It’s hard when buying a new bathroom to find the right balance between value vs luxury as well beauty vs safety. This normally leaves buyers confronted with the question ‘Is an anti-slip shower tray worth it?’. Here is why we think it is worth your hard earned money.
Types of anti-slip shower trays and their advantages:
The two main types of anti-slip shower trays are those with integrated anti-slip properties and those with an applied coating.
On an integrated anti-slip tray, the anti-slip properties are built directly into the tray, ensuring they do not degrade over time or with use. This creates a dependable level of anti-slip that you can rely on, particularly in commercial settings where consistency is crucial.
Applied coatings are used on shower trays after the manufacturing process, with paint or stickers being the most prevalent options. These coatings are often inexpensive and can be applied even after the shower tray is installed. But they aren’t without their issues. Regular reapplication is necessary, creating an inconsistency in the expected level of anti-slip performance on a day-to-day basis.
Timing is everything:
Which route to go?
For a lot of people, that decision will have already been made for them. If a shower tray is already installed, replacing the tray isn’t a cost-effective option and the only other route to safer showering is with an applied coating. Keeping them clean can be time-consuming or often impossible and reapplication will be needed from time to time, but anything is better than slipping.
If a bathroom is being remodelled, there’s a lot more options out there. Installing a shower tray with an integrated system would give a higher standard of anti-slip which would last the lifetime of the tray. An integrated anti-slip will be a premium, but the tray will give better anti-slip properties with less of the drawbacks associated with an applied coating.
A SENSTEC Anti-Slip Shower Tray – Safe & Stylish
Conclusion, Is An Anti-Slip Shower Tray Worth It:
For most people, wanting an anti-slip tray comes after an event that made us feel unsafe in the shower, that could be a near miss while showering, a friend who fell or an injury that’s changed our confidence on our feet.
To make a current bathroom safe again, the only options are buying a sticker, anti-slip paint or any other applied coating in order to add grip to the surface.
When remodelling a bathroom, that’s when the real choice can be made. If feeling safe in the shower is of the utmost importance, allocating a larger budget to the shower tray will allow for a top-of-the-range anti-slip solution. Providing safety and confidence with none of the drawbacks, like reapplying or being difficult cleaning. If the budget doesn’t allow for this, or the priorities lie elsewhere, then an allied coating can bridge the gap between a fully integrated anti-slip shower tray and a basic tray.
Put safety and luxury at the heart of your new bathroom with a SENSTEC Anti-Slip Shower Tray. Do not compromise on style with unlimited colour options, custom made to meet our customers exact requirements. With a large range of shapes and sizes our shower trays are compatible with all standard shower enclosures and will fit seamlessly into your new bathroom.
Learn more about us
How do you make a shower tray anti-slip? There are numerous methods of manufacturing shower trays, stone resin backed vacuum formed acrylic sheet or gel-coat, pressed steel, injection moulded and poured polyurethane to name a few. This is how shower trays can be made- but Read more
Taking a shower should be a refreshing and safe experience, but the risk of slips and falls in wet and soapy environments can make it a hazardous task. That's why many people turn to anti-slip solutions for their shower trays, such as stickers, mats, paint, Read more
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Our task was to use the most relevant international standards on slip resistance to design and manufacture an innovative anti-slip shower tray for use with barefoot, wet and soapy conditions. The anti-slip shower tray should be easily cleaned, offer a verifiable positive user experience and have no limitations on use throughout its lifetime.
“We left the meeting wondering just what we had actually agreed to do! The bar had been set high but we kept in mind that Classic Marble (Showers) Ltd has been at the forefront of design and innovation since 1983 and that we had won numerous product innovation awards for bathroom waterproofing products within our Classi® range.”
Manufacturers of shower trays sold within the EU must have their shower trays CE marked in accordance with the EU Construction Products Regulations including EN 14527.
The first challenge that we came across was the realisation that whilst EN 14527 draws attention to the potential for slipping to increase when the surface of shower trays are wet, it does not detail particular tests or technical parameters for shower trays in relation to slip resistance.As soon as we discovered this to be the case, our managing director joined the UK Slip Resistance Group, UKSRG, in order to raise awareness of this fact and to keep himself and the Classic Marble team fully up to date with changing legislation.
As a result, we found ourselves fulfilling an educational role, as well as developing a new product. Our next challenge was the actual design, so we turned to the aerospace tooling industry for help. This indicates the high level of precision engineering and expertise that the SENSTEC design required.
Our initial research led us to two methods of measuring slip resistance – the Pendulum Test and the Ramp Test, BS 7976-2:2002 and DIN 51097 respectively. We decided to test our product using both standards.
From the outset, we agreed that we should adopt an engineered solution and make the anti-slip design an integral part of the mould.
This would ensure that anti-slip properties would be built into all of our shower trays. In addition, we decided that the anti-slip profile should be made from the same material as the rest of the shower tray surface. This would mean that there would be no limitations of use.
More than three years of continuous research and development ensued and it soon became clear why no-one had yet successfully completed such a project. Prototype tool, tray manufacture, test, feedback results… Prototype tool, tray manufacture, test, feedback… the trials went on and on.
Then finally we cracked it after Prototype tool 42!
Or had we? Only rigorous testing would provide the answer.
• UKAS Laboratory tested to BS 7976-2:2002, showing best category of slip resistance possible, considering wet and soapy conditions.
• UKAS Laboratory tested to DIN 51097, showing best category of slip resistance possible, considering wet and soapy conditions.
• The anti-slip properties are an integral part of the tray manufacture, made from the same materials as the rest of the tray surface, therefore no limitations on use.
• Ulster University Study – 100% of subjects confident that they would not slip in a SENSTEC Anti-Slip Shower Tray, as well as 88% reporting a high degree of comfort when standing and moving in the SENSTEC Anti-Slip Shower Tray.
• Easily cleaned – no change required to our cleaning instructions, first introduced in 1983 for our normal shower trays.
• UK Patent No.: GB2551138 & US Patent No.: US 10,765,268
