Wall panels have come a long way from the flimsy sheets of the 1990s, and plenty of Surrey homeowners now choose them over tiles. Both can look superb and both can go badly wrong if fitted poorly. Here is an honest comparison from a team that installs both, week in and week out.
For a typical family bathroom, decent quality PVC or laminate panels supplied and fitted tend to come in somewhere around 20 to 40 percent cheaper than an equivalent tiled finish. The saving comes mostly from labour: panelling a shower enclosure might take a fitter a day, whereas tiling the same area properly, including tanking, adhesive cure time and grouting, can take two to three days.
That said, premium panels such as thick laminate boards with real stone effects can cost as much per square metre as mid-range porcelain tiles. Budget ceramic tiles at 15 to 25 pounds per square metre are cheap to buy but expensive to fit, so always compare the installed price, not the shelf price.
Tiles themselves are waterproof, but grout is not, and grout is where most tiled bathrooms fail. In a hard water area like Egham and the wider Runnymede borough, limescale clings to grout lines and turns them dull and grey within a couple of years unless you stay on top of cleaning. Failed grout or silicone is also the most common cause of the leaks we get called out to investigate.
Panels have no grout at all. Large format boards, typically 1 metre or 1.2 metres wide, are sealed at a handful of joints with trims and silicone, giving water far fewer routes behind the wall. Cleaning is a wipe down with a soft cloth, which is a genuine daily difference in a hard water postcode.
Where tiles still lead is depth and permanence. Porcelain has a hardness and texture that even good laminate panels cannot fully match up close, and the choice of formats is far wider, from small metro tiles to 1.2 metre porcelain slabs. A well tiled bathroom fitted over proper tanking can easily last 25 years or more, whereas most panel manufacturers offer guarantees in the 10 to 25 year range depending on quality.
Buyer perception matters too. In period properties around Egham, Englefield Green and Virginia Water, estate agents will tell you a tiled bathroom generally presents as the higher end finish. Panels can dent or scratch, and while a single damaged tile can be swapped, replacing one panel mid-wall is awkward if the range has been discontinued, so it is worth keeping a spare board.
Either finish is only as good as the wall behind it. Panels are more forgiving of slightly uneven walls, which is one reason they suit older houses where the plaster has seen better days. Tiles, especially large formats, need a flat, rigid, properly primed substrate, and inside a shower they should go over a tanked or cement board background, never bare plasterboard.
A sensible middle route we often suggest is mixing the two: tiles in the shower enclosure where the finish is on show, panels or paint elsewhere. It keeps the cost down without compromising the wet zone. Whatever you choose, ask your fitter what waterproofing goes behind the finish, because that answer tells you more about the job than the material on top ever will.
Yes, in most cases panels can be bonded straight over sound, firmly fixed tiles, which avoids messy removal and makes them a popular quick refurbishment option. The old tiles must be solid and dry, and door frames or shower screens sometimes need adjusting for the extra depth.
Budget PVC panels can look plasticky, but modern laminate and acrylic boards with printed stone or marble effects are convincing, especially in larger formats with minimal joints. Seeing a full size sample board in person before ordering is the best way to judge.
Panelling an average bathroom usually takes one to two days, while tiling the same room properly typically takes three to five, allowing for preparation, tanking and grouting. Timescales depend on wall condition, tile size and how much of the room is being covered.