Repairing Enamel or Pressed Steel Bath
A chip in the enamel of a pressed steel bath is both common and unsightly.
Pressed steel enamelled baths quite widespread, especially in new build houses and hotels.
These baths have advantages over cast iron enamel baths in many ways: They are lightweight, so easy to move and fit. The enamel of a pressed steel bath is harder then what is found on many cast iron baths, so it withstands wear and chemicals better than many cast iron ones.And they are much cheaper than cast iron baths.
However, the enamel on pressed steel baths is very, very prone to chipping, especially from things (tools, tiles, toy cars, etc) being dropped onto the bath.
On a cast iron bath the same thing can happen but the enamel is thick enough that very often you find that although a layer of enamel has been knocked off, it has not gone through to the metal.
But the enamel on pressed steel baths is much thinner, and generally where the enamel gets chipped, it is right back to the metal. And to make matters worse, the metal has been treated prior to the enamel being applied, and this treatment is jet black. So a chip exposes the black metal, which on a white bath is very eye-catching due to the extreme contrast between black and white.
If you have a chipped pressed steel bath that has not been fitted yet, and it is just a standard sized bath, then it may be cheaper to replace it.
If, however, your bath has been fitted or it is not a standard bath (and therefore considerably more expensive) then having a local repair done to the chip will restore the look of the bath and will also be the most cost effective solution compared to tearing out a fitted bath, plumbing in a new one and making good any tiling and decoration.
The procedure for repairing a chip on a pressed steel enamel bath is the same as for doing a cast iron bath:
The chipped area of enamel is filled then sanded flush to the surrounding area.
A colour is made up which matches the existing colour of the bath. Please note that this is done even is the bath is white [and most pressed steel baths are] as the white an enamel bath is never brilliant white. On pressed steel we generally have to add a little black and green to get a match.
We then airbrush our coating onto the filled area.
The most important part of this is the colour matching. The better this is done the better the repair will look.
The level of quality we go for if that the repaired chip cannot be seen whilst you stand and look at the bath. Often the customer can’t find the chipped area at all no matter how close they get to the bath, but we cannot guarantee this in every instance, as the condition of the bath itself is a major factor in how good the repair will look. The better the bath, the more pristine its surface, the better a chip repair will be.
