Mustee 140 Durastall Composite/Fiberglass 4-Piece Alcove Shower Kit, No Size, White

Simple this product is not when it comes to assembling this Mustee 142 Durastall product. I’ve been a professional contractor for nearly 18 years, in both the carpentry and plumbing fields. Typically I can say that the product overall delivers what the manufacturer is offering you—a no fuss unit made entirely of plastic. I do give them some credit for choosing both aluminum and stainless steel screws and nuts for the assembly, as far as preventing or harming the fit and finish and the overall appearance, there is nothing worse than having regular steel screws and nuts where they end up rusting and leaving unsightly yellow-orange streaks six weeks after installation. This is not the case with this product, so kudos to them for thinking ahead. I assembled this unit by myself in roughly 6 hours. The one main advantage to this unit is the shower pan and drain assembly, this product allows you the ability to configure the shower to your specific needs, giving you ample options when it comes to making the drain connection from the pan, to the drain in your floor and the showers eventual location in the bathroom.Where I think this product falls short is the integral lip abutment where the plastic shower walls meet the shower pan. There are only 3 stainless steel screws per shower wall, which means there are only 9 screws holding the shower walls to the base, the depth of the groove where the shower wall makes contacts with the pan, in my opinion should have been 3 millimeters deeper—to prevent the warping that occurs in the initial assembly. The extruded polished aluminum bolsters that are riveted to 2 of those panels give this product some needed rigidity, the upper finishing cap is the best part of this unit, creating a very water tight seal—unfortunately this is the one area that probably won’t see much action as far as water contact is concerned. The other area that I think this Durastall 142 product falls short is the plumbing fixtures it includes in the package, again they are 90% plastic and will over time expand and contract, and may require replacing down the road. I suspect this Durastall 142 shower in a box, could have been made better by the manufacturer, and by spending another $100 dollars or so, I suspect the customers who end up buying it would have been only too happy to spend that little bit extra, to get a far better product than the one they are now getting.My clients over all concerns became my own overall concerns, since I was hired to install this product in a basement bathroom application. The hand rail in my opinion is not something I would classify as completely sturdy as it could have been, and as far as the molded corner soap dish and molded cavity to house a single small or rather thin bottle of shampoo that is integrated into the safety rail—well I think they are far from adequate. Let’s get to the heart of the matter, this shower is being sold as a standalone unit, and in my opinion it looks the part of something that is set up as a temporary solution, not a finished permanent fix. This client choose this specific route, because he wanted to save money. The money he would have saved between a skilled tradesmen building an enclosed shower unit, was put into other areas of the bathroom. The savings were substantial, but they were partially offset by the added cost of enclosing the unit with a studded 2x3 wall, and the extra cost in purchasing and the utilisation of exterior grade vinyl siding to finish the front of this unit on 4 sides (top, bottom, left and right side) The shower pans bottom is exposed and doesn’t look appealing from an aesthetic standpoint, and in my opinion you should be prepared to spend as much dressing up this shower units front, as you did on the initial purchase of the Durastall 142 if you intend on using this as a permanent fix in your bathroom renovation.There are detailed instructions that will allow any DIY’s to tackle this product on their own over a weekend, and I suspect it will take 2 people to make this happen, overall the old adage of you get what you pay for, applies here with this product, I’m not saying the product is bad, it’s just average.

Added this shower stall in our basement for anyone coming in from the garden or project to save the more formal bath upstairs. Flimsy when standing alone, but when secured to the wall it felt more solid. Quite roomy inside and the hand rails and spaces for soaps and shampoo are a plus. Due to a sloping floor it was placed on 1/2 size cement blocks to allow room for drain. Excited to have this additional bathing area in our 1885 home.

This is very mixed review. If you need a shower but don't care if it's code compliant and don't need an inspection of the work done, then this is a good shower. It's a little complicated to put together and seems a little flimsy at first. Adding the optional door makes it pretty sturdy. A 4Star rating for the quality of the unit, BUT...If you want a code-compliant bathroom installation, be sure to check you local requirements. This unit IS NOT listed or code compliant - the walls have not been tested and therefore it doesn't meet many building code requirements.I'm speaking from experience. Based on the fact that on the Mustee website, it say, "Mustee Products meet or exceed code performance requirements and are listed by agencies indicated...", (http://www.mustee.com/pages/codes.html) I purchased this unit and had it installed. Imagine my surprise and dismay when the local building/plumbing inspector failed it based on lack of an ANSI number!I called Mustee because I was sure there must be a mistake, but the man to whom I spoke verified that none of their shower walls (in this style) are listed or have been tested. When I pointed out that their website is misleading, he said that "Nowhere on the shower stall page does it say anything about code compliance." I see this an a lie by omission since it SPECIFICALLY make a claim about "Mustee Products" which implies ALL Mustee products.

Other sites state this is too flimsy. It is true the side panels are bendable before installed, but once it is all together it is solid enough. Other sites also state the walls are difficult to assemble. If you read the directions and have an assistant I found the process reasonable. The one suggestion I would make is too make very sure the bottoms of all the wall panels line up before installing them on the base. The directions may even have talked about that, but I missed it and one of my walls was about 1/8 inch off. That made the installation into the base more difficult than it should have been. The shower head is pretty inexpensive, but easily upgradable if you so choose. The rest of the product certainly seems pretty reasonable. I was pretty satisfied with the end result. The directions are fairly clear.

The shower was very flimsy. Wish I could have returned it. A contractor built walls for support and plumber suggested replacing the shower mechanism since it was all plastic.

Wasnt hard to put together at all, did it by myself and works great

I just LOVE IT!!! I am so relaxed after taking a long shower!

Thank you