Replacing a Shower Tray Without Building Work: When It's Possible

If your shower tray is cracked, yellowed, or you simply can’t stand that twenty-year-old ceramic any longer, the first thing that springs to mind is: “what a hassle, that’s half the bathroom to be chased out”. Not always. There are cases where you can replace the shower tray without building work, or near enough, and others where you do have to get stuck in. Let’s be straight and tell you which is which, no sales fluff.

What “no building work” really means

When we talk about changing the tray without building work, we mean taking out the old tray and fitting a new one using the same footprint and the same waste, without touching the wall or the tiles. No rubble down the hallway, no tiler, no two weeks with the bathroom out of action.

That’s perfectly possible when these conditions are met:

The new tray is the same size as the old one, or a touch smaller.
The waste is in a compatible position and in good shape.
There’s a correct fall towards the gully.
The ring of tile around the tray is sound.

If all that holds, the change is quick and clean. In practice we’re talking a few hours’ work, not a renovation.

The made-to-measure trick

Here’s the crux, and it’s where a lot of people get stuck. Standard trays come in fixed sizes: 70×140, 80×120, 90×90… If your alcove doesn’t match any of them, you’re left with two poor options: either you fit a smaller one and cover the leftover gap with ugly trims, or you chase out tile to make it fit. Neither convinces.

The elegant solution is to make the tray to the exact size of the gap the old tray leaves. At Aquatit we’re manufacturers of mineral-filled resin shower trays and we make them to measure, so instead of fitting your bathroom to the tray, we fit the tray to your bathroom.

If the tray fits the existing gap to the millimetre, there’s nothing to chase out. That’s the difference between a one-day change and a two-week renovation.

Choose between Smooth or Slate finishes to suit your bathroom’s style, in sizes from 60×60 up to 100×200. And because we work out the price straight away when you enter your centimetres, you know the cost before deciding anything. Every tray leaves the factory with its waste trap and grille included, so you’re not off buying loose parts here and there.

When you do have to chase out (a little)

Let’s be honest: not everything is solved without building work. There are situations where you’ll have to take on some of it:

You change size significantly. Go from a 70×70 tray to an 80×120 and the tile that surrounded the old one is left on show, so it’ll need finishing off.
You move the waste. If the gully doesn’t line up with the new tray’s outlet, you’re into plumbing, and that nearly always means lifting some floor.
You go from bath to tray. This is the classic case of real building work. Taking out a bath leaves a big gap, tiles only half-way up the wall, and an installation built for something else. We cover it in detail in our article on swapping a bath for a shower tray.

In these cases the work is usually less than people fear, but it’s there. Better to know up front than to get the surprise with the builder already in the house.

A clean replacement, step by step

When the change is straightforward, the process is fairly simple:

Remove the old tray. Cut the perimeter seal, disconnect it from the waste, and lift it out. With care it usually comes out whole or in a few pieces.
Check the waste and the fall. This is the moment to look at the state of the bottle trap and make sure the water will drain well. If anything’s worn, now’s the time to change it.
Bed in the new tray. Resin trays are low-profile and sit on top of the existing floor, connecting to the same waste.
Seal and finish. Apply quality silicone all the way round and, if needed, a discreet trim between the tray and the tile.

Little mess, no building rubble, and a working bathroom the same day. That’s what you get when the measurements are taken properly from the start.

A word of advice before you buy

The most common mistake is ordering a tray without measuring the actual gap well. Measure the available length and width, note where the waste sits relative to the walls, and check the current fall works. With those details, making the perfect tray is plain sailing.

Our trays carry a C3 anti-slip rating, come with a waste trap and grille, and ship across Europe. If you’re unsure about your particular case, tell us: request your made-to-measure tray and we’ll help make the change as clean as possible, with no building work where we can, and the least building work where we must.