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.
Hi
I wonder if you could advise.
I have a large plastic/acrylic bath that was installed with a spa/whirlpool system. (with hundreds of small holes on the bath floor)
unfortunately there has been bacteria build up due to the laminate coming apart in the air compartment that feeds these holes and the diagnosis was a new bath which in this case would be a very difficult and expensive job. I am hoping to seal up these airholes and use the bath indefinetly
I had a company ‘seal off’ the air ducts underneath the bath and effectively disable that functionality.
Now need I need to seal the holes off themselves so that stagnant water cant drip down ans form in the tubes etc
would you be able to advise if there is a way of applying a surface to the floor of the bath or using some other method to seal up the air holes ?
many thanks
Jon