Shower Remodel: Dreamstyle Remodeling Review

Want to remodel your bathroom and think you can DIY most of it, but don’t have the skills to take on a full-on shower remodel?

Have you seen a recent TV ad for a shower remodel in “One Day” and want to know what it’s actually like to go through the experience?

Well, this post providing a Dreamstyle Remodeling review for our shower remodel may be just for you. I’m sharing an unbiased review of Dreamstyle acrylic shower systems from start to finish. I had Dreamstyle custom fit and install two brand new remodeled showers for our condo, during the summer of 2020.

After reading this review, you should feel confident in making a decision about using Dreamstyle (or a similar shower remodeling company) to help you complete your bathroom and shower remodel.

Dreamstyle Remodeling is a remodeling company specializing in full tub/shower remodels and tub to shower conversions.

They can install a new shower or tub, with a custom-fit acrylic enclosure, in about 2-3 days. These are not ceramic/stone tile shower walls, the enclosure is made from acrylic so you never have any grout to clean (yay!).

We decided to do a tub to shower conversion in the owner’s bathroom. We also had Dreamstyle renovate our guest bathroom’s tub/shower combo to a brand new one.

Full Disclosure: We purchased this shower system on our own and had NO discounts or compensation from Dreamstyle for this review. All opinions are my own and I am providing a fair and unbiased review of Dreamstyle Remodeling based on my own personal experience in the summer of 2020. I do not have any affiliation with Dreamstyle Remodeling.

Initial Contact

Here’s the “before” that we were working with:

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We had old, beige, builder grade tile shower/tub combos (above) that were unattractive and needed updating badly. We knew we wanted to hire a professional since we didn’t have the DIY skills to tackle this project with confidence.

Why choose Dreamstyle Remodeling for your shower remodel?

Dreamstyle Remodeling is a remodeling company, founded in 1989, based in the Southwestern USA. They specialize in bathroom remodeling, and also window and door replacement. Here’s why we chose Dreamstyle Remodeling for our shower remodel:

• Using a general contractor for a traditional tile remodel takes a long time and the labor is very expensive in Southern California.
• We wanted a company that offered financing, which most general contractors do not (you have to pay half in advance or pay in installments as the work gets done).
• Some acrylic shower installers place the new shower/tub over your existing one. Ours was pretty old and smelled like mildew so we wanted the old one replaced.
• We don’t live in a super high-end home, so acrylic would be perfectly acceptable to a lot of buyers in our price point (this wasn’t our forever home).
• We received a couple of flyers from Dreamstyle offering a great financing special, which really is what drove me to pick up the phone.

So, I called Dreamstyle Remodeling to try to get a cost estimate, which they would not give me over the phone. Their person took my info and made an appointment for a sales visit. The sales person, Mike, was here within a couple of days.

Sales Appointment

The sales appointment took about 2.5 hours from start to finish, on Saturday May 29, 2020. He was right on time and came with lots of samples of the different acrylic wall types and fixture choices (they use Kohler fixtures).

Acrylic wall options

Dreamstyle Shower Systems has a variety of acrylic wall styles to choose from. They seem to offer wall styles from: Kohler, Jacuzzi, and Bathwraps. Kohler and Jacuzzi are more expensive than the Bathwraps walls.

They offer a lot of different colors and patterns for the walls: solid white, off white, beige, and a variety of “stone look” patterns.

Dreamstyle Remodeling also has any of their colors/patterns available with different “impressions” in them to simulate tiles – like subway tiles, squares, etc. The Bathwraps website shows a lot of the styles and textures they have available, and these were the most affordable options.

The Kohler shower walls they carry are significantly more expensive (by a few thousand dollars) than what he was showing us, although the patterns and designs are quite beautiful. We decided to go with the Bathwraps shower walls, since we wanted a classic white subway tile-look design.

Tub or shower pan option

Some of the other options are choosing either an acrylic tub or a walk in shower. For the tub, I believe it comes in white or off white.

The shower has a couple of options. One option is an acrylic shower pan like you would buy at Home Depot. Or you can get the premium shower pan which is $600 more but more heavy, and less likely to crack or discolor. This shower pan is custom made for your exact space.

