Worn Cast Iron Bath Resurfaced
Worn Cast Iron Bath Resurfaced
Below are some pictures of a standard sized cast iron bath that we ultimately resurfaced. This was a bath we worked on in Ealing, London. But this style of bath is very common the length and breadth of the country. This style would have been installed in thousands of homes, especially during the 1950s-60s.
These were pretty good baths and they did the job they were designed for just fine. However, literally after decades of use the wear and tear can really start to show.
The bath below is overall in pretty good condition for its age, except at the tap end. The enamel around the waste is wearing thin and there has been a past issue with the taps resulting in stained and etching from the shoulder at the tap end down into the bath itself. You can get an idea from the pictures below:
Worn Cast Iron Bath
Worn Bath
In such circumstances, resurfacing the bath can give it a new lease of life and take something which has perhaps been letting the rest of the bathroom down into something that lifts the whole room. We are in and out in a day and the bath is usable first thing the next.
Here was how the bath looked when we had finished for the day:
Resurfaced Bath
Resurfaced bath
A Brief Summary of the Year so far at the Bath Business
The blog has been somewhat neglected by The Bath Business this year.
The main reason was our new addition.
FINLAY MICHAEL MOFFAT. Born on the 3rd of January 2010 weighing in at a healthy 8 lb 13 oz and a rather long 59cm.
Finlay has turned out to be charming little boy. He is very relaxed and good-natured. Like his bigger brother, Arran, he is also very physical and we don’t think it will be many more weeks before he is walking around. His big brother Arran, who has recently turned 3 years old, is busy teaching Finlay everything he knows. Between them they are managing to keep us on our toes.
Here are some pictures of Finlay and Arran
The boys have not quite taken our full attention however. We have been extremely busy here at THE BATH BUSINESS. We have taken on three new chaps to help cope with the demand for our services. Rick, Richard and Dean. Another two very recently, Shaun and David. Our chaps are specialists and more than ready and able to restore your bath or bathroom suite to its former glory. Now we have even more coverage for London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, Kent, Tunbridge Wells, Manchester, Birmingham Canterbury, Surrey as well as London and the home counties.
We have also opened a workshop in Horley, Surrey. This means we can restore your bath, wash basin, bidet or toilet at our workshop whilst you continue with your bathroom renovations. We are also providing BESPOKE Finishes for individual baths. This service is proving very popular, particularly with Interior Designers. Here are some pictures of some of our workshop work.
That’s quite a bit to keep us busy but we decided we needed to provide even more services for our customers.
Frequently we are asked to restore or refurbish bathroom taps as they are stiff or dripping or simply lost their shine. We are often asked about chrome plating or nickel plating taps or even cast iron feet. We can do this now. Antique or original taps and feet on a bath can look wonderful when restored and doing so can provide the finishing touch to your renovation works.
As if that were not enough we are also busy restoring some original freestanding roll top baths. These are now up for SALE. Original and reproduction bathroom taps, wash basins and accessories are also available.
https://www.thebathbusiness.co.uk
So blogging, babies, boys, baths, basins, workmen, workshops, taps and twitter have kept us very busy so far this year. By the end of the year no doubt we will have even more to announce 🙂
Resurfacing a Roll-Top Bath
Here at the Bath Business we resurface a lot of Victorian Roll-Top Baths. This isn’t really surprising when you look at how expensive they are to buy, even second hand. Many people like the classic look of these baths, and in the right setting they can be truly spectacular.
And that keeps demand for them high. So if you have a roll-top bath or any cast iron bath, then getting it resurfaced if it’s not looking it’s best is a very cost effective solution compared to replacement.
Resurfacing or re enameling, a quality bath breaths new life into it. It looks and feels new. The fact that it is done in situ by The Bath Business in less than a day makes it not only economical but also a lot less disruptive than replacing the bath.
The Bath Business can resurface cast-iron and modern baths. We can re-enamel claw foot baths, classic antique baths, slipper baths, roll top baths etc. We can resurface and re-enamel cast-iron, plastic, acrylic or fibreglass baths as well as porcelain.
Recently there has been a move to using roll-top freestanding baths in very contemporary surroundings. This can work surprisingly well.
