Chip Repair on a Pressed Steel Bath

Chip Repairs

Of all the repair work we do on Baths, sinks and the like, the most common is repairing a chip or chips on pressed steel baths. Pressed steel baths have many advantages over cast iron. They are lighter, cheaper and easier to install. They also have advantages over most acrylic baths. They are longer lasting generally. There is less flexing and movement of the bath when in use so problems such as putting your knee through the bath or cracks appearing, as sometimes occurs with acrylic baths, does not occur with a pressed steel bath.

But a major dis-advantage of pressed steel is the fact of the enamel being very hard and brittle. So much so that when there is an impact on the surface of the bath, the enamel can’t flex or absorb the impact and often a chip of enamel is knocked of the surface of the bath. Often (in fact usually in my experience) the chip exposes the metal below the enamel. As the metal is treated and black, it really shows up against the enamel.

Here is a picture of a chip on a pressed-steel bath. This was a repair done in a home near Rochester:

Chip on a pressed steel bath

The first issue with a chip is cosmetic. It just looks wrong in a bath and does tend to catch the eye. The second issue is that left long enough, rust can start to form. And that, left long enough, can work its way though the steel of the bath and you can end up with a hole.

The good news is that it does tend to take a long time for this to happen, especially on higher end pressed-steel baths which tend to use a thicker steel in the construction of their baths. But it is best to repair the chip. as soon as possible.

So a repair of a chip on a pressed steel bath serves two purposes: the first is cosmetic and takes the eye of the damages area. The second is that the repair keep the water from being in direct contact with the steel and so prevents rusting or corroding of the metal below.

The chip in this pressed steel bath has “disappeared”

It would seem that for most people, the primary reason to get a  chip repair done is cosmetic. We can certainly rectify this.

The level of repair we go for is that if someone was to walk into the room after we have done the work, they wouldn’t see the repaired area, their eye wouldn’t be drawn to it and catch on it. Often however, we can get it to the point where the customer themselves cannot see the repair or locate where the original chip was located.

The secret to getting an invisible repair, or very close to invisible, is that we make the colour onsite to match the item we are repairing. We don’t use a selection of several shades of white (most repairs, especially of pressed steel, are some shade of white) and go with the closest. What we do is we actually build the colour onsite to match the specific item we are repairing. It can be a lot of work trying to match a colour onsite, especially if the lighting in the room isn’t great and it adds a lot of time to the process but it’s the best way we have found to make repair as good and as invisible as possible

Bath Repairs, Chip Repairs and Cracks in a Bath

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The Bath Business delivers a bath repair service for baths that have chips, scratches, cracks, scuffs, dings etc on the bath’s surface.

There are many instances where a bath in otherwise good condition has had its surface chipped or damaged. In such cases a bath repair is a definite option. Rather than resurface the whole bath, which is our mainline service, we would do a localised bath repair to the damaged area only.

If the bath has numerous chips however or the bath repair would need to be done over an extensive area we may well recommend resurfacing rather than attempting to do a bath repair over a large area of damage. Also, when repairing a bath the repair work works best on new baths that have been damaged. If your bath is 20 years old it may well be worth getting the bath resurfaced whilst having any damaged repaired at the same time.

Also if the bath is in a dull or worn condition and also has a chip or two we may recommend resurfacing as opposed to doing a chip or bath repair. Bath resurfacing encompasses repairing any chips. The reason we would recommend resurfacing in an older, worn bath rather than a bath repair or chip repair is because at the time of the repair the bath repair would be done to match the bath. If the bath is worn the worn areas will continue to attract dirt and gradually look worse. The bath repair will not attract dirt so eventually there will be a discrepancy and you will be able to see where the repair was done. A bath repair or chip repair works best on a relatively new bath.Try and tell us as much as you can about the bath when you inquire so we can recommend the correct course of action.

If you are a contractor & you are trying to have a bath repaired before a client sees it let us know. We make the repair as invisible as is possible as you look face onto the repair. But it will never be completely invisible from all angles. For example, if you painted half a wall exactly the same colour as the wall had already been painted 6 months earlier you would be able to see the edge if you looked for it. Similarly with a chip repair. If you keep looking for the repaired area you will eventually find an edge. If you are a contractor and it is important that the repair is not visible from any angle we would recommend you have the whole bath resurfaced. Any chips, dings or scratches will be rectified with the bath being completely resurfaced.

The type of repairs that can be done are chips to the enamel of cast-iron and pressed steel baths, scratches on enamel baths and pressed steel baths. Dents or dings to plastic or acrylic baths as well as scratches, cracks and also small holes punched through the surface of plastic or acrylic baths.

The procedure for doing a Bath Repair is to fill the chipped or dinged area and sand smooth.

Next, the material which is to be sprayed over the filled area is colour matched to the existing surface of the bath. We do the colour matching on site.This is the most important part of a Bath Repair and this procedure does require a lot of skill and experience.

Even if the existing surface is white, there are many, many shades of white. If the colour isn’t matched then the repaired area will stand out and catch the eye. A badly colour matched repair can look like someone has been in with a jar of tipex. If you have tried to repair a chip or ding yourself you’ll already have observed this.

Another difficulty can be the lighting. In one bathroom the lighting was such that although the tiles on the floor were exactly the same as the tiles on the walls, the tiles on the walls looked considerably darker. So a repair in this bathroom had to be carried out with a lot of expertise to get the exact colour match.

Once the colour is matched then the filled area is airbrushed over. The area may then be polished if any dust has landed on the wet material.

The procedure for a bath repair can also be applied to shower trays, wash hand basins and well also toilets.

Repairing cracks in an acrylic bath requires a completely different procedure. A successful repair to a crack is often dependant upon gaining access to the underside of the bath or cracked item.

It is best to contact The Bath Business directly for advice on how to repair your bath.

A Bath Resurfacing project in Bridge of Allan

05/03/09

I went to Bridge of Allan to do a job. The main thing the customer wanted was a chipped area of the bath repaired. Apparently it had just had a little chip originally, but one time he was in the bathroom,  the area around the chip just started flying off the bath until there was a large area that was just exposed cast iron.

I went and had Lunch in Bridge of Allan itself. It’s not a huge town by any means. Just one street with shops and restaurants on it. Lots of restaurants. They were all very upmarket. I was quite surprised by this. I mentioned it to the customer and he said that Bridge of Allan had rail and road links to both Edinburgh and Glasgow, good schools and a rural location and as such was much in demand as a place for the affluent to live.Not fitting into this category I was unaware of this haven in the countryside. It certainly is a beautiful place.

It also started snowing again. I was planning to go to Helensburgh to visit some family after I’d finished work and wasn’t sure I was going to make it if the snow kept up.

Snowing in Bridge of Allan.

The Customer and his wife run a company called Bouvrage. They produce all natural berry drinks from raspberries and European Blueberry. You can visit their website at www.bouvrage.com if you’d like to know more.

Got the job finished and did make it to Helensburgh. Scottish weather can be a bit unpredictable and annoying at times but it never got in the way of getting the job done and seeing the family. That makes a nice wee change.

Finished job.

A day of work in Sheffield

04/02/09

I travelled all the way to Sheffield today. It looks like they had had a lot of snow. We have employed a chap to cover this area specifically but I do like to do the odd job myself, especially when we are really busy. Sheffield is really rather nice.

I got to the job. A very pretty roll-top bath from 1928 was the bath to be resurfaced. It was in excellent condition too. But the customer wanted the holes for the taps filled and that area to look like it had never had taps. He had the new taps coming in over the side of the bath from above. So I filled the holes and resurfaced the bath. Can you tell where the tap holes where? I hop not.

The house was having a lot of work done to it; an extension being added and so on. One of the sparkies said something to me I didn’t catch. I asked him what he’d said. He laughed and said (refering to my Scottish accent), “Tha’ talks worst than ma!”  “Black”, “kettle”, “pot” and “calling” are some words which spring to mind. And most people think i sound American!

Heading back to the motorway from Sheffield, you pass a church with a crooked spire. I hope you can make it out in the picture. I am pretty sure the spire is meant to be like this.Quite a sight. Does anyone have any information on that Church spire?

What Kinds of Baths Can Be Resurfaced

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There are three main materials baths are made from: Cast-iron, Pressed steel and plastic/Acrylic.

We can resurface all of these.

CAST IRON BATHS.Cast iron is what baths have traditionally been made from. Baths have been made this way for a long time so you come across many different styles from Victorian roll-top baths with clawed feet, 1930’s art-deco style with broad, square shoulders and boxed in with cast-iron panels in matching colour (the most common colour of these baths is green/avocado) through to the much plainer baths of the fifties and sixties which are boxed in with panels made from ply or the like. Then as you get into the 70’s and 80’s you come across baths where the enamel is coloured again, the baths often have handles and again, usually the are boxed in.  The baths themselves are heavy. They do not flex when you get in them. A cast iron bath is very good at retaining the heat from the hot water. So a long soak in a deep cast iron bath is very desirable.We do resurface these baths regularly.

PRESSED STEEL BATHS. These baths are quite common today and are often still used in new-build houses. Generally they look very similar to cast iron baths from the fifties and sixties but are much thinner and lighter. If you rap them with your knuckle you can hear a “ring” from a pressed-steel bath which you won’t get from a cast-iron bath. Usually they are boxed-in. A pressed steel bath is quite easy to transport so, as mentioned earlier, it is quite popular to fit this kind of bath in a new build. We do resurface pressed steel baths.

PLASTIC/ACRYLIC BATHS. Very common from the seventies through to the present. A lot of the bathroom suites you see with strong colours such as burgundy, blue, mustard, green and so on tend to (but no always) have plastic baths. Also these baths tend to come in a wider variation of shapes than the cast or pressed steel baths. You can easily have a reproduction Victorian Roll top made from acrylic or you can have a luxury jacuzzi bath. It is a versatile material. This kind of bath is also very light and easy to install therefor. It can be damaged in transit or whilst fitting. We get called out to repair these fairly frequently.

These baths flex more when you use them and have a layer of plywood or chipboard under the base of them to stiffen and add strength.

A modern trend with plastic baths is to make them from much thicker material so they don’t flex and to do them in a roll-top style rather than boxed in, so you see the outside and feet of the bath.

– The Bath Business –

Welcome to the Bath Business’s Blog

Uk’s Professional Bath Restoration company

We specialize in bath re-enamelling, bath chip repairs, bathroom suite restoration, bathroom renovation, re-enameling, resurfacing, bath and basin repairs, chip repairs bath re-surfacing, enamel repairs, chipped enamel. We have been resurfacing baths since 1986.

The main service we deliver is the restoring of baths to their original condition. We do this in-situ without disturbing existing tiling and/or decoration. We also sell original antique French and English baths and basins as well as original antique taps and other fine sanitary ware.
In Scotland we service the areas of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Melrose, Hawick (The Scottish Borders) and as far north as Aberdeen. In England we operate in London the South East primarily although we are also in Manchester and the north west of England. We cover areas such as London, Brighton, Hove, Gatwick, Surrey, Sussex, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bath, Bristol and all surrounding areas.

Services include: bath-re-enamelling, Chip repairs, Bathroom Suite Resurfacing, enamelling, bathroom renovation, re-enamelling, resurfacing, bath re-surfacing, enamel repairs, chipped enamel, cast iron bath, bathtub refinishing, bath tub resurfacing,