How to Repair Scratches and Stains on a Resin Shower Tray

A mineral-filled resin shower tray takes daily use in its stride, but no material is indestructible. A knock during fitting, a metal bucket dragged across it mid-renovation, or years of hard water all leave their mark eventually. The good news is that most of those marks can be fixed at home, without calling anyone in and without taking anything apart. Let’s go through it step by step, no sales fluff.

Light scratches: polish and restore

If the scratch doesn’t catch your fingernail as you run it across, you’re dealing with a surface mark. These are the easiest to sort.

Clean the area with warm water and a mild soap, then dry it well.
Work over it with very fine wet-and-dry paper (start at 1000 and move up to 2000), keeping it wet throughout, with gentle strokes and no pressure.
Clean off the sanding dust and check how it looks.
Apply a restorer or polish made for resin surfaces with a microfibre cloth, in circles.
Go over it until you bring back the shine and an even finish.

The key here is patience: working wet and with fine grit stops the cure being worse than the complaint. There are dedicated polishing kits that come with the papers and the restorer in one pack, very handy for a one-off repair.

Deep scratches: filler and progressive sanding

When the mark catches your nail or you can see the groove, sanding won’t cut it: you need to fill.

Clean and degrease the area thoroughly.
Apply a filler or gel coat in your tray’s colour, pressing it so it works into the groove.
Scrape off the excess with a spatula and let it cure for as long as the product maker says.
Sand dry or wet, starting with a medium grit (400) and stepping up gradually to 2000.
Finish with polish to blend the repair into the rest of the surface.

With resin repairs, the trick is matching the colour and stepping up the grit little by little. Skip steps and you nearly always leave a visible patch.

The finish matters, a lot. On a Slate tray the relief hides the repair easily; on a Smooth finish it’s worth refining the final polish more, because any unevenness shows up in raking light.

Limescale stains: vinegar yes, metal scourer no

Limescale is the silent enemy in hard-water areas. It shows up as a whitish film, especially around the gully.

Apply white vinegar or lemon juice straight onto the stain.
Leave it to work for five to ten minutes.
Rub with a soft sponge or cloth, never a metal scourer.
Rinse with plenty of water and dry.

Steer clear of abrasive products, harsh bleaches and steel scourers. They scratch the finish and in the long run leave you with a bigger problem than the one you set out to solve. If you’d like a maintenance routine that keeps limescale at bay before it builds up, there’s a full guide on how to clean a resin shower tray.

Yellowing: why it happens and how to clean it

Yellowing tends to alarm people more than it should. In most cases it isn’t the material going off, but built-up residue: soap, toiletries, dye-laden shampoos or traces of unsuitable cleaners that leave a yellowish layer over time.

Wash with warm water and a mild soap to lift surface grime.
For stubborn marks, make a soft paste with bicarbonate of soda and a little water.
Apply it, leave a few minutes, and rub with a soft sponge.
Rinse thoroughly so no residue is left.

If the yellow tone lingers after a deep clean and the tray is many years old, it may be a change in the finish itself from continued exposure. Even so, on quality resin trays this is uncommon.

When it can’t be fixed

Let’s be honest: not everything can be repaired. A crack through the full thickness of the tray, a structural break near the waste, or a sag from a poor install over an uneven floor won’t be solved with filler. In those cases, repairing just papers over a problem that will come back. The sensible move is to consider replacing it.

Prevention: what really saves you the work

The best repair is the one you never have to make. As makers of made-to-measure shower trays, we see that nearly all avoidable damage happens on fitting day or through the odd bit of carelessness:

Protect the tray with a mat or cardboard while there’s work going on around it.
Don’t drag metal objects or heavy boxes across the surface.
Clean with mild soap and dry after showering to slow limescale.
Always avoid abrasives and hard scourers.

Our trays are made from mineral-filled resin, a material built to handle the daily grind. With minimal care, the finish stays like new for years.

Has your tray had its day, or do you fancy a new one cut to the exact size of your bathroom? Tell us about your project on Aquatit made-to-measure or write to us from contact and we’ll give you the price straight away, with waste trap and grille included and shipping across Europe.