Fixture options:

The fixtures they carry are all Kohler fixtures. The finishes to choose from are: brushed nickel, chrome, or antique bronze.

Glass door options:

Dreamstyle Remodeling also offers glass doors for either the shower or the tub option. They offer them in brushed nickel, chrome, and black finishes.

Here is what we selected for each bathroom:

Owner’s bathroom selections (tub to shower conversion)

• White subway tile-look acrylic shower wall (from Bathwraps)
• Two shower shelves (included)
• Shower seat (extra cost)
• Heavy, premium white shower pan ($600 extra)
• Antique bronze Kohler shower fixtures (included)
• Black trim on shower door (extra cost)

Guest Bathroom selections (tub/shower combo)

• White subway tile-look acrylic shower wall (tub/shower combo)
• Acrylic tub – white
• Two shelves (included)
• Kohler chrome shower fixtures

Install info

Here were the main benefits we took away from the sales pitch:

• Dreamstyle will do ALL the work themselves (no subcontractors) using 2 installers.
• Each shower can be done in a couple of days
• There is a LIFETIME Guarantee on all their work & materials.
• They rip out all the old tile and tub, and haul the old stuff away.
• Plus they totally re-do the plumbing, which if you’ve ever hired a plumber – that’s worth a LOT of money right there.
• If they find anything really bad once they do the demo, they will give you a quote for the repair, but it will be in addition to the basic install price.

Dreamstyle Showers Cost

Dreamstyle was open to negotiations on our shower remodels, especially since we decided to do both bathrooms – so negotiate for sure! We ended up doing 2 shower systems for around $15,500, and got a great financing deal (which can depend on your credit score, etc). Keep in mind this is in San Diego, California – so labor prices are quite high in this area of the country.

The bathtub/shower combo was around $6500 – $8000. The tub to shower conversion was around $8,000 – $10,000.The shower is more expensive because of the premium shower pan and glass shower doors.

I know this is a LOT of money, but keep in mind these are licensed contractors and they were going to get each shower done in a couple of days – not the weeks you would normally spend doing tile showers. Plus the materials are custom made and fit to your exact space.

By the end, after we purchased, we had made an appointment for our measurements, on Tuesday 6/2/20 from 9-10am. They said our shower install would not be until 5 – 8 weeks from when we had our measurements done.

Measurements

The guy came for measurements on Tuesday 6/2/20 around 9 am. He was professional and quick – the whole thing took about 30 minutes.

He went over the whole process with me. At the end, he said the lead time is really more like 8-10 weeks, as they were having a holdup w/ the shower pans due to COVID-19, which are made in the Midwest.

Waiting for Dreamstyle Shower Remodel

We waited quite a while for the actual installation, about 10 weeks from the measurements. During this time we actually updated the rest of the bathrooms, changing out the flooring, vanity, mirrors, and lighting. See my article DIY Bathroom Remodel: Beginner’s Guide for more details on the full remodel of both our bathrooms.

I contacted Dreamstyle Remodeling a couple of times in July for an update. I didn’t not hear from Dreamstyle until Saturday, August 8, 2020, when Vinnie left me a voice mail to schedule our shower remodel.

Spoke to Vinnie and the install was scheduled for Monday, 8/17/20, at 8am. This was about 11 weeks we had to wait from when we signed the contract to when the install started. I will note this occured during the pandemic related to COVID-19, so I will cut them some slack.

Owner’s Bathroom: Tub to Shower Conversion

Monday: This was demo day and minor repair to some of the framing (very loud if you are home during the install). We got pretty lucky and they didn’t find too much damage to the studs (our house was build in the 70’s) . They put in one reinforced 2×4 to a damaged area.

Tuesday: Plumbing and water resistant drywall went up.

Wednesday: Install shower pan and put up walls, install fixtures. Add shelves and seat, then caulking. We got to pick out where we wanted the seat and the shelves.

Minor snafu:

We had antique bronze fixtures in one bathroom and chrome in the other. They accidentally installed the wrong finish in the owner’s bathroom, and had to re-install the correct ones (which they did quickly).

