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Shower Trays


Gardian

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I'm about to start the task of completely renovating our bathroom.

My question is about which type of shower tray, or more to the point, 'floor system' to go for.

The sort-of 'conventional' approach is to buy an acrylic or reconstituted tray. They're fine, but I know from previous experience that they're very heavy (this one would be 140x80 & thus 40kgs ish) and thus tricky to manoeuvre in to place.

The other way would be to go for the 'tileable tray' - for anyone able to offer any advice, they'll know what I mean. A reinforced polystyrene block which you can cut to size and then tile over with (for example) those squares of mosaic tiles. Advantage - easier to fit the 'block' + probably less slippery in the shower tray. Disadvantage - the faff involved in making sure that ts all sealed properly before tiling, puts me off a bit.

Anybody been faced with the same quandary and if so, which way did you go?

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I have just done two bathrooms with 120 by 80 resin shower trays, they were not too heavy to handle but heavy enough to stay put on the expanding foam and silicone, they are very thin and by the time the floor is raised by UFH and its insulation and the plastic laminate flooring they are virtually flush.

 

I have no regrets at all and will be doing the same for the remaining flats, they are very popular with guests, next time I will probably go for the anti slip type but these look much better in smooth white and there has only been one comment about it being slippery and that guest was using their own shampoo or shower gel not the one we supply, thats my excuse!

 

I also used those plastic cellular imitation tiling panels and they look superb, they go up in a few minutes and I just stick em up with expanded foam or expanded foam plasterboard adhesive, a quick whip round with the silicone gun and the job is done and looks and feels superb, far cheaper and quicker than tiling and can be replaced easily if need be, mine came from Brico-depot but you can get some sexy ones from EBay.uk with chrome finishing strips between each panel.

 

They are 100% waterproof and it effectively gives my shower tray a double seal, I was concerned about their impact strength as the section of the plastic is thin but thanks to its cellular construction my knuckles will bruise but I cannot dent it, a straight kick leaves no trace even a reverse elbow jab doesnt dent it.

 

Coupled with a good sliding door and mixer with large overhead rose and the bathrooms look superb for very little money if you buy in the UK, its all available in France from Leroy Merlin etc but at much higher cost.

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We went down the same route as Chancer, but with a non slip resin base (Leroy Merlin), same panels in the shower, walls and shiny white ones in the ceiling LED lights so no melt problem.

We built out from the previous plasterboard wall and added another 4 cms insulation to the 10 cms that was already there. Virtually no condensation in winter on the walls, unlike tiles. The floor is the newish rubberised clip stuff, again non slip, totally water resistant, easy to clean and warmer than tiles.
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Gentlemen ...............

Thank you both very much for your comments, as a result of which I've decided to go down the non-slip resin tray route. I've seen a likely candidate on the Leroy Merlin website (a sort of slate finish job) which is reasonably priced and in stock too!

BTW, the LM website is really impressive - as good as any that I've seen.

The flooring that you mention Lehaut is the material that I think that I'm after, having seen it over Christmas in a friend's new-build house and in a hotel bathroom. Looks really good.

Thanks again.
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[quote user="Lehaut"]That is without doubt the nicest thing anyone has said to me on this Forum. [/quote]

Don't get too used to it [:D][;-)]

If you had tiled onto 14cm of insulation I doubt you would get much if any condensation either [I]

Any links to your new flooring? I fitted a natural rubber floor to a customers bathroom but they have moved so no idea how its lasted.  looked and felt good though.

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This is the flooring that I use, 4mm solid vinyl fabric reinforced, clip together like laminate flooring with the same woodgrained finish, warm underfoot especially with my underfloor heating, they are also ant-slip compared to laminate flooring I also used them as the splashback to the basins.

 

http://www.bricodepot.fr/arras/lame-large-pvc-a-clipser-quotaspenquot/prod35923/

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