Bath Panels

A bath panel is the front and end cover that hides the plumbing and underside of a built-in bath. Standard sizes match the bath: 1500mm, 1700mm, 1800mm front panels; 700mm and 800mm end panels. Cheap Furniture Warehouse, Durovin Bathrooms and Robert Dyas between them cover £8-£463 across the range. Material: acrylic-faced MDF (the budget standard, water-resistant for 8-10 years), gloss-finished MDF (cheap, swells in damp bathrooms), tongue-and-groove pine (cottage style, needs annual sealing), tile-backer panels (custom-tiled to match the bathroom floor). Acrylic-faced is the household standard at £30-£100 per front panel; tile-backer pushes £200-£400 with the tiling labour added. Most bath panels include access doors for plumbing maintenance; without them the whole panel comes off for any service work. Look for snap-on fitting (clips into bath flange) over screw-fitting; snap-on is much faster to remove for plumbing access.