk in the corners, and a large porcelain slab leaves only two or three seams.
• Is budget the first question? Laminate is usually the least expensive and thin quartz the most.
• Who is installing? Porcelain slabs are heavy, so ask whether the installer has handled slabs before.

See them before you decide

A shower is one of the hardest things in a bathroom to judge on a screen, because the depth and the way it sits decide whether it works and neither shows in a photograph. That is true of the base under the wall too, so bring your measurements in and we will pull the spec sheet.

Ask which of these we have samples of, and bring your bathroom's measurements so we can talk through what each option costs for your wall. Our showers page has the shower bases, the wall and floor tile and the grout-free panel systems in one place.

You do not have to hire us to buy from us

Buy the products and install them yourself, send your own contractor in to buy from us, or let us handle the whole bathroom from the first sketch to the last outlet cover. If you are planning the whole room, our guide to planning a bathroom remodel lays out the order of the work.

Related: Showers and shower tileBathroom remodelingHow to plan a bathroom remodel