Windsor Terrace Reno

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February 19, 2008

Fixing the fixtures

It feels like a long, long time ago that we visited the house and found this bathroom staring back at us.

From very early on, we knew we wanted to keep whatever was possible to save. The clawfoot and the sink made it on the save list pretty early on. I could pretend its my concern for being green or even my appreciation for the history of the home that drove that desire. While those two factors definitely counted, I think the biggest reason for keeping these items was that I liked them - they had personality and they fit the imaginery picture in my head of what the house would look like post-renovation.

We were originally going to keep it in the upstairs guest and/or potential limestoner offspring bathroom. After some thought, we realized a clawfoot tub isn't the most ideal place for drunken guests or children to bathe so the tub got moved to the downstairs parlor bathroom off the kitchen. It won't get used on a daily basis but will be handy for potential child/dog baths if the need should arise. The sink got reinstalled in the same place.

One of the first renovation foul ups we had in the demo days was that the clawfoot got thrown away accidently. Luckily, Mr. Limestone was making his rounds at the house that afternoon and spotted the tub peeking out of the dumpster! The tub got hauled out of the trash but had some signficant collateral damage.

And the sink was just a general mess from being abused for a 100 years.

After many months of waiting for its star treatment, we had the sink and tub re-surfaced this weekend. Sort of randomly, I found the website of Custom Spraying and Mr. L made the appointment. It was a pretty quick and painless process. They showed up on time, prepared the rooms by covering everything with brown paper and tape, did their spraying and were done in a few hours.

Ive never had this done before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The owner, Jimmy, was very honest about the process and what it would/would not do. It would make it look a thousand times better but its not perfect. It has to be treated slightly more delicately than you would treat something new. So no abrasive cleaners, no scraping the surface with metal, etc.. It seems pretty straightforward and easy to follow. He warned me that my sink had some pitting so I should be prepared for it. And while there is some tiny pits in the sink that I can feel with my fingers, I would never even have noticed if he didn't mention it. I didn't expect them to be like new, I just wanted them clean and useable and this did the trick.

They did a great job, were professional and knowledgeable. I would recommend them if you are looking for someone to do something similar.

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Comments

is it still porcelain? is that what they spray on? (can they do it to my tired tiles?)

how much?

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 10:55 AM

Its not porcelain. It looks and feels like porcelain but its really just some kind of lacquered paint.

Yes, they can do it to tiles (ive seen it in other houses) but it has to be done on the entire surface including the grout. I probably wouldn't be as keen on this for that kind of thing unless it was a temporary fix. I have no clue what they would charge for an entire bathroom.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 19, 2008 11:07 AM

Were they able to fix the areas with chipped porcelain? I have a cast iron sink that has a lot of wear around the drain- might get in touch with them and see what they can do for me.

Posted by: katiem633 at February 19, 2008 12:01 PM

Yes, they fixed the chipped areas. We had some really severe damage on the rim. Any smaller worn areas just got sprayed over. I couldn't find them after they were done.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 19, 2008 1:21 PM

How bad was the smell of chemicals during the process and how long it took till fumes went away?

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 3:06 PM

The smell wasn't too bad but Im sort of used to noxious odors after all the other chemical odors of renovation (paint, poly, wood stripper, etc). They use a big duct/vacuum contraption to keep the smells to a min but its still pretty strong. Id say it sort of on par with spray painting indoors.

I stopped noticing the smell after they left but Im sure it wasn't gone by then, I was just used to it.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 19, 2008 3:12 PM

Looks amazing! I hope you didn't have to cