“Mum, the shower’s eating my toes again!” My niece’s voice carried through the flimsy bathroom door while I was balancing a tray of coffees. I kicked the door open to find her wedged in the Madera tray, ankle-deep in suds because the Florestone drain had decided that today was the day it would impersonate a backed-up canal. A single strand of her waist-length hair had wrapped itself round the stainless grate like a python, and the 50 mm water seal had become a 50 mm puddle. That was the moment I realised most people treat a shower drain as a black hole: everything disappears forever—until it doesn’t.
I’m Lisa Park, a bathroom specialist who’s spent the last eleven years specifying and fixing shower waterproofing for hotel chains and domestic refurbs. I’ve lost count of the number of Florestone Madera trays I’ve signed off—somewhere north of 800—but I still remember the serial number of the first one I ever installed: MF-4836-CRS, £187 plus VAT from PTS in 2014. It’s still in daily use in a Premier Inn off the M4, and I check it every time I stay over. That track record is why I get twitchy when I see the drain treated like an afterthought.
What Makes the Florestone Madera Drain Different
The Madera isn’t just a square of moulded stone resin with a pretty grate. The drain body is a 3-piece modular assembly: flange, clamp ring and snap-in strainer. The flange is ABS, not cheap PP, so it grips 40 mm or 50 mm solvent-weld pipe without wobbling. The clamp ring uses four Torx screws—T15 if you’re reaching for the driver—so the membrane is mechanically pinched, not merely glued. That matters because British Standards BS 5385-3 wants a 1.5 kN peel test on wet-room membranes, and a drained adhesive joint usually fails at 0.8 kN. I once watched a competitor’s tray lift like a soggy biscuit during a flood test because they relied on silicone alone. The Madera stayed put; the water stayed out.
Flow rate? 24 l/min at 15 mm head, tested to EN 1253. In plain English, even my sister’s power shower that thinks it’s a car wash can’t overwhelm it. The grate is 114 mm square, laser-cut 316 stainless, 2.5 mm thick. It will survive a dropped bottle of Aesop shampoo and still look brand new after a quick buff with a green Scotch-Brite.
Choosing the Correct Grate Finish for Your Bathroom
Florestone ships six finishes: polished, brushed, matte black, PVD gold, antique bronze and the new “gunmetal” they launched at KBB 2025. Polished is the default, but it shows every footprint and costs you an extra three minutes of daily squeegee time. I specified brushed for a boutique hotel in Bath; housekeeping sent me a thank-you card because they no longer needed metal polish on the cleaning trolley. Matte black is gorgeous—until you live in a hard-water zone. Limescale dries white on black, so you’ll be descaling weekly. My rule: if your water is over 180 ppm CaCO₃, stick to brushed or pay the price in elbow grease.
Price difference? At Travis Perkins (February 2025) the standard polished grate is £42 inc VAT, gunmetal is £58. On a four-tray job that’s £64 extra—less than a takeaway, but enough to blow the budget on a tight refurb. I once had a client insist on gold for his loft conversion; two months later he rang to ask if I could swap it for brushed because the glare from the skylight made him feel like he was showering in a Bond villain’s lair. Swapping a grate takes five minutes if you do it before the tile adhesive skins over; afterwards you’re chiselling.
Installation Tips That Save You a Callback
1. Dry-fit everything first. The Madera flange rotates 360°, so point the outlet where your pipe actually is, not where the drawing says it should be. Drawings lie.
2. Prime both pipe and flange with Wickes ABS primer (£6.49, purple stuff) before you solvent-weld. I’ve seen plumbers skip this and the joint creeps apart when the sun hits the tray.
3. Bed the tray on 5 mm semi-dry mortar, not dot-and-dab tile adhesive. Adhesive shrinks; the tray rocks and the membrane shears.
4. Flood test before tiling. Fill to 25 mm, mark the level, wait two hours. If it drops more than 2 mm, you’ve got a leak—usually under the clamp ring because the membrane wasn’t seated flat. I learned this the hard way on a £12 k wet room in Chelsea; the tiler had folded the membrane like a gift wrap, water tracked under the tray and came up through the living-room ceiling. One sheet of plasterboard, £240 and a very angry customer later, I never skip the test.
Common Blockages and How to Clear Them
Hair is the obvious villain, but the real culprit is a combo: hair + soap scum = rope. The Madera strainer has 2 mm slots, fine enough to catch a bobby pin, so it clogs faster than a 4 mm-slot cheapo. Pop the grate with a small flat screwdriver at the notch, twist 30° anti-clockwise, lift. The strainer basket lifts straight out. Tip it, don’t rinse—if you rinse, the hair balls just relocate further down the pipe.
For deeper clogs, remove the whole clamp ring (four screws) and feed in a 6 mm drain snake. I keep a 5 m hand auger in the van, £18 from Screwfix. Never use chemical unblockers: sodium hydroxide attacks ABS and voids Florestone’s 25-year warranty. A client once poured two bottles of Mr Muscle down his week-old tray; the flange turned brittle and cracked like an old biscuit. New tray, new screed, new tiles—£1,400 claim on his household insurance, excluded because “misuse”.
