Bath Re-enamelling

If the enamel on your bath is getting worn, rough, stained or just hard to keep clean, then you are probably searching for a way to sort this out, and you’ve ended up looking at this page on Bath Enamelling.

Below is a skirted bath that we re enamelled in situ. This was a beautiful big bath that needed re enamelled on the inside and the outside. The re enamelling produced a beautiful finish as you can see. The finish is mirror like and the bath is now restored to looking like a new enamelled bath and is also now very easy to clean.

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People use the term “Bath Enamelling or “Bath Re-Enamelling” to mean two different services.

One of these is the spraying of a new coating onto your bath. This is normally done without removing the bath. The taps, overflow and the waste are left on the bath. The tiles are not touched. And the job is generally completed in a day.It is very hassle free and a lot less disruptive than removing the bath. When people talk about having your bath re enamelled in situ, this is the process they are talking about.

This is the service we deliver. It can be confusing for the customer as this service is called Bath Enamelling as well as Bath  Re Enamelling

We can take an old worn bath that is rough to the touch, hard to clean, has lime-scale and perhaps covered in stains with a dirty tide mark and transform it into a bright, shiny bath that is smooth and easy to clean.

We don’t need to take out the bath to do this. We do not need to remove or loosen the taps, the overflow or the waste.

We get the job done in a day and the bath is fully usable the next.

The rest of the bathroom is not put out of action, and as soon as we have left it can be used. So if you have a busy household you can be assured that when the kids return from school and others return from work the shower, toilet and washand basin are all available for use.There will be no need for you to re-tile, re-grout, re-plumb or re-fit taps, etc.

We can also re enamel your bath in our workshop. In this instance the bath is un-plumbed and would be couriered to us to be re enamelled. We can often take more time restoring the bath back to it’s original finish in our workshop and also have taps reconditioned or feet chrome or nickel platted, painted or polished to a very shiny, chrome like finish.

As you can see from our pictures the resultant finish of a re enamelled bath is a deep, long lasting high gloss finish. One of the advantages of re-enamelling the bath is that the surface is not prone to the chemical damage that can occur with the original enamel bath. Their surface was applied before many of the chemical cleaners available today existed. The re enamelled surface is resitant to many modern chemical cleaners. It is also very easy to clean so can be cleaned with washing up liquid. Another advantage of  re enamelling is durability. Although not impossible to chip it is more flexible and therefore harder to chip than the original.

Sometimes the bath has been really badly etched by chemical cleaners or even water draining over a long period of time. The etching can be as lines running down the bath or along the bottom of the bath. In this instance even though we can re-enamel the bath and have it looking great the original cast iron bath has been damaged and this etching will be noticeable. Some people don’t mind as it is part of the character of the bath. However if you do wish to have any etched area as smooth as possible you would need to let us know.

Situations like these where the enamel has been eaten away can be sorted out but it would not be done as part of a regular enamelling job, which can be done in a day. Where there is etching like this and the customer wanted it to be as perfect as possible we would require two days to re-enamel the bath and therefor the costs are more.

Bath Enamelling is also used to refer to a service where the bath is removed, sandblasted to take off existing enamel, and then the bath has new  vitreous enamel melted over it at a very high temperature. Vitreous enamel is just coloured glass. The temperatures required to do this can be in excess of 800 degrees celsius. For this reason the job cannot be done in situ and your bath has to be taken away. Even a workshop facility cannot deal with this unless they employ a furnace. This really is “enamelling” in the fullest sense of the word.

We don’t deliver this service as we do not have a furnace. However, on some occasions a person wants the bath vitreous enamelled. In this instance we have organised this from picking up the bath from the client getting taps and wastes supplied, painting the outside and returning the bath back fully restored. Do let us know if this service is required.

If a bath company says they are going to enamel your bath or even re-enamel your bath in situ or in a workshop then they mean they will be putting a new surface on your bath. It will not be vitreous enamel.

The procedure for Bath Re-Enamelling is as follows:

The bath-room is fully prepared. Silicon seal is removed from around the bath before we begin. This step is omitted if the bath is being re-enamelled in our workshop or if the bath is a free standing, roll top bath.

The bath is then chemically cleaned. This ensures all oils, shampoo residues etc are cleaned off the surface of the bath and the bath now has a smooth, clean surface ready for re-enamelling. We then mask your bathroom to protect the tiling and flooring.

A special clear bonder is applied. This has been especially formulated specifically to enable new surfaces to adhere to the enamel.The bond is so good that if you were to badly damage or chip your bath the water would not be able to penetrate the bond. So apart from the damaged area the rest of the new surface would continue to adhere to the bath. See note below.