A recent customer had had his bathroom completely re-done, but wanted to keep the roll-top which was original to the house. So he decided to have The Bath Business come and resurface his bath.
He’d had taps installed which were on a stand-pipe, separate from the bath itself. The taps were a mono-block design, done in chrome. The stand pipes were in chrome too. (Another way to achieve a similar affect would been to have the taps coming out from the wall above were the bath was to be positioned.)
So the bath was not going to have any taps on it at all, which gave it a very uncluttered, modern look
However, this left the problem of what to do with the old tap holes. The Bath Business were able to fill the tap holes and resurface the bath. The end result of that was a bath which looked like it had never ever had taps, thus giving him a bath which was both original but also thoroughly in keeping with the bathroom make-over.
A bath with the taps holes made to “disappear”.
Services include: bath re-enamelling, bath chip repairs, bathroom suite, enamelling, bathroom renovation, re-enamelling, resurfacing, bath re-surfacing, enamel repairs, chipped enamel, cast iron bath, bathtub refinishing, bath tub resurfacing,
A day of work in Sheffield
- At February 25, 2009
- By
- In bath chip repairs london / bath enamel / bath re-enameling UK / bath re-enamelling UK / bath re-surfacing edinburgh / bath re-surfacing london / bath renovation london / bath resurfacing / bathroom renovation / bathroom suite / Bathrooms london / chipped enamel / enamelling / shower re-surfacing / the bath business
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?
Snow!
2/2/09
Like a few million other people, I didn’t make it to work today. At the start of my journey, the snow didn’t seem that bad. Headed up the M23 to get onto the M25. Couldn’t get onto the M25. Believe there had been a number of jack-knifed lorries which had closed the road completely.
Decided to try using smaller roads. At first this was fine but gradually the tarmac was disappearing under snow and eventually it was getting hard to see where the road actually was. But I still thought I would make it to the job.
Then came to a queue of cars. There was quite a steep hill up ahead, and people were trying, and failing to make it up. It was now about 10:30am and I had been travelling for over 2 hours and had failed to get 20 miles from home. So I turned around and headed home. I ended up playing in the snow with my son, Arran. As you can see he thought it was great fun!
Changing the Colour of a Bath
We can change the colour of your bath. Or restore the colour of an existing bath that has gotten worn or damaged.
Generally the colour required is made on-site, matching it to an existing coloured fixture. This is quite a time consuming process so it adds a little bit to the price compared to restoring a bath to white.
If you don’t require or need you bath resurfaced to match existing fixtures, but just want it coloured (for example, someone requested their bath be resurfaced in black) then the colour can be obtained ready made and this brings costs down.
If you have a roll-top style of bath, then usually the outside of the bath is painted, often in a strong, bold colour. The specialist materials we use for the inside of the bath are not required, although if we do the outside for you in white we will use these materials.
This is something you can do yourself as the finish on the outside is not as critical as on the inside. After all, you are not going to be sitting, naked, on the outside. Nor is it going to be getting immersed in water.
If you do plan on doing the outside yourself, I’d recommend not using a high gloss finish as the outside of a cast iron bath is often quite rough and pitted and a glossy finish will just highlight this. A satin finish should look much better.
Also, doing the feet in a different colour helps to draw attention to them, and if you have clawed feet or the like (some of these baths can have quite impressive feet with a surprising amount of detail) then a different colour is really worth considering.
Or, if you prefer, we can do it for you.
Services include:Bath Re-enamelling bath chip repairs, bathroom suite, enamelling, bathroom renovation, re-enamelling a bath, resurfacing, bath re-surfacing,enamel repairs,chipped enamel, cast iron bath, bathtub refinishing, bath tub resurfacing,
When Should One Look at Having a Bath Resurfaced
Bath tub refinishing, Bath tub Resurfacing
The majority of the baths we resurface are done because the bottom area of the bath has become dull, rough stained and hard to clean. These are, almost all of them, cast-iron baths.