Thursday: Install shower door (different guys came in for shower doors), finalize caulking on seat.

Friday: Had to wait for caulk to dry. Full use of shower back by the afternoon.

Hallway Bathroom: Tub/Shower Combo

Wednesday: Demo tub and shower (very loud if you happen to be working from home)

Thursday: Framing and plumbing, cut tub and walls to fit. A lot of issues getting the tub to fit as it seemed like the measurements were off. He had to cut the edges of the tub to make it fit.

Friday: Install water resistant drywall, tub, cut and install enclosure. Install fixtures, shelves, caulking. You get to pick where to put the shelves so make sure someone is around to do that.

Saturday: Wait for caulk to dry. Get to use bathtub in the afternoon.

Check out a full tour of our remodeled shower/tub combo right here:

Post-Install Inspection

Once the installers were done, there were 2 opportunities for an inspection. Before the installer left, then when a post-job inspector came. Here’s a little video showing the new shower system in the owner’s bathroom:

We scheduled the post-install inspection the following week. We showed the inspector some of the things we were not happy with, and they created a punch list of sorts to have someone come back and address. Here’s our punch list:

• Shower doors leaking small amount of water on floor
• Minor damage on ceiling from removing old tile
• Need to caulk knob cover
• We noticed the tub was “creaking” when you stepped into it, so they agreed to fill w/ foam underneath by cutting into wall behind it.

The punch list took weeks for them to address, by the way. The good thing is our financing payments did not start until the punch list was complete so we were not in any hurry, as the issues were very minor.

So, our first payment was not due until November 15, 2020. But they had installed it back in the week of August 17, 2020 so we were enjoying our new showers for a couple of months before we had to start making any payments.

Final Product – Dreamstyle Shower Remodel

Let’s check out some of the before and after photos, one more time. Here’s our owner’s suite tub to shower conversion before and after:

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Here’s our Dreamstyle Remodeling Shower Tub Combo remodel:

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They got our Dreamstyle Shower Systems installed for BOTH bathrooms in ONE week, folks! This is amazing!

A normal replacement for two different tiled shower enclosures would definitely take at least twice as long for the install, since you have to wait for mortar and grout to dry before going to the next step.

Overall, the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Here’s a recap…

Pros and Cons of Dreamstyle Shower Remodel

Pros:

• Quick install compared to tile with grout
• No subcontractors to deal with – the installers did everything from demo to plumbing to framing and the final installation.
• Dreamstyle, being a large company, offers great financing options to help make it more affordable through a payment plan.
• No grout to clean – ever!
• A lifetime warranty puts my mind at ease if there is ever any staining or leaks. If you got tile installed by some tile contractor – there would not be any warranty, trust me.
• The quality is really nice – you can get a variety of options of colors and styles.
• You can get a smooth surface or different brick patterns imprinted into the acrylic.
• They provide and install the shower or tub doors for you. If you do tile, you typically have to hire a separate shower door guy for that kind of work.
• Post-install inspection and Dreamstyle willing to fix issues to make you happy.

Cons:

• Long wait time – a little less than 3 months from when we signed the deal until both showers were fully installed.
• A day without a shower – we chose to do both our showers in the same week, and ended up having one day where we had no shower. Not ideal, but we rolled we had somewhere else to go shower.
• They have stone-look printed options for their acrylic enclosures, but they weren’t very appealing to me – the solid colors were more our style.
• If you are in a very expensive high-end home and are concerned about resale value – many high-end buyers are more impressed by ceramic or stone tile, than acrylic, in general.

Recommendation

I would definitely recommend a Dreamstyle Shower System to anyone looking to update their bathroom.

The installation process was quick, easy, high quality, and they have great financing deals to make it more affordable.

The main “con” is the long wait (11 weeks) before installation began, which may or may not have been related to COVID. Probably not the best option for a “house flipper,” but if you can wait, it’s worth it.

I hope this review helps you make an informed decision to make your bathroom more beautiful and modern. Our install was in August 2020, so feel free to contact me if you want to see how it’s held up over time. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below – I’d be happy to answer.