Stone Resin vs Acrylic Shower Trays: Which Is Better?

A stone resin tray is cast from crushed mineral bound in resin, with a hard gelcoat surface. It's dense, rigid and heavy, which is what makes it feel like a solid floor rather than a plastic shell. An acrylic tray is a moulded acrylic skin — or ABS plastic capped with acrylic — stiffened underneath, often with glass-fibre reinforcement. It's light and warmer to the touch, but its stiffness depends on that reinforcement and on how well it's bedded.

The branded trays on our shelves are stone resin or Nuie's Pearlstone, all with a 90mm waste and a 10-year warranty:

BS EN 14527 is the European standard for domestic shower trays. Here's the same 1200 x 900mm rectangle in each range, so you can compare like for like:

We also carry a run of British-made low-profile trays under our own name, from £71.61 for a 760 x 760mm square.

Yes. They're stiff, so they don't move when you stand on them, they don't drum or creak, and the strength of the material lets makers go down to 30mm high for a near-flush look. The gelcoat is hard-wearing and wipes clean.

The downsides are weight and temperature. A large stone resin tray is heavy enough to need two people, which counts on a top-floor job, and it feels cooler underfoot than acrylic for the first moment. Merlyn's Touchstone takes a slightly different route: a single skin with a moulded solid under-section, which keeps it rigid and quiet underfoot at 50mm high.

They can, but it's almost always down to how they were fitted, not the material. A tray stuck down on a few dabs of adhesive, or on an uneven floor, has unsupported patches. Every time someone stands on it, those patches flex a fraction, and over months the tray cracks or the silicone seal breaks and leaks. Acrylic trays fail the same way, they just bend further first.

1. Make sure the floor is solid. A timber floor that bounces needs stiffening first, usually with plywood screwed down to the joists.
2. Connect the waste and test it before the tray goes down — you won't get at it afterwards.
3. Bed the tray fully on a level mortar bed, or use the maker's leg set or riser kit, exactly as the maker specifies.
4. Check it's level both ways, then don't stand in it until the bed has set.
5. Seal it to the walls with sanitary silicone once the walls are tiled or panelled.

Most slate-effect trays, including ICON White Slate, are stone resin with a textured, slate-look surface, so the difference is the finish rather than the material. The texture gives more grip under wet feet — ICON describes its tray as slip resistant — and looks less clinical than gloss white. The trade-off is cleaning: soap and limescale settle in the texture, so it needs a soft brush rather than a quick wipe.

ICON White Slate trays are 30mm high, come with a 90mm waste, square cover and trap in the box, and run from 800 x 800mm to 1700 x 900mm.

Pearlstone Matrix is Nuie's patented material: polyurethane resin with a volcanic-ash filler and an acrylic cap on top. Nuie says it's one of the strongest and lightest tray materials available, so it's easier to carry up stairs than stone resin of the same size, and the flat underside is easy to bed and level.

It's 40–45mm high, against 30mm for the slimmest stone resin trays. Its party trick is the leg set, which screws straight into the base with a drill and lifts the tray so the trap runs underneath without cutting into the floor — from £77.59.

Rinse it after use and wipe it down with a mild, non-abrasive bathroom cleaner and a soft cloth. Avoid scouring pads, abrasive powders and strong solvents, which dull gelcoat and scratch acrylic. London's water is hard, so limescale builds up quickly: deal with it little and often using a descaler the tray maker approves, rather than a strong acid once a year.