Shower Walls in El Paso That Actually Hold Up to Hard Water

Precision-cut natural stone shower walls templated, fabricated, and installed by our own crew. Call now for a free estimate.

Signs Your Shower Walls Are Failing Before You Can See It

Usually, homeowners only reach out to us once they spot a hairline fracture or a loose tile. That's when we tell them that the worst of the damage already started a while back. We've been fabricating and installing shower walls in El Paso since 1985. Let us tell you something that's often true: there's always a sign of an issue before you can see anything amiss with your shower walls.

For instance, your nose will know first.

It's the first sign of an issue. It's a persistent musty odor near the shower that won't seem to ever go away no matter how much you clean. That odor indicates moisture has infiltrated behind your shower walls, and it's growing mold behind the wall cavity. In older homes around East El Paso near Cielo Vista we always come across this. The grout lines look good on the exterior side, but it's the side of the drywall behind that grout and behind those tiles that feels soft and looks dark.

We also want you to be watchful for the following indicators:

• Grout that doesn't dry in a few hours after the last use of your shower
• When the caulk starts separating from the corner joints or on the tub edges
• When the shower surface feels softer and flexible to the touch
• When the paint near the shower walls starts to peel or bubble
• When the molding or baseboard in an adjacent room is soft along the bottom

The tell-tale sign that worries us the most is the softening or flex of the wall surface. When your shower walls begin softening to the touch, that usually means water has infiltrated that backer board or drywall and is destroying the structural integrity. Once a shower wall substrate has turned soft, the tile starts moving and shifting in its placement. Cracks happen fast in the grout. And water takes its way to more places deep in the framing.

Can't quite decide if the symptoms you're experiencing is indicative of an underlying issue? That's not uncommon. In fact, many El Paso homeowners live with these types of symptoms for years without any concern because nothing appears blatantly wrong on the surface. In a dry climate like ours, the Borderland's dryness can deceive because while the visible parts of the shower walls dry fast, that dampness can still be lurking inside your shower walls.

Last year we had a homeowner with us in the Kern Place neighborhood that was concerned about a small grout discoloration. When we opened that wall we found two square feet of drywall with significant black mold. The shower walls were beautiful on the exterior; the side of the drywall had a completely different story. If anything in that list is sounding familiar, don't wait until you can see a visible crack to confirm what's really going on.

Why El Paso Hard Water Shortens Shower Wall Lifespan

We've been fabricating and installing stone in El Paso since 1985, and there's one thing we tell any homeowner walking into our showroom on Gateway Blvd E. Your water is actively working to break down your shower walls every day.

El Paso has some of the hardest water in the United States. El Paso is located in the Borderland region. In fact, most of El Paso's water is classified as very hard by the U.S. Geological Survey. In other words, your plumbing carries a lot of calcium and magnesium, which gets on every surface it flows across. Your shower walls will suffer the most from it.

Over the years, hard water can:

• Cause white, chalky mineral deposits on grout lines and wall surfaces
• Corrode porous tile and fiberglass
• Break down the sealant, allowing moisture to enter the walls
• Allow mold and mildew to penetrate the damaged grout

We get this story all the time: a homeowner on the Eastside calls because the shower walls are dirty no matter how much you scrub. 90% of the time it's the same story: the shower walls have been stained by mineral buildup over the years, the grout is broken, and moisture is behind the wall. And that's the problem. It's not just unsightly. It means water can get behind your shower walls to rot the frame, and then there's the risk of mold and damage repair costs that dwarf the price of a new shower wall.

That's why materials matter when it comes to shower walls: because the correct material minimizes the buildup of hard water instead of absorbing it. With our granite and quartzite shower walls, we minimize the exposure to grout. Since we source our granite in Brazil, we can verify exactly how dense and hard each slab is before cutting. Less grout equals less surface for El Paso's hard water to ruin.

It's not that fiberglass panels and ceramic tile can't work here. It's that, for a softer city, you can get away with less durable materials. The minerals in our hard water require a higher degree of hardness. This isn't the sales pitch; it is our forty years of experience of seeing it in Upper Valley, the Westside, and every neighborhood in between.

How to choose the best shower wall material

Most people who walk into our showroom on East Gateway Blvd think they know what they want before the shower wall options are presented to them. And then they take a good look. This is what we want. Shower wall materials have a long-term impact.

Granite, quartz, marble, quartzite, and Dekton. The materials have different reactions in a wet area. And the hard water in El Paso makes that more specific. Certain materials will stain quickly with mineral deposits, while others remain largely unaffected. We've been helping Borderland residents choose their shower wall materials since 1985, and this continues to be one of my favorite parts.

