[jte1130]

The house we bought has a finished studio apartment basement. I plan on finding a tenant and wanted to make some minor improvements. One of which is in the bathroom.
The bathroom is roughly 7'x4' with a shower stall. I only plan on changing the vanity/medicine cabinet/vanity light as they are a bit oudated. One other change I want to make is on the walls. Currently there is paneling over sheetrock. I want to remove the paneling and sheetrock and replace with new greenboard.
I was considering tiling the walls but in my web surfing have come across pics of bathrooms without tile. I have never tiled but was willing to take this samll area on as a DIY project. Now I am considering going without the tile and just finishing the walls with a gloss paint that can be wiped down. Is there any pro or con that would sway me back in favor of tiling?

 

[HWConstruction]

How are the other bathrooms in the house done? Are they tiled? I always tell my customers to follow the theme that is already in the house. If the others are tiled, tile the one in the basement. If they aren't tiled, don't tile the one in the basement. Just use regular drywall and not greenboard. If you don't tile, just use a good primer and good semi gloss paint. It will give you years of trouble free service. And DON'T buy cheap crap either. It will end up biting you in the butt.

 

[7echo]

If you are going to replace the drywall look into Dens Armor Plus. I just re did a similar small bathroom and after lots of searching and discussion I decided that was the product for my application. If I was going to use the space as a rental I would for sure consider something a little tougher and moisture resistant than green board.

As for the tile-I would consider what HW said about sticking with the current look of the rest of the house. One thing to consider, if you are looking for something a little tougher than drywall but less expensive than tile, is PVC wainscoting. Does not rot and can be painted. Might be good in a rental area.

 

[jte1130]

The bathroom in the main part of the house is finished in wood. It almost resembles a sauna type of look. I'm not too concerned about the two matching in style since there is a deliniation between the basement apartment and the house.
I'm definitely liking this pvc wainscoting. Is that something thats available in Lowes or HD?

 

[J187]

Densarmour plus is great stuff. Thankfully, they've changed the color of this stuff a bit in the last year, it used to be EXACTLY the same white as compound which brought a necessity of extra trouble lights for me! VERY heavy and considerably more effort required to cut, so plan a accordingly - extra blades.

Yes, HD sells that wainscotting. It is a little pricey though, for a rental - consider if the investment will produce a return.

How is the shower done? Shower walls? Tiles? If its tiled, you would definitely want to consider whether the tile in the shower might clash or compliment - basically, it would be part of the consideration of the whole theme.

 

[Scuba_Dave]

If you are renting this space you need to look at it in a different way
What will be easier for the tenant to keep clean?
As long as the grout is sealed properly it will stay fairly clean
But grout lines eventually get dirty & most tenants will not scrub them
Easiest to keep clean is a fiberglass surround

 

[7echo]

http://www.plastproinc.com/pdfs/Plank_f&B_final.pdf


I think I got mine at Homers.

There are other brands as well.

 

[jte1130]

Thanks for all the recommendations. The Plast Pro planking looks really nice and seems fairly easy to install.