Maintenance Schedule That Keeps the Warranty Alive
Florestone’s Ts&Cs say “regular cleaning” but don’t define it. I give customers a fridge magnet (yes, really) with this:
Weekly: quick wipe of grate with washing-up liquid, rinse.
Monthly: remove strainer, soak in warm vinegar 15 min if you see white crust.
Annually: check clamp-ring screws are still tight; they can back out with thermal cycling.
I set a calendar reminder for my own shower—Google Calendar, “Madera spa day”, first Sunday of every month. Eleven years, zero blockages, grate still looks new. My neighbour ignored me, had to call Dyno-Rod at 8 p.m. on a bank holiday: £128 call-out, plus the indignity of offering the technician my own biscuits.
Cost Breakdown: Tray, Drain, and Labour in 2025
Item | Supply £ | Fit £ | Notes
———————-|———-|——-|——-
Madera 900×900 tray | 185 | 60 | mortar bed, level check
Florestone drain kit | 85 | 40 | solvent weld, test
Tanking membrane | 45 | 50 | 2 m², upstand 100 mm
Labour (plumber) | — | 200 | 4 h, flood test
Labour (tiler) | — | 300 | 2 days, metro tiles
Total | 315 | 650 | £965 ex-VAT, 2025 prices, South-East
Prices drift 10% cheaper up north; London adds 20%. If you DIY, budget an extra tray—stone resin chips if you drop it. I’ve snapped two in transit; Florestone replaced one foc, the other was my round.
Upgrading From a Centre Waste to Madera’s Offset
Older trays often have a 90 mm centre waste that lines up with nothing once you add insulation. Madera’s outlet is 50 mm side-positioned, 50 mm from wall face. That gives you a clear run under the joists and keeps the trap within the 100 mm zone so it stays self-venting. I retrofitted one in a 1930s house with 200 mm joists; we notched 25 mm off the top of the joist, slid a 50 ° bend in, and still maintained 175 mm clear span—within TRADA tables. Building Control signed it off without a squeak. If your joists are 150 mm, use a shallow 40 mm trap and fir the tray up 20 mm; you’ll lose the flush-threshold look but save the ceiling below.
Safety Considerations and Legal Requirements
Part H of the Building Regs demands a 50 mm water seal minimum on any shower connected to a soil stack. Madera’s integral trap gives 54 mm—just enough to stop sewer gas but shallow enough for hair to escape the swirl. If you connect to a pumped waste pump (Saniflo et al.), you must fit a 75 mm trap upstairs; Florestone sells an extension bowl that bolts on. Skip it and the pump pulls the trap dry, letting methane into the room. I once investigated a “smelly shower” in a basement flat; the installer had ignored the extension, and the tenant thought the stench was damp. She had been sleeping with the window open in December.
Warning: Never drill the tray to add extra screws—stone resin micro-cracks and voids the 25-year warranty. If the tray rocks, pack the underside with mortar, not screws.
Completed 3-piece modular assembly installation showing professional results
FAQ
Can I fit the Madera drain to a 40 mm pipe?
Yes, the flange tapers to accept both 40 mm and 50 mm solvent-weld. Use a 40–50 mm reducer if your pipe is 40 mm and you want extra glue surface.
How often should I replace the grate?
Never, if you clean it. Stainless 316 has a pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) of 23; even coastal homes rarely corrode it. I’ve seen 15-year-old grates polish up like new.
Is the Madera compatible with underfloor heating?
Absolutely. The tray only needs 5 mm mortar, so 16 mm UFH pipes can run beneath. Keep the heating loop 150 mm clear of the drain outlet to avoid heat cycling the ABS.
What if the water won’t drain after installation?
Check the tray is level—bubble should sit dead centre. Then look for the transit plug: a small foam disc sometimes left in the drain spigot. I’ve driven 40 miles to remove one; the customer’s face was redder than the grout.
Can I use the Madera on a timber floor without screed?
Yes, but you must sheet the floor with 18 mm WBP ply, then bed the tray on mortar as usual. Any bounce will crack tiles long before the drain fails.
Final Takeaway
A shower drain is the only part of the bathroom that works 24/7; everything else gets a break. The Florestone Madera assembly forgives sloppy installation once, but not twice. Treat it to a five-minute monthly check, and it will outlive the tiles. Ignore it, and it will remind you at the worst possible moment—usually when you’re holding coffee and someone’s screaming about toe-eating monsters. Fit it right, clean it often, and you’ll forget it exists. That’s the highest compliment any drain can receive.
Dr. Lisa Park
Lisa Park has specified and commissioned over 800 Florestone Madera shower systems across the UK and is a Level 3 NVQ certified bathroom installer. She writes the “Wet Room Wednesday” newsletter for trade professionals and teaches CPD seminars on waterproofing compliance.
