TAP REFURBISHMENT & REPAIR SERVICE
A very popular service we provide is tap refurbishment or reconditioning and re-plating. The finishes available for replating are CHROME, NICKEL and GOLD.
Our workshop has been refurbishing taps for over 20 years. Our clients base ranges from owners of traditional home owners, interior designers, fine country homes, Banking establishments and Royal Palaces.
We have facilities to restore and and re-plate Modern, Art Deco, Classic and Vintage taps. We mostly refurbish original Antique Victorian or Edwardian Taps. However we can restore and replate all types of mixer taps, bath taps, basin taps, chain stays, and other bathroom fittings. Below are some traditional lever taps refurbished and plated.
Sometimes the taps are that old and worn parts are impossible to find. In our facilities we will replace parts by making them if need be. We are confident that we can restore ALMOST any tap. And if we can’t probably no one can.
PRE ART DECO MIXER TAP CICA 1916
If your waste or overflow is covered in lime-scale or tarnished we can refurbish and re-plate them if necessary. This is particularly helpful in antique baths where the wastes or overflows are often unusual sizes and are no longer available & cannot be replaced with new. On a re enamelled bath this can be the finishing touch to the bath that makes it pristine.
If your antique Victorian or Edwardian taps affected by lime-scale, hard to turn on or off or even not working at all then you can send them to us for restoration in our work shop. We aim to refurfish your taps so well they can be used for another 100 years!If you so wish we can then have them plated in Chrome, Nickel or Gold. Alternatively if the tap is originally a brass finish you can have the taps fully reconditoned and then polished. This is more popular with antique Victorian or Edwardian taps. They can look quite spectacular.
Above are John Bolding basin taps and John Bolding Bath/Shower mixer taps. These are rare taps and it’s fantastic to have restored a matching set.
For the re-plating process the taps are taken apart completely and chemically stripped. The taps are then polished to a flawless finish before being re plated to the clients specification.
Chrome plating is very popular but Nickel plating proves the most popular for Victorian bathrooms. Chrome does give a mirror like finish whereas Nickel has a slight champagne hue to it. Traditionally taps would have been either brass or Nickel in Victorian or Edwardian times. Chrome began to be used in the mid to late 1920’s with the advent of the ART DECO era. Below are some typical GLOBE TAPS that have been fully restored and plated. They could also have been finished in polished brass and would look equally fantastic.
Once the taps have been restored and re plated we put them back together again and then test them for a second time to make sure they are working perfectly. We are very thorough in our testing regime.
We have restored Jacob Delafon, John Bolding & Sons, Thomas Crapper, Porche, George Jennings and Aston amongst others. Your original antique taps are in good hands.
For taps that are originally finished in brass you may wish to have them polished after refurbishment rather than have them re plated to chrome or nickel. A polished brass finish does require a lot more maintenance and polishing to keep them in the pristine condition you recieve them in. Due to this some of our clients prefer the Nickel over the Brass finish but both finishes look great in a traditional bathroom. Below is a traditional restored Bath/Shower Mixer tap in a polished brass finish.
Whether you own a fantastic antique bath or wash hand basin with tarnished and worn taps or waste or a spectacular Art Deco bath with matching taps you can now use our refurbishing service to bring your fine sanitary ware back to it’s full and former glory. You can even create a completly unique look can be created with a modern bath fitted with luxury antique taps fully restored.
We can also restore the feet on cast iron baths. Original Ball and Claw feet can come to look very old and rusty over time. Once we clean them up and Silver Nickel or Chrome plate them. They look absolutely stunning!
All the taps shown here are original taps we have refurbished and plated. They are all for sale now. Do fill out the quick quote form if any are of interrest to you.
You will require a plumber to remove your bath taps, basin taps or overflow and have them sent to our workshop if you require restoration services. Contact us via the quick quote form and we will provide you with a quote. If you can also email us a picture of your waste, overflow, taps or claw feet that would be most helpful. Our email address is thebathbusinessuk@hotmail.co.uk Alternatively call 01342324577 and ask to speak to Teresa Kane.
How Do You Increase the Value of Your Home for Very Little Money
Having your Bathroom Suite resurfaced should increase the value of your home. It will help your suite look brand new, clean and fresh. At the very least new bathroom taps can help update and improve the bathroom in readiness of a quick sale.
Like many people, you may be looking to sell up and move house. If so, you’ll want to ensure you give yourself the best possible chance of receiving or even exceeding the asking price for your current property.
Today’s housing market is scary enough for most people. The possibilities of receiving a bid that matches or exceeds the value of your property can be impossible to obtain. If you are offering potential buyers exactly what they are looking for you are in with a chance of reaching your desired sale price. For example, a poorly decorated bath-room or a cluttered bedroom can often be enough to put off many people from considering an offer for your home. You might already be aware that certain areas of your house could benefit from being spruced up, but you simply can’t afford the outlay required to renovate them. As a result, the offending room is often left in its existing condition additional items of furniture or bric-a-brac are utilized to hide the room’s shortcomings. Quite frequently the offending room becomes a storage center.
Unfortunately, this might well end up costing you money & perhaps damaging the potential value of your property. However, this need not occur, especially if the difficulties are being caused by your bathroom.
As the bathroom is the most visited room in the house. Along with the Kitchen it is considered vital that the bathroom most impresses the buyer. If you have lived in your existing property for a number of years, there’s a good chance that your bathroom will have remained the same since you first moved in. Perhaps you renovated it yourself years ago to suit your own tastes.
You might well think that having a pink sink and toilet is acceptable and common. There is nothing that will put off a potential buyer more than dated coloured sanitary-ware in a bathroom! Combine this with a dull, worn peach bath and you may as well wave your house sale goodbye.
Potential buyers have their own ideas with regards to their perfect bathroom. Factors such as flooring and types of storage are important to them. Many want a clean, modern or traditional Victorian white bathroom suite with chrome fittings and ample storage. Resurfacing a coloured suite to white can help achieve the look most buyers are looking for.
Regardless of different tastes the Bathroom must look clean and fresh. Even a nicely tiled and floored bath-room will not impress the buyers if the bath is worn, stained and looks dull or dirty. Even marked taps will put them off a potential sale. Luckily this is something that can be rectified fairly easily and not necessarily expensively.
Taste and style of baths or tap fittings can be as varied as the owners. Generally speaking, as long as your bathroom is clean and fresh looking with bright fixtures and fittings, a potential buyer will go away without having to worry about completely ripping out the bathroom and starting from scratch. By giving them something to work with, you are significantly increasing your chances of selling the property.
Achieving the above is not an expensive task. Resurfacing a complete bathroom suite can cost around £600. Not ripping out the old bathroom and not having to redecorate will save you not only in time and money but also a lot of organizing of different workmen and an awful lot hassle. So it’s well worth doing. You may only need to have the bath resurfaced. In this instance it will only cost around £300 and you can end up with a lovely new looking bathroom.
Check http://tinyurl.com/2f69lks for a quote and information.
Once you bathroom suite is looking pristine again you can look at investing in some lovely accessories. This need not cost a lot of money and at least you can take these with you once you sell. Lovely luxury towels, some scented candles and other bath time accessories all help your potential buyer paint a picture of themselves relaxing comfortably in your bathroom.
If you’re looking to sell your house over the next few weeks or months, make sure you take a good look around. Invite a neighbour or friend round to gauge their opinion before you put your home on the property market. Get several estate agents around to gauge their opinion also. It is their job to help you sell and a good agent will give good advice. Do clear out all your clutter. Remember, a pink bathroom might be gorgeous to you, but to a potential buyer, it might not be as desirable.
If at the end of the day if you decide not to sell all is not lost. You will have a lovely luxurious bathroom to relax in. It will not have cost a fortune to accomplish & it will be very likely that your home will have increased in value due to the small amount of renovation work carried out. It really is a “win, win” scenario. A glass of something nice might be in order whilst you relax in your bathtub.
Renewing a Bathroom Suite
If you have a bathroom suite which is no longer looking its best, or perhaps is a colour that you don’t like any more, then instead of ripping it all out and replacing, another option is to have the entire suite resurfaced or re-enamelled as it is often referred to. This is a more eco-friendly approach to renewing a bathroom suite and the process is a lot less stressful than replacing the whole suite and having to redecorate etc.
