Transforming care home bathrooms: Spring Grove’s Multipanel journey

Spring Grove Care Home, part of the Springdene group in Hampstead, North London, provides a welcoming and safe environment for its residents, many of whom live with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. With 46 rooms to refurbish, the care home faced a common challenge for independent living providers: how to upgrade bathrooms in a working care home with minimal disruption, while ensuring the spaces were hygienic, durable and low-maintenance. 

The challenge: modern bathrooms, minimal disruption 

Renovating bathrooms in a live care environment comes with unique pressures. Residents’ daily routines must be respected, and the project needed to avoid lengthy room closures. Traditional tiling methods would have required specialist trades, long installation times and ongoing maintenance - factors that could increase disruption and costs. Additionally, care homes require surfaces that resist mould, grime and leaks to ensure longevity and safety. 

The Solution: Multipanel’s innovative approach 

Enter Multipanel, the UK’s leading bathroom wall panel brand. Multipanel offers grout-free, fully waterproof panels that are FSC® certified and Made in Britain. With over 140 years of manufacturing experience and ISO 9001:2015 certification, the company combines reliability with innovation. Its Hydrolock® tongue-and-groove joint and 6mm tolerance allow panels to fit over uneven surfaces quickly and easily, reducing installation time by up to five times compared to traditional tiles. 

Multipanel also offers versatile panel sizes - 598mm, 900mm and 1200mm - allowing flexibility for any bathroom layout. The MDF exterior core has Class 4 durability, ideal for areas exposed to prolonged water contact. With a 30-year warranty, care home managers can feel confident that bathrooms will remain hygienic, safe and low-maintenance for years to come. 

For Spring Grove, the refurbishment started as a Free Trial bathroom installation, which included free wall panel products, installation and hands-on training led by Will, Multipanel’s Business Development Manager and trained installer. This allowed the team to experience first-hand how the panels could streamline the refurbishment, saving both time and money.

Efficient, inclusive and stylish 

Using Multipanel, each wet room at Spring Grove was installed in just 1.5 days by a team of multi-skilled tradesmen. This speed minimised disruption to residents and staff. The smooth, gloss surfaces are easy to clean, and the modern tile-effect finishes bring contemporary style to bathrooms without compromising on hygiene or accessibility. 

Multipanel also aligns with inclusive design principles. Combined with slip-resistant vinyl wet room floors, the bathrooms meet Lifetime Homes and accessibility standards, making them safer for residents who require extra support. By simplifying cleaning and maintenance, Multipanel panels allow staff to focus more on resident care rather than ongoing repairs or deep cleaning. 

Results and impact 

To date, Spring Grove has successfully refurbished 12 bathrooms, with another 12 scheduled on a different floor in September. Plans are underway for the group’s other sites: Springview in Enfield (59 rooms) and Spring Lane in Haringey (63 rooms). 

The benefits have been immediate: 

• Faster installation reduced labour costs and shortened disruption  
• Durable, low-maintenance surfaces promise long-term savings compared to traditional tiling  
• Upskilled trades team increased project efficiency  
• On-site logistics were streamlined, even in challenging locations 

As Spring Grove staff noted: "The product has been great to install. Delivery was seamless, and the training allowed our tradesmen to upskill, speeding up the whole project. We’re confident these bathrooms will remain hygienic and low-maintenance for years to come." 

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Why independent living providers choose Multipanel 

Multipanel’s panels help independent living providers combine practicality with modern design: 

• Five times quicker to install than traditional tiles  
• No grout, simple to clean, reducing long-term maintenance  
• Durable Class 4 core for wet areas  
• 30-year warranty for peace of mind  
• Reduced adaptation times and cost savings for projects  
• Inclusive and accessible, supporting safe and modern environments 

Multipanel also supports sustainability. Its EPD-Certified panels can significantly reduce carbon impact compared to tiling. For a 75-bed care home, this equates to a CO₂ saving similar to running 10 day trips by coach over 50 miles - a measurable difference for environmentally conscious projects. 

Experience Multipanel 

Spring Grove’s project shows how Multipanel can transform care home bathrooms with speed, style and long-term savings. Developers and specifiers can take advantage of the Free Trial scheme, including free products, installation and training, to see for themselves how Multipanel can deliver practical and aesthetic benefits in any independent living environment.