Natural Stone Baths, Wash Basins and Shower Trays

Natrual stone shower trays, sinks and baths: What you really need to know about these products before ordering!

Stone basins and stone baths are made from natural stone and the highest quality stone baths are hand carved by craftsmen. There are several unique features that potential buyers should consider when purchasing a natural stone bath, shower tray or basin that will influence their decision.

Natural stone baths, basins and shower trays look beautiful, they are nearly always bespoke and never unform, because they are made of natural stone, the pattern is always unique! Natural stone also has some great natural characteristics that make it an ideal form for baths, the stone retains the heat from the water and diffuses the heat above the water line. The result is a great relaxing bath, not just having below the water line hot and above cold. This means that you can lie back and really relax. The natural stone bath also has a different texture to a standard porcelain bath, the feel against skin is a lot more intense and depending on the type of stone chosen, the relative smoothness of the surface changes.

A natural stone bath makes a significant statement about the quality of a development or home. Standardised and mass produced baths are always uniform, you can always tell when a bath is mass produced due to the uniformity of the shape, size and colour.Natural stone basins, baths and showers move away from this uniformity with a guaranteed unique colour that is never uniform by the very nature of the product being a natural creation. Out products are also typically bespoke in style and design, not being mass produced and widely available on the high street creates a unique product that adds tone and class to any home, studio, apartment or development. 

One important point for consideration is that these products are made from natural stone and it is heavy, a natural stone bath can weigh as much as 900kg’s, they are really heavy!  A high quality and bespoke natural stone bath cannot be lifted by hand, no matter how strong you think you are, they are heavy (if you haven’t already realised). These products generally require lifting by crane if they have to go into upper stories in a building and the flooring will need to be re-inforced. For ground floor installation, this is much easier as they can be wheeled into place! If you are designing and building a new house and would like to install a natural stone bath on a second storey floor, the ideal time to install is before you put the roof on so that a crane can lift the bath into place. If the stone bath is to be placed on a ground level floor, the floor should be concrete based due to the weight!

Natural stone shower trays are also heavy although nowhere near as heavy as a bath, they can be manually lifted although you will need several people to move the shower trays, especially when going upstairs.  As these are heavy, ensure that the supporting structure can withstand the weight, if in any doubt, add additional supporting beams to the relevant area or consult an engineer. Natural stone basins obviously weigh a lot less but are still comparatively heavier than standard basins, many stone basins are designed to sit on work tops so the increased weight is not an issue but if they are designed to be fixed against a horizontal wall, you should ensure that the connection fittings are designed for the increased weight!