Resurfacing, re enamelling, refinishing and reglazing are all terms used to describe basically the same thing. Each is a process of restoring the bath or bathroom suite to its original condition. Any chips or damage are repaired and then the bath is resurfaced. Making the bathtub look and feel new again. This is generally done in situ. The whole suite can be resurfaced in the same fashion. So the toilet and wash hand basin are resurfaced or re enamelled in the same fashion.
Great Roll Top claw foot bath re enamelled by The Bath Business. Original taps.
A dated avocado bathroom suite can now be restored to white and, depending on the style, made to look ultra modern. Or if you are a bit adventurous you can even have the whole bathroom suite re enamelled to BLACK!
The entire suite can be resurfaced in situ. Often grey or green suites are being resurfaced to white. Some people are having their whole bathroom suite resurfaced in pastel shades of blue, pink or yellow. If need be the suite can be delivered to specialist bath resurfacers and done off site whilst you finish your other bathroom renovation projects.
Any style of bathroom suite can be resurfaced or re enamelled. Traditional Victorian bathroom suites, 1920’s Art Deco bathroom suites and modern bathroom suites, including jacuzzi and corner baths. The outcome is a suite that is rejuvenated and once again looking attractive as well as being very easy to clean.
Any type of bathroom suite can be resurfaced or re enamelled. Most bathroom sinks and toilets are made of porcelain. However the bath can be cast-iron, pressed steel, acrylic, fibreglass etc. A common question is “Can a Plastic Bath be resurfaced?” Absolutely it can.
Corner baths can be tricky but only due to their size. Some corner baths are really large and the dimensions can be difficult for the Bath Re enameller to access the whole bath. It’s best to make specific enquiries from a specialist if you have a corner bath.
The fact that the resurfacing is normally done in situ means that the entire suite can be done in a day, and would be usable the next. None of the fixtures need to be removed. There is no need to replace any tiling or flooring. None of the plumbing is disconnected when the suite is re enamelled so there is no need to remove the bath panel (if there is one). etc. It is a lot less hassle than ripping out your suite, getting in different workmen and then re-fitting a new suite that often is nowhere near the quality of the suite you just threw away because it was grimy or a strange shade of mustard.
Re enamelled bath with original taps. North London
If you are considering having your entire suite resurfaced then there are a few points to bear in mind:
The suite will be usable the day after it is resurfaced. If the WC that is part of the suite is the only one in the house, then you may need to make other arrangements for the period it is out of action.
Also, if the toilet seat in your bathroom is one which is likely to get treated roughly (i.e. you have children who may throw the seat down onto the pan), then you may wish to consider replacing the WC as the new surface may well chip were the toilet seat impacts on it with such force. Normal wear and tear however should not result in the toilet chipping.
It also important to note that chips or defects will show up more easily if the bath or suite is having a colour change. For example a recently resurfaced green bath in London was quite badly chipped around the plug hole but the owner had not noticed. The chips were not right down to the metal so it wasn’t really obvious. As the owner was having her bath changed to white the same chips would be clearer. As soon as the plug chipped the bath it would be obvious. A new plug in the style of a chrome plug but made of rubber can be used to replace the plug and prevent future chipping.
Traditional bathroom suites or Art Deco style 1920’s style suites often have elaborate or original taps. Often the bath is in need of re enamelling due to these old taps dripping constantly over the years. It would be a shame to have to get rid of these because the local plumber doesn’t have the part anymore to repair the dripping tap.
Lovely original Jacob Delafon Wall Mounted basin taps
Nowadays you can even send your old taps to a specialist to have restored and then either have the brass polished up to a beautiful finish or re chrome plated or nickel-plated. The overall effect is really lovely.
Contact The Bath Business , Bath Resurfacing and Enamel Bath Specialist about any bathroom improvements you wish to carry out.
How Do You Choose the Best Bathroom Taps
If you are considering redecorating your bathroom or perhaps even renovating or remodelling it completely then choosing the correct bathroom taps is very important. The overall style and feel of your bathroom can be greatly influenced by the taps you choose. In fact to update and rejuvenate the whole look of your bathroom you may be able to simply change the taps. If you are lucky enough to have original Victorian or Edwardian taps or perhaps even original antique French taps it may be possible to have them restored.
