Wall prep required for bathroom panels?

[Geekpie]

The other half got into a bit of a frenzy and decided to tear off all the existing bathroom tiles which has fast-tracked this room somewhat.
We're thinking of lining it all with waterproof wall panelling. This sort of thing:
https://www.panelcompany.co.uk/products/cascade-high-gloss-white-10mm-shower-panel

..because it looks much easier than tiling, also cheaper, but main reason is to avoid the horrible black mildew which you always get in the grout with tiles.

You can see from the pic that a lot of the finishing plaster either has come off or is in the process of falling off.
What preparation do we need to do before fitting these panels? Do we want to be stripping away all the remaining finishing plaster? Do we need some sort of sealant before the panel adhesive? Or will the panels just be fine on the wall as it is as long as we use plenty of adhesive?

Also anybody who's had any experience of the bathroom wall panels. Opinions /tips etc welcome.

Cheers.

 

[OvertonPlumber]

Oki don't go for 1mtr wide panels there a pain to move around/fit. Geopanel do 600mm wide panels and there t/g groove is that tight you cannot see it. Depending on how upright and plumb your walls are you could get away with an acrylic primer then bond directly onto the wall with panel fix adhesive it's like crystal mx polymer stuff. Use corner profiles and trims to do edges.
Best bet is hire a chippy for a day to fit them.

 

[foxhole]

You don’t always get mould on grout , only if you have poor ventilation.

 

[Geekpie]

Thanks v much for the responses.

Why seal the walls with acrylic primer? Is ghats to.make it waterproof or so the panels better adhere to it? What if they're not acrylic panels?

I'm off tiles just cos I've seen too much mould in student bathrooms and me and the missus are the lazy types who won't maintain it often enough. We want a low maintenance solution.

I've sanded down the walls to smooth off any sticky out bits and knock off any loose plaster. I've also cleaned down the walls with sugar soap and was about to pva the walls in prep for filling in the gaps with some finishing plaster but when I look at it, I'm wondering if I could just get away with going heavy on the no-nails to the back of the panels (especially if they're fairly firm panels like selkie/mermaid/fibo/multipanel) and infact the walls in their current state would key better to the adhesive than if I tried to fill the gaps? See pics for how shallow the gaps are.