Two changes landed together this year, on purpose, and they are easier to explain side by side than apart.
Panel Composite Systems, Inc. is now Regal Building Products. Same company, same people, same Northeast Ohio address, same patents — a new name, a new logo, and a new home at buildregal.com. And Synthesis™, the porcelain wall panel system we have been building for years, now has a successor: Touchstone™.
Why the new name
The order of events explains it. We knew an updated system was coming, and we were already rebranding the kit. Doing the company at the same time meant one changeover to explain instead of two — so we did both at once.
Regal is the name because it says what we intend to be in this market: a premium product, with one of the finest finishes you can put in a shower, at a competitive mid-market price. That pairing is the whole proposition. The old name described a material and left the rest unsaid.
On a jobsite, you'll know us by the purple.
Nothing legal changed. Panel Composite Systems, Inc. is the same corporation, doing business as Regal Building Products. Existing agreements, warranties, and purchase orders carry over untouched.
What Touchstone is
Touchstone is the next generation of the same system, not a different product category.
It keeps what the system has always been: a face of real 6mm vitrified porcelain, mechanically attached to a patented track rather than set in thinset. A full shower surround installs in a single day. No thinset, no grout, no wet trades. The panel faces are factory-bonded, so the finished wall is dimensionally consistent instead of riding on how good a day the crew had.
What changed:
- 30% lighter per kit than Synthesis. Easier for one installer to handle, and meaningfully cheaper to ship.
- An upgraded warranty. Touchstone carries a two-tier program. Every kit ships with the Standard warranty — 5 years residential, 3 years commercial. Installs completed by a Factory Trained Installer using the full Pro install spec upgrade to the Pro warranty: lifetime residential coverage for the original purchaser, 15 years commercial, registered within 30 days.
- Serialized kits, which is what makes that registration and coverage traceable back to a specific install.
The designs carry over. The five Touchstone finishes are the same large-format looks the system has always offered, and the install method an experienced crew already knows does not change.
Touchstone is taking orders now and ships Q3 2026. Distributors, contractors, and commercial specifiers can get specs and a place in the production schedule today.
What happens to Synthesis
Synthesis is still on the shelf and still shipping, at its existing pricing, while inventory lasts. It is the same porcelain wall panel system with an earlier backer — same designs, same specs, same install.
If you own a Synthesis install, nothing about your coverage changes. The Synthesis warranty stands on its own terms and is unaffected by the rebrand or by Touchstone's new program. Those terms live on the Synthesis warranty page, and they are the ones that apply to your install — Touchstone's tiers are different and do not replace them.
What to update
If you carry, specify, or install the system, three things are worth changing on your end:
- Links and listings — point to buildregal.com. The old synthesisbypcs.com addresses redirect, but the direct link is better for everyone.
- Spec language — new specifications should call out Touchstone. The current CSI specification is published as Section 10 21 16.
- Literature — current sell sheets, install instructions, and warranty documents are on the downloads page. Anything branded Synthesis is still accurate for Synthesis stock.
Questions about a project already in progress, or about which system to spec for one starting now, should go to your distributor or straight to us.