Some people LOVE traditional bathrooms and wouldn’t want anything else. Certainly the trend does seem to favour this style at the moment. You may prefer a more modern bathroom tap or if your bathroom would look good with large Art Deco taps. Some people like to have their bath taps match exactly their basin taps. This is not always possible if you are installing original antique taps. Quite simply the matching pair of either bath taps or basin taps may have been damaged or destroyed some time ago. If you are fortunate to find a matching pair of antique taps they are well worth installing them into your bathroom.
There are also several different styles of spout for both bath taps and basin taps. The bath tap can have one spout with 2 handles or 2 spouts with 2 handles. Similiarly with the basin taps. Or off course there is the Bath Shower Mixer tap which although typically a very traditional style, compliments any bathroom and does save on plumbing fixtures.
Fortunately, whatever your style, an electic approach tends to work very well. A traditional Edwardian or Victorian cast iron roll top bath looks fantastic with original Antique Taps or modern Deck Mounted Pillar taps. Similarly a modern square bath that may otherwise look quite ordinary can look stunning with lovely original large Victorian bath taps or even reproduction Victorian Shower Mixer Bath Taps. Art Deco taps look great on these baths as well. Most of the time you can get away with mixing and matching modern & traditional taps, baths, tiles, decor etc. The only exception could possibly be an Art Deco style bathroom suit. Although you can put Art Deco bath taps or basin taps on a typically modern suite it doesn’t always work the other way around. Some Art Deco styles are okay. They can look good with a modern wall mounted bath filler (taps with 2 handles to control water flow). The typical Art Deco skirted bath however really needs to have matching Art Deco style bath and basin taps and matching decor to pull the whole look off well.
Before you even look at the different styles there are a few things you do need to know that will help you choose the best bathroom taps.
The majority of bathroom taps are made from brass which can then be metal plated or enamelled. They can be plated with high gloss or matt finishes such as chrome, nickel, polished brass, pewter, silk steel and antique gold. Nickel plating is becoming more popular as this provides the traditional look for a traditional Edwardian or Victorian bathroom. These taps are not necessarily cheap. The style and finish are also important and part of what you will pay for.
More expensive bathroom taps are made of solid stainless steel, which can be polished to a high shine or brushed to create a low sheen finish. Although these are considerable more expensive, they are more hard-wearing than their cheaper alternatives which will eventually lose their finish.
The brass taps, if they have been chrome or nickel plated, should take years to lose their finish. Having the bathroom taps re-chromed or Nickel plated is an option and the finish looks fantastic. The replating in chrome, nickel, antique gold etc can be done to both original antique bathroom taps and fairly modern bathroom taps. You would just need to get your plumber to remove the taps and have them sent to a specialist. You would need to weigh up whether the additional expense of purchasing solid stainless steel taps was worth it.
Antique taps are often in a polished brass finish. This means you will need to polish your bath and basin taps fairly regularly to ensure they look good. If you are lucky enough to have a cast iron plunger bath with a brass plunger and bath taps then having the plunger and taps polished makes the whole bathroom looks sensational and definitely produces the “WOW” factor. They do look great when this is done and a lot of people prefer to keep this finish and undertake the additional cleaning that would otherwise not be required if you installed modern bathroom taps. Frequently people choose to have thier antique taps Nickel or Chrome plated. They look fantastic once done and the bath taps are so much easier to keep looking pristine.
Your budget will probably be the determining factor in which taps you do choose to install in your bathroom. As it is unlikely you will renovate or update your bathroom again soon after doing so. If your budget allows it may be wise to invest in the best taps possible for your bathroom.
What the tap is made from is not the only important factor.
If you are ripping your bathroom out and completely remodelling it then your options are not limited at all. You can install deck mounted bath taps where none existed before if the desire and funds suffice. However if you are replacing existing bathroom taps you will need to look at what is already there as this may limit you. You may love the look of a wall mounted concealed filler but if you do not have the plumbing it is not going to work and you may be better looking at another style completely.
You should also check with your plumber who is installing your taps for you if you have enough water pressure to deal with the requirements of the taps you wish to install. If the pressure required is higher than normal bath taps most supplier will say so in their literature.
Generally speaking, single lever mixer taps require high water pressure, while pillar taps and fillers can function with low pressure.
Once you know this you can get on with the job of choosing and purchasing your taps. Then off course there are the accessories.
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