Are you looking to learn how to fit shower trays? With 1/3 of people having spent roughly £589 on fixing up their home. So, we’re not surprised that more and more people want to learn this useful skill.
Without further ado, let’s dive into our handy hints and tips so you can get to work!
Preliminary Measures
Before ordering a shower tray, always accurately measure your bathroom. It’s easy to order one that’s too big for the room accidentally or if it’s an offset quadrant model, is the wrong handing.
If this happens to you, the chances are you’ll have little choice but to order a new one. So, take a bit of time doing the maths before purchasing anything.
Are You Installing Your Stone Resin Shower Tray onto Timber Flooring?
If you’re installing your shower tray onto timber flooring, you need to make sure the floorboards are securely fixed and in good condition. Stone resin trays can be heavy.
If they’re not securely fastened, be sure to source thick grade chipboard, and cut it to fit the size of the shower tray. Once you’ve done that, put it to one side until you’re ready to fit it into place.
Before fixing the chipboard, ensure there aren’t any pipes or electrical connections located directly beneath the floor of the tray.
Once you’ve got your shower tray in the desired place, mark where the shower waste sits on the floor. You can use the hole to draw the circle on the floor. This will likely be a 50 or 90mm circle.
Then, remove the shower tray and check below floor level to see whether there’s enough space for the waste and pipe work to be installed in this location.
Once you’ve established this will work, drill a hole that’s large enough in diameter to allow the waste pipe to sit in. A drill with a hole saw bit is perfect for this.
Now, you need to complete the following steps:
- Grab a transparent waterproofing agent and seal the installation area.
- Install the waste trap to the shower tray, using a silicone sealant to ensure a watertight seal.
- Before fitting the shower tray, lay a base of at least 5mm of a sand-cement mixture.
- Now you’ve created the base ensure the top of the tray is level. However, you’ll need to remember that the bottom of the tray will fall slightly to aid drainage. This means it’ll dip somewhat towards the waste hole- so you’ll need to factor that into your calculations.
- Next, seal all of the tray to wall joints with silicone sealant.
Now, once you’ve finished all of the above, you can tile the wall behind the shower tray. Once you’re done tiling, you can apply the final bead of silicone sealant between the tray and tiles.
Did You Enjoy This Guide on Fitting Shower Trays?
If you liked this blog post on fitting shower trays, then we’re confident you’ll love the other posts on our blog. We discuss everything from shower door trends to infrared heating panels. Enjoy!
Alternatively, if you have any questions on this subject, please feel free to reach out and contact us. We’re more than happy to answer any queries you have.
Hello, my name is Dean.
Together with my business partner we own and operate Shower Enclosures UK.com Ltd.
We’ve been running the business for over 9 years and have amassed a reasonable amount of knowledge and expertise on the subject of shower and bathroom hardware. Enough that we’ve been able to put together a series of blog posts that should make buying bathroom goods that little bit simpler and help answer all the most popular questions.
If there’s anything that doesn’t make sense or needs expanding on please let us know in the comments. You can also reach out to me on LinkedIn
Thanks for taking the time to read our posts.
Hi Dean
I am going to fit a stone resin tray onto a concrete floor in a bungalow. After the tray is fitted I am going to raise the floor level using a flexible floor levelling compound. This will reduce the final height of the tray after lino is fitted to about 5mm.
Do I need to allow for expansion of the Stone resin tray or is this negated because the tray and floor levelling are both bonded to the concrete floor. I could use a barrier to stop the levelling compound bonding with the tray then silicone the gap.
Or do you have another solution that I could use, apart from a wet room or digging a hole the size of the tray which is 1500×900, Your Tray #TRY023.
Cheers
Ian
So a question asked 5th March 2020 shows no reply as of 6th May 2021?
Very impressive.
I’m not sure where the aggression comes from Jon? The thing is there’s been a small matter of a global pandemic. With minimal staff and bathroom hardware just generally being difficult for small companies to source the blog and content creation, in general, has had to take a back seat. I do this in my spare time but right now and for the last year or so ensuring the survival of the business has been the priority. Sorry if this didn’t align with your plans.
I’ve had a ceramic raised shower tray fitted on stands. Unfortunately a crack has appeared in the tray, next to the outside wall, which the company has said, after looking at it, (with the side plinth removed), that it was caused by the floorboards dropping, which negates the warranty. Is this occurrence to be expected, and how may I resolve the matter?