Prior to this bonder being developed some companies used a product called Epoxy resin. Some still do. Epoxy resin will yellow over time. The finish is not a deep or shiny as the finish achievable with our system. When it was developed it had to accomplish several jobs, ie adherence to a new surface, shine etc  Now there are better products available that also do these jobs but individually. Epoxy resin is fairly cheap however and it can do the job. It’s just not a standard we feel we should be providing for our clients.

Other companies would use an acid etch. This would quite literally eat the enamel away so it was very rough and a new surface could adhere to it. It was not always consistent in results. We do not use acid etch to prime the bath. It is a system used by some however.

Next we spray on the new surface Generally 3 to 4 coats are applied. The correct thickness is applied to ensure a high gloss and durable finish. Too many coats would result in cracking. The surface applied is designed to withstand very high temperatures as well as be resistant to many chemicals in modern cleaners.

The above tiles represent an experiment we did on our baths. We deliberately damaged the tiles and then immersed them in water for 4 days. No bonder was disastrous. If you look you will see the special bonder PLUS acid etch caused the surface to start coming away. Bonder only applied to the tile provided the best adhesion qualities.

A lot of Bath re-enamelling companies finish here. The Bath Business is dedicated to providing a superior service to the customer so we take further steps to ensure a beautiful finish on your bath.

We heat the area and leave the bath to dry. This off course takes additional time. When another company could be packing up we are still on the job. Many companies will send their employees off to do 2 baths per day. We however do take additional steps which means our chaps do one bath per day. We can do two but really only if both baths are in the same premises.

We then polish the bath. We always polish the bath after re-enamelling it. Our technicians are very skilled and get a fantastic “off the gun” finish. We always polish the bath no matter how good the finish as although the polishing is hard work and takes additional time it ensures a very smooth, even, dust free finish. Even a fantastic off the gun finish will not be dust free. The additional work sanding and polishing he finish does make a great difference to the smoothness and the ease of cleaning. It will not eradicate any flaws in the original cast iron bath but the new surface on top will be lovely and smooth. We call this our Rolls-Royce finish. The bath looks fantastic once polished as you can see from the pictures.

Masking is removed and new silicon sealant is re-applied as necessary

The bath is ready to use again within a few hours of re-enamelling.

A similar procedure is also applied when re-enamelling sinks, wash hand basins, shower trays etc. Some steps are not always necessary, such as silicon sealant, but otherwise the preperation and re-enamelling are the same.

We can resurface or re-enamel your bath or bathroom suite if you live anywhere in London. So Chelsea, Richmond, Notting Hill, Central London, Twickenham,Knightsbridge, Kensington, Kingston-Upon-Thames etc are easily covered by our technicians. The majority for our employees live in London so it is very easy for us to help you.

We can also re enamel your bath if you live anywhere in Surrey, Hampshire, Slough, and Hertfordshire. We have technicains who can do the work in situ if you live in Bracknell, Sutton, Epsom, Esher, Weybridge, Woking, Farnborough, Aldershot, Fleet etc. We also have our new showroom and workshop in Horley. So anyone in the Surrey/London area can come and see our Victorian baths for sale and see the quality of workmanship available for a re enamelled bath.

In the North West of the country we are available in Manchester, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Sale, Oldham, Stockport, Bolton, Salford, Alderly Edge, Edgerly, Ashton Under Lyne, Irlam, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Warrington, Sheffield and all surrounding areas. We do cover as far as North Wales, Liverpool and Leeds. If in doubt do ask.

We cover most of mainland UK except for some parts of Wales and Cornwall.

We are very busy doing work daily in the South East of England. So now we are able to take on a lot more work and provide a higher level of service in Brighton, Hove, Shoreham, Worthing, Eastbourne, Portsmouth, Lewis, Hailsham,Hastings,Horsham etc.

We also service Kent. We can re-enamel or resurface your bath or bathroom suite in situ in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Edenbridge, Canterbury, Folkestone, Deal, Ramsgate and even Dover.

In Scotland we cover the whole of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, Stirling, Falkirk and the surrounding areas as well as Melrose, Jedburgh, Hawick, Kelso (The Scottish Borders) and Aberdeen and Inverness.

We do also cover the Midlands. So Birmingham, Leicester, Sutton Coldfield, Stafford, Burton Upon Trent, Derby, Stoke-On-Trent etc.

If there is any doubt as to whether we cover your area please give us a call on 020 8634 5922.

With a very few exceptions we are basically a UK wide, National Company. And for those living very far away, people looking for a custom finish or for those who have not installed their bath as yet, we do still offer bath re enamelling in our Workshop which is in Horley, Surrey.

Fill in the quick Quote form today or alternatively call us on 020 8634 5922 for a free quote and further information on our services. We are always happy to help.

Getting Something New Out of Your Old Bath