Naugeux Beige Cladding

We have just uploaded some new images of Naugeux Beige in the Mineral range by Grosfillex.

This is one of our favourite designs as it provides a matt finish, flush fitting panel which gives a very contemporary "natural stone" look.

This cladding looks fabulous in a contemporary bathroom with white bath, basin & wc - as can be seen in the following image:




We are also in the process of preparing to add the Tinto range of panels to the site which contains a very similar panel to Naugeux Beige, details to follow.

Bathroom Cladding Trims

One customer has asked if there are any trims available to seal the cladding to the bath where they meet, as I think she had had problems with previous silicone seals.

Well, there are no trims that we would whole-heartedly recommend.

Most are bulky, many are ineffective and nearly all of them require sticking with silicone sealant - so you might as well use silicone in the first place!

Silicone will give the best results but you have to ensure you use a top-grade make. We recommend Dow Corning Silicone which is available from most trade suppliers (it is the choice of professional installers). It has a higher fungicidal content and superior bonding characteristics to the standard silicones sold by DIY shops.

It is also vital that the bath is secured very solidly as any movement can cause the seals to break and let moisture through (moisture getting behind a silicone seal is the most usual cause of mould growth on the silicone).

Packs of Cladding or Singles

We get asked occasionally why we sell some of our bathroom cladding in packs and some in individual lengths.

The answer is: to keep the cost down to our customers.

All of the Decos range must be bought in pack quantities as this is the way these panels get despatched by the UK importer. The Grosfillex importer can despatch most of their range as individual panels and so these can be bought in singles (the exception being Ambiance which is only available in pack quantities). If you just need a few panels - for exaple if you want to make a bath panel - then it is a great advantage to be able to buy the exact quantity you need, rather than having to buy a complete pack and throw most of the cladding away.

We try to make this as clear as possible on our product pages as it can seem a little confusing, but it is done with tour customers best intention at heart!

Claddng In Steamrooms

I have been asked again today whether our cladding can be used in a steam room.

As it is designed for use in the bathroom it will cope with the moist humid conditions with no problem. However there is a proble with the heat. The ambient temperature inside a steam room might well be less than 50 degrees centigradebut there will be hot-spots, especially around the steam outlets (see our technical details for more info) . Temperatures higher than this can lead to problems with the panels warping or buckling under the excess heat.

So even though the panels would probably cope quite well in a steam room , the cladding manufacturers will not guarantee their products for use in such circumstances, which is a shame as it would otherwise be an ideal choice for this type of environment - there are even plenty of woodgrain finishes that would be perfect for the "sauna" look.

Tile Edge Trim

As promied, I have had a quick trawl of the net to see if I could find any suitable tile edge trims that could be used with our bathroom cladding.

I haven't been able to find that many sites selling this type of product but I have found one that sells online - Lifetile

They have some 7mm and 9.5mm trims which could be used although only the smaller trims are available in a range of colours.



Even though these trims are 1mm smaller than a lot of our Grosfillex cladding they could be used by cutting off the tab and using the trim as a straightforward quadrant.

I will have another look around if I can locate marble tile edge trims - I've definately seen them somewhere!

Ceiling Cladding

Bathroom cladding is an ideal wall covering but it is also perfectly suitable to use on ceilings - and not just in the bathroom.

Having recently built an extension in our house we were initially going to have the ceiling plastered but changed our minds and opted to install ceiling cladding instead. We chose Ambiance White Wood for the extension ceiling, as it had a matt white finish which I think is the best style to use on ceilings.

Other panels that we considered were:

• Evol 3000 Satin White
• Evol 3000 White Wood
• Decos Labo White

The Labo White panel is not currently on our site but will be added soon. We could also have opted for one of the coloured wood grains available, but that would have tied us down to a definite colour for the walls - using white means that we can change the colour of the walls (which were platered) whenever we choose.

We decided to install the Ambiance panels using the "brickwork" pattern as shown in many of the photographs. This was partly due to:

1. the fact that I had never tried this installation method before
2. I wanted to see what was involved so that I could advise any customers wanting to emply this method
3. it looked nice!

I will be adding some photos of the finished result to the gallery soon.

I would not recommend this style of installation if you are using the bathroom cladding in a shower area or over a bath but for other walls or ceilings it is fine. If you are thinking of using this method yourself please speak to the sales office as it requires extra panels not listed on the site.

Finishing Profiles

I was asked a question yesterday about the finishing trims that we provide, and it has got me thinking.

The customer wanted to fit our bathroom claddinig inside a shower but did not want the panels showing above the cubicle and so was planning on cutting them to the same height as the shower unit. The only trim we have at present that will do this is a capping strip.

Capping strip is ideal for use with light or white panels, but being white in colour itself, it tends to stand out against darker coloured cladding. PVC quadrant could be used but, again, this is usually only available in white. I am sure that I have seen tile-edge trims available on the market with a marble effect so I am going to look into the possibility of using this type of product with our cladding. The main downside of this type of profile is that the cuts across the tops of the panels would have to perfectly straight, and the trim would have to be bedded in silicone.

I will report back once I have details on what is available and suitable.

Customers' Gallery

We are in the process of adding a customers gallery to the site.

