Shower Tray Repair

[Christian and Beccy]

I have a new white 'resin bonded' shower tray (Just Trays JT40) and, during the installation, I have manged to damage it. Luckily, the damage isn't very bad. 2 small chips, less than 1mm deep, but there is a shallow dent about 5-8mm round.

I spoke to the manufacturer of the tray, who want £50 for a repair kit. Knowing that it was my mistake and the marks will haunt me forever if I don't fix them, I think I need to 'bend over and take it'.

My question is, for a fairly small repair, how successful can I expect this kit to be? I'm fairly persistent and with a good skill level, so am capable of using the kit to it's full potential, but is it possible for the repair to be satisfactory (i.e. >99% invisible)?

 

[mysteryman]

Is this DIY or trade?

If the repair fails later on, you will have to replace the tray. There is a lot of work in retiling and making good if that happens.

 

[Christian and Beccy]

DIY. What difference does that make?

There'd be a lot of work in replacing the tray now to be honest, it's tiled in and mostly complete.

If you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, it would be completely disproportionate and wasteful to replace the tray. To clarify, this is a small cosmetic repair, what are the chances of it 'failing'?

At the moment, it's barely noticeable. I'd like to improve it. What I don't want to do is spend £50 on the correct kit if the best I can hope for is a repair that is still just as visible as the damage was.

 

[foxhole]

I touched up damage to shower tray with appliance white, does a good job.
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/330634651118?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

 

[Symptoms]

C&B - I've used Cramer repair kit for a similar fix. The pack contains a filler & hardener, a can of ceramic enamel acrylic 'paint', and some abrasive papers. The filler and hardener combo worked well to fill the chip and the abrasive paper effective in rubbing the chip level - the filler colour is an off-white. However, the spray enamel acrylic is alpine white and is slightly duller than the brilliant white of the original so it's not an 'invisible' repair; also being a spray you risk overspraying the area so have to fashion a paper/card mask with a small hole though which you spray. Care also needs to be taken when using the abrasive paper not to go beyond the filled chip area ... avoid rubbing the surrounding glossy original finish as you'll make it loose its shine.

Years ago I once repaired a chip in an enamelled steel bath using appliance white applied with a very, very small artist brush building-up the layers within the chip so as to render a decent disguised repair. Same as foxy's post.

I think if I had to do another shower tray chip repair I'd first try the appliance white paint method (brush applied not spray) and see if it looked OK, if not then I'd use the repair pack method. Also remember that you're viewing the chip on bended knees so the repair won't look perfect, maybe when standing-up it might not bother you quite as much ...

Hope this helps.