Pressed-steel baths and plastic/acrylic don’t usually have this problem to the same degree because their finish is tougher and more resistant to chemical attack by modern cleaners, acidic water and so on.However they can become patchy and look bleached as well as suffer from lime-scale and off course they can be chipped or damaged in some way. As far as repairing a bath is concerned we do more repairs to pressed steel and plastic baths but not so many repairs to cast iron bath.
We also get asked to do baths to handle things like chips in the bath or to change the colour of a bath or cover in tap holes when taps have been moved (onto the wall, for instance).
We do also resurface some pressed-steel and plastic baths, particularly when removing them would result in expensive redecoration. Pressed-steel baths are prone to chipping but apart from that they usually last very well. They can become discoloured and a bit rough. Once in a while you come across one that has had damage done due to corrossive cleaning agents, but compared to cast-iron baths this is relatively rare.
So of the pressed-steel and plastic baths we resurface, the main reason for resurfacing tends to be to change the colour (currently the trend is to get a coloured bath changed to white) or to give the coloured bath a new lease of life.
Resurfacing versus replacement?
I suppose as it’s my business I ought to say it’s better to resurface. However, I think there is a valid case for both depending on what kind of bath you have and where it is fitted in the bathroom. Also it depends on what you are planning to do with your bathroom. Another factor is what will be what is the most cost effective. And finally there is the age of your home.
For example, if you are planning to completely change around you bathroom, moving the fixtures and so on, I would replace the bath if it is a pressed steel or plastic bath, as these are quite inexpensive, easy to get hold of, and you are already going to be redoing the plumbing, plastering, tiling and so on.
If you have a cast iron bath then it may be more sensible to keep it and get it resurfaced, especially if it is a roll-top or 1930’s style of bath. These are not easy to replace and costly to buy even second-hand and are very desirable. If you are planning to get rid of a roll-top, then don’t throw it out. Sell it! People want these.
If you have one of the plainer cast iron baths from the 1950s or ’60s (these baths are usually large and boxed in) and you are planning to completely change around your bathroom then you may well be better to replace it with a plastic or pressed steel bath. I think in this instance it comes down to personal preference. Some people like the fact that a cast iron bath feels substantial when they are in it and these baths tend to be a bit deeper and wider. Others like the modern designs you can get with plastic baths. If you are a bit bigger like myself then a cast iron bath is a must have. But as i said it is down to personal preferences.
If you just want your existing bath to look better and are not planning to change things around in the bathroom (and this is the scenario in the majority of the jobs we do) then resurfacing becomes a good option because it will generally be cheaper, easier to organize and the bath will be out of commission for a shorter period of time (with us you will be able to use the bath the next day).
But even in this scenario, if you live in a modern house, it may be as cheap or cheaper to replace your existing plastic bath as it will be a standard size which is easy to get hold of and not expensive. It should be quite straight-forward for a plumber to change the baths around so his costs will not be great. You shouldn’t need to re-tile as the new bath ought to slot right in where the old one was.
But even with new-build houses there are exceptions. I recently did a plastic bath in a new-build flat for a single guy. He wanted it resurfaced because he worked all week and didn’t want the hassle of trying to source a new bath and organising a plumber and having to take a day off work to let the plumber in. As I was willing to work on a Saturday then resurfacing, for him, was a better option.
If you are not sure what would be best for yourself in terms of resurfacing you bath or replacing it, please feel free to e-mail me and I’ll do my best to help you out.
The Bath Business –
Repairing chips in a bath
We can repair chips in a bath. If the bath itself is in pretty good condition and just has a chip or two, then rather than having the whole bath done, the chip itself can be fixed. It is cheaper than resurfacing the whole bath. This repair service works best on a relatively new bath where one or two chips exist. Also we can repair small cracks or holes in the bath.
I wouldn’t recommend doing a chip repair if the bath is starting to feel a bit worn and rough, especially if the chip is in the worn area. The area repaired will have a different texture to the surrounding area and as the old surface is rough it will tend be hard to clean and discolour, making the repair very noticeable.
Another point to make in relation to chip repairs is that even if your bath is white, we will still need to colour match the repaired area to the existing bath otherwise you have two different shades of white right next to each other and the repair stands out like a sore thumb.
Probably the majority of repairs we do are on pressed steel baths, as these are especially prone to being chipped.