The Right Material for a Wet Environment

Leave the aesthetics for later. The most important characteristics that shower walls must demonstrate in any wet environment are:

• Ability to resist moisture and water without becoming waterlogged
• Ability to be easily cleaned
• Ability to resist hard water stains
• Its thermal shock resistance, surviving the sudden shift from a hot shower to a dry desert breeze overnight

Quartzite and Dekton are exceptional in each of those areas. Marble is beautiful, but higher maintenance, and Granite is in the middle somewhere. Because we import stone from Brazil, we can personally vet the density and overall quality of every individual slab for the wall you select. In nearly all cases, once a homeowner gets to touch the real stone and understands the performance factors, the choice is clear.

Still aren't sure? It is a very common question, actually. The homeowners in Eastside and Mission Hills give us a similar response, as they enter with Pinterest photos and walk out with an informed decision.

Our advice to you is always this: Do not make your decision based on what it looks like on your phone or computer. Look at the actual slabs and run your fingers over the stone. Ask us what we have selected for our own homes. As a family shop, we will give you the same recommendation as if we were speaking with family. Your shower should complement your lifestyle in addition to your existing tile selection. And, if you are seeking easy, yet high-performance maintenance, we have a stone solution we can point you toward. Simply contact us at (915) 345-3774 to get a feel for your options.

The Shower Wall Installation Process

This is another common inquiry, how long does it take between selecting your natural stone slab and a complete and finished shower installation? Good question. Here are the steps we undertake with our shower wall clients, beginning with the in-home template in our Gateway Blvd E workshop and out to homes throughout El Paso.

• Measure for the Shower Walls. We send a technician to your home and laser measure all walls, niches, corners, and fixture placement. Shower installations never exist on square walls, and digital templates are able to record all angles and dimensions down to a fraction of an inch.
• Custom Stone Panels. We are then able to precisely cut your stone slabs at our facility according to your measurements. Since 1985, our stone experts have been able to "book" a vein or place seams so that they create a continuous pattern that flows across all shower walls.
• Prepare Backer Board. Your shower walls are going to be a solid, flat, waterproof surface to receive your new stone. Prior to install day, you must confirm the flat and clean condition of a wall, and remove all existing tile or damaged wall board.
• Install Stone Panels. Our installers adhere a thin-set compatible stone mortar to the wall, and then precisely lay each panel in position. Gaps are maintained, as is the support during the set time for the natural stone panels.
• Caulk and Seal. Once the mortar has fully cured, we seal all grout lines and edges, and finish with a seamless waterproof surface without any grout lines.

The timeline from beginning to finish typically takes a few days, with most of that time involved in fabrication while the install is a fast completion.

Borderland homeowners often assume our installation creates quite a bit of chaos. We're not here to tile your bathroom for a week; we put large panels up over the whole wall within an hour or so. We get this almost weekly at Kern Place and elsewhere: people think they're going to have to deal with a huge mess. 9 out of 10 times, the bathroom ends up cleaner after our installation. Also, because we import directly from Brazil, what you pick out in our showroom is exactly what you'll see in your shower. We don't have a middleman swapping out the stone on installation day.

Maintaining Your Shower Walls

We don't just install shower walls so they will look nice for one year. We want to make sure they will look nice in 10 years. And you don't have to do much to keep them in tip-top shape. The #1 mistake we see people making is using harsh chemical cleaners on natural stone. We get this almost every day on our El Paso jobs. Homeowners pull a bottle of bathroom cleaner from the cabinet that contains bleach or ammonia and spray that over their granite or marble shower walls, and they're slowly degrading over time. Don't do that. For your regular cleaning, just use a pH-neutral cleaner and a soft cloth.

Day-to-Day and Year-to-Year Maintenance

We have a simple routine for keeping your shower walls in great shape:

• Squeegee your shower walls after every shower (usually only takes about 30 seconds). This alone will prevent most water spots and buildup.
• Wipe the shower walls down with a soft microfiber cloth and pH-neutral stone cleaner once a week.
• Check the grout lines and seams once a month to look for any cracks or discoloration.
• Reseal natural stone walls and counters once a year, or talk to one of us about the right amount of time for your specific stone.

That's it. Four simple steps. We can't tell you how many people in El Paso neglect this process, and it's their fault when their showers look bad. Hard water is one thing in this city, but skipping a couple squeegee sessions will give you a calcium buildup in no time. Folks down on the Eastside tend to suffer more from hard water, so we really encourage you to stay current on these steps.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

Sometimes we'll get a call and the owner is saying they noticed a dark line appearing along the bottom of the shower walls. 9 out of 10 times, this is the same problem: water is leaking behind where the shower wall meets the floor of the shower. If you catch this early, it's a small fix. If you let it sit around a while, it can become a bigger project. Stone is durable. That's why we like working with it. You can maintain a shower wall made from quartz or granite, and it will hold up to everyday use for decades even here in the Borderland climate. We've been doing this since 1985, and we get calls to this day from folks whose shower walls we installed 10 or 20 years ago, and they still look great. If you have questions about how to best take care of your specific type of stone, please come in to our showroom on Gateway Blvd E or call us at (915) 345-3774. We'd love to show you what to do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about shower walls services in El Paso

Ready to Get Started?

Call now for a free estimate. Call (915) 345-3774 today.

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