We are hoping to include before and after photographs of customers' bathrooms, where they have been supplied, which will give new customers a better idea of the type of transformation that you can achieve with ease using our bathroom cladding.

We will put an initial page on our site which can be view at bathroom cladding gallery and will add to it as and when further images arrive.

As we have stated on the page, the problems associated with ceramic tiles and grouting is very evident. The first image shows tiles actually falling off the wall because the grout has failed and has let water in, behind the tiles, causing the adhesive to fail. Usually, wall panelling can be installed over existing tiles but here, the tiles are too loose, and so have to be removed prior to the installation of the panels.

Ligno Bathroom Cladding Added

We have just added the Ligno range of bathroom cladding from Decos to the site.

These panels are amazing value for money - especially since we have an introductory offer on them, which makes them the cheapest panels we have ever sold. At just £2.59 each these panels work out at less than £10 per square metre, which makes them an extremely attractive proposition.

Even though they are now the cheapest panels in our range the quality is as good as the rest of the cladding from Decos. From a design point of view they offer a textured wood grain effect with an overall matt finish in four colours.

Blue - a light blue offering a "colour-washed" look. We offer another blue wood effect in the Evol 3000 range but this is much subtler, almost white in colour, and is not textured.

Beige - a driftwood appearance ideal for a "New England" design.

Ochre - also a beige colour with abit more "orange" in the colouring.

Vanilla - a very subtle beige, almost white in colour. We have provided a scan of this colour but it is difficult to see a great deal of detail. We would advise ordering a sample of this cladding to see it in greater detail.

No Showroom?

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is "Do you have a showroom?"

The simple answer is "No, we don't".

But we used to.

We used to own a bathroom showroom that specialized in waterproof wall panelling, but sold it three years ago. Always up for a challenge, we decided to have a go at selling the same products on the internet, using the site as our showroom. Selling a product that a lot of people have never seen before is quite a tricky business but by providing a mass of information and backing it up with samples and our FREE photo gallery CD we manage to get our message accross - that bathroom cladding is the best system you can use for decorating your bathrooms walls.

We started selling cladding over ten years ago to thousands of customers and in all that time we have only ever had one complaint, and that was due to one dye, in one design, from one manufacturer (that we no longer deal with) losing its colour over time.

No other product, that we have ever sold, comes close to bathroom cladding in terms of customer satisfaction.

Bathroom Cladding

We have just added a sub section to the site for bathroom cladding. All of the cladding sold by The Bathroom Marquee is suitable for use in bathrooms as it is totally waterproof and will not rot as it is made from upvc.

The cladding is also suitable for use in kitchens as it uses no grout and offers an easy clean, wipe-over maintenance free surface.

New Product Samples Arrive

The samples of the new products that we will shortly be adding to the web site have arrived.

Having had a good look at them I have spotted quite a few designs that I think will be very popular with our customers - especially one of the wood effect panels that would be ideal for incorporating into a "New England" look, as it has a bleached wood appearance, almost resembling driftwood.

Some of the new panels also offer a new joint type, and having looked at our existing pages on this aspect of panelling we will be looking to beef-up the information we provide - we will also give a quick run-down of the different joint styles, listing the pros and cons on this blog.

BlogSearchEngine.com

We have registered this blog with the blog search engine:

Blog Search Engine -Search Engine and Directory of blogs. Looking for blogs? Find them on BlogSearchEngine.com

I don't know if we will get included as we have only just started this blog, but I think we are the only bathroom cladding blog in existence at present, so that might help!

New Colours

We have just started preparing the for the addition of some new bathroom cladding colours.

The existing product range, while quite extensive, has a lot of duplication when it comes to certain styles of panel - especially marble effect finishes. So the new panels will slightly broaden the range of effects that we offer including some panelling that gives a "rag-rolled" effect.

We aim to introduce a guide to aid with colour selection shortly, but in the meantime will use this blog to review all of the major panels styles and types that we sell. We will start with a bit more info on the different panelling joint types available.

Cladding for caravans, motorhomes & boats

We get asked quite frequently whether our bathroom cladding can be used in caravans, motorhomes or boats. In general there is no problem using our panels in these situations - you just have to be extra careful when it comes to ceiling the panels against a shower tray in case there is any movement. It is vital to use a high grade silicone sealnt in these situations - we recommend Dow Corning, which is usually available from plumbers or builders merchants. It is more expensive than most "DIY" silicones but is far superior: it can be easily applied, easily smoothed, adheres well and has excellent anti-mould properties.

We will shortly be adding sealing instructions to our installation pages and also hope to be able to add Dow Corning products to our online shop soon.

The Bathroom Marquee Blog

The Bathroom Marquee is a specialist online bathroom retailer and we will be using this blog to keep our web site visitors informed about developments in our industry and our organisation.

At present the web site consists of two specialist shops: one selling waterproof wall panelling and one that sells the Outasight shower barrier.



We hope to add further shops to the site as the year progresses.

At present we are working on adding some additional wall panels to our already extensive range and hope to have this completed by the end of the month.

To kick the New Year off we have introduced a January Sale with 20% off many of our most popular lines.

Welcome

Welcome to The Bathroom Marquee Blog