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Polyester resin buying guide

Updated: 23 October 2026

You have a loose gate hinge in sound brick, or a chip in a granite windowsill, and amazon.co.uk is offering several tubes that all say polyester resin. A cartridge injects resin around a stud. A knife-grade paste fills vertical stone. The gun, the smell and the wall have to match the tube, or the lower price is the wrong saving. Shelf prices and review counts stay on the [polyester resin comparison](/hub/fillers-adhesives-and-sprays/polyester-resin). We used those listings, manufacturer pages and Health and Safety Executive guidance, and we did not laboratory-test a fixing. A qualifying purchase through our amazon.co.uk links can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

You have a loose gate hinge in sound brick, or a chip in a granite windowsill, and amazon.co.uk is offering several tubes that all say polyester resin. A cartridge injects resin around a stud.

Our top picks

Rawlplug Rawlplug R-KEM II 300 ml

Best overall

Rawlplug Rawlplug R-KEM II 300 ml
8.4/10about £12.10
View offer
fischer fischer FIS P Plus for masonry

Rank 2

fischer fischer FIS P Plus for masonry
8.7/10about £11.28
View offer
TIMCO TIMCO PE polyester resin 300 ml

Best value

TIMCO TIMCO PE polyester resin 300 ml
8.4/10about £10.30
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Start with the job
  2. 2.Styrene and the room
  3. 3.Gun and fill
  4. 4.Substrate, approval and what is actually in the box

Start with the job

The first split is the job, not the brand. An injection cartridge is mixed in a nozzle and pumped into a drilled hole so a threaded rod can hold a bracket, a gate hinge or a light handrail. A knife-grade paste is stone glue you spread with a blade. It will not inject a hinge, and a cartridge will run off a chipped sill. In this set the stud tubes are the two TIMCO PE sizes, the two fischer FIS P Plus hybrids, Rawlplug R-KEM II and Metalmate. The paste is Harbro vertical Stonebond, about £18.95 with no star line, for marble, granite, onyx and travertine. Once the job is a stud, the air in the room is next, which is where the best polyester resin roles diverge.

Styrene and the room

Styrene-free is about smell and ventilation, not a higher load. Standard polyester here is TIMCO PE 300 ml at about £10.30 and TIMCO PE 410 ml at about £10.40, both for well ventilated, non-safety-critical work. Rawlplug’s 300 ml at about £12.10 and Metalmate’s 410 ml at about £14.13 print styrene-free. The two fischer listings are polyester hybrid and do not. The Health and Safety Executive workplace limit for styrene is 100 ppm over eight hours and 250 ppm over 15 minutes, for employers under COSHH. A ventilated garage is not a laminating workshop. A closed kitchen, with someone next door, is a reason to leave the cheaper TIMCO.
Rawlplug Rawlplug R-KEM II 300 ml

Testsieger

Rawlplug Rawlplug R-KEM II 300 ml
8.4/10about £12.10
View offer

Gun and fill

Millilitres decide the gun more often than the logo. A 300 ml cartridge is the skeleton-gun size. A robust standard caulking gun can usually squeeze it, though resin is harder than silicone and a tired gun stalls. Reviewers struggle to seat the 380 ml and 410 ml tubes in a mastic gun. Fischer’s 380 C needs something other than a standard mastic gun, and the TIMCO 410 ml listing names an 8 inch resin gun. The masonry fischer listing does not state a fill, so do not treat B01N2QZA2N as the 300 T that the manufacturer says fits a silicone gun. A 410 ml tube that will not fit is a wasted hole, not a bargain at about £10.40.

Substrate, approval and what is actually in the box

An approval covers the named substrate and conditions, not every wall. Rawlplug’s masonry pair is ETA-12/0528 and UKTA-22/6108, separate from its non-cracked concrete sheet. Fischer FIS P Plus is published with ETA-11/0419 and ETA-18/0383. Trade coverage of that hybrid includes external use and water-filled holes, and that exception stays on fischer. TIMCO’s pages say non-safety-critical. A title that promises rods and two nozzles is not the bag: Rawlplug’s fixing-kit wording and fischer masonry reviews both include missing nozzles. Tyre-style fields are not a load rating. A flooded hole, cracked concrete or an overhead fixing may be the wrong chemistry for this set.

Common questions

Do I need a cartridge or a stone paste?
Buy a cartridge to bond a threaded stud into brick or concrete. Buy the knife-grade paste for a chip or joint in marble, granite, onyx or travertine on a vertical face. The Harbro listing is that paste, at about £18.95, mixed with a separate hardener rather than a static nozzle. A flowing horizontal stone resin is a different tub.
Will a 410 ml or 380 ml tube fit the gun I already own?
Often it will not. Reviews of the fischer 380 C say it is not a standard mastic gun, and the TIMCO 410 ml listing names an 8 inch resin gun. A 300 ml cartridge is the size a sturdy silicone gun is more likely to accept. Resin is stiffer than sealant, and a weak gun still stalls. Check the gun before the hole is open.
Is styrene-free the same as a stronger resin?
No. The styrene-free line on Rawlplug 300 ml and Metalmate 410 ml is about odour in an enclosed room. The cheaper TIMCO PE tubes are standard polyester for a ventilated space. Neither claim is a pull-out test, and neither turns polyester into a cracked-concrete resin. Do not borrow the words from another retailer’s badge.
Does an ETA cover every wall?
It covers the substrates and conditions named in that approval. Rawlplug’s ETA-12/0528 and UKTA-22/6108 are not a pass for cracked concrete. Fischer’s ETA-11/0419 and ETA-18/0383 belong to FIS P Plus, including the published external and water-filled scope. They do not transfer to a TIMCO tube sold as non-safety-critical.
Why does one fischer listing not show a fill volume?
The masonry listing, B01N2QZA2N, does not state millilitres. The 300 T size and the silicone-gun sentence sit on the manufacturer page for that size, not on this listing. Treating the tube as 300 ml is a guess. The 380 C listing, at about £13.29, is the one reviews associate with a specialist gun.
Should I trust a title that says rods and two nozzles?
Read the box contents, not the headline. Rawlplug’s fixing-kit title has been called out because rods and a spare nozzle are not the same as a resin cartridge on its own. Fischer masonry reviews also mention nozzles missing from the parcel. If you do not already have the stud, order the rod as its own line.

Related pages

How to use a polyester resin anchor

Styrene-free polyester resin

Polyester resin

Best polyester resin: one top pick, one best value

Polyester resin vs vinylester: when you should step up

Sources

Public UK sources used for this comparison. amazon.co.uk prices, stars and review counts were taken from the listings on 20 October 2026.

  1. HSE plastics FAQ on styrene (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  2. UKHSA styrene incident management (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  3. fischer UK, FIS P Plus (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  4. Rawlplug UK, R-KEM II (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  5. TIMCO PE410 chemical resin (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  6. TIMCO PE safety data sheet (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  7. HSE PPIS14 styrene in contact moulding (retrieved 20 October 2026)
  8. amazon.co.uk listings for the seven ASINs in this set (retrieved 20 October 2026)