What Kinds of Baths Can Be Resurfaced
- At January 22, 2009
- By
- In bath chip repairs london / bath enamel / bath re-enameling UK / bath re-enamelling UK / bath re-surfacing edinburgh / bath re-surfacing london / bath renovation london / bathroom renovation / Bathrooms london / chipped enamel / enamel repairs / enamelling / shower re-surfacing
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 is back in Vogue
The Bath is back in Vogue
Bath Restoration and Renovation in the UK
· Supersized and spacious
Focal point
· Shower feature
· Mosaic
· Wood
· Equilibrium
Beautiful Baths – The Bath Business
Back in the day, a bath in a home was considered an item of luxury and was only found in hotels and the homes of the rich and famous. But today, a bath tub is an integral part of most homes, so much so that many homes have more than just one. In addition to being highly functional and allowing you to be clean, it also makes for a wonderful place to relax. They come in a variety of types to suite every home.
Built in Baths
These are very popular in most homes and come in various shapes, sizes and materials. They are enclosed onthree sides and open only on the front side. Drop in baths are built into the floor and are at ground level. Another example of a built in bath is a corner bath.
Freestanding Baths
As the name suggests the bath stands freely in the bathroom and works best in a bigger bathroom. The taps are usually mounted onto the side on the bath or on the wall. The most popular types of freestanding baths are Clawfoot and Pedestal.Freestanding baths generally are very versatile. They can be placed in the middle of the room or against a wall. There are also a variety of styles both modern and traditional, although, most people commonly think of a traditional roll top bath when they are thinking of a free standing bath.
Shower Baths
Shower baths are typically found in smaller bathrooms as they combine the two functions while saving the homeowner space. Some large freestanding baths could also have a shower hood attached to the bath. This is called a canopy bath. These baths generally were fitted in quite large properties and could be quite an impressive centre piece to a bathroom. They are rare now but are still found. We have restored a few of them.
Speciality Baths
A spa bath or jet bath will help turn your bathroom into a sanctuary of health and relaxation. Tension and stress is melted away by jets of water massaging your body and in turn reduces muscle and joint aches and pains, therefore relaxing, mind body and soul. In recent years, spa baths have become more affordable, with more manufacturers of the product encouraging healthy competition. Spa baths are available in various shapes, sizes and number of jets, so be careful to check these when comparing prices.
Types of Baths
Bath tubs come in an assortment of materials with unique properties that affect the distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Acrylic: Fibreglass is used as a reinforcement material to the vacuum-formed acrylic sheets. This makes the finished product resistant to cracking. They can still get chipped or even look like dents have been taken out of them. However these can be repaired. Acrylic baths are lightweight and relatively inexpensive.
Cast Iron: These baths are among the most expensive baths on the market. Cast Iron baths are made by pouring molten iron into a mould. They are impervious to most chemicals and are almost impossible to dent or scratch.The enamel however can be chipped and if chipped badly the client can be left with an unsightly spot where the original iron is showing through. This can be repaired by a reputable company
Cultured Marble: are not made from marble at all, they are made by mixing limestone with a polyester resin and then finished with a gel coat. The finished product resembles natural marble in appearance. Cultured marble baths are less expensive than cast iron, but more expensive than acrylic.
Solid Surface: Solid surface materials have been used for years as an alternative to natural stone, such as marble and granite, but only recently has it gained popularity in the manufacturing of baths. The material has excellent thermal properties and will maintain the bath water temperature for longer than most other materials.
The trend is towards squared-off basin design, but for baths the bigger the better, try for a bath size of at least 1 700mm.
If you enjoy a bath for two install the bath taps on the wall next to the bath, in this way two people can share the bath comfortably. As the bath is the largest fitting in the bathroom, choose a bath in a design and style that complements the rest décor in your home.
The Bath Business – Restoring Baths to Beautiful Standards
Services include: bath re-enamelling, bath chip repairs, bathroom suite, enameling, enamelling, bathroom renovation, re-enameling, resurfacing, bath re-surfacing, enamel repairs, chipped enamel, cast iron bath, bathtub refinishing, bath tub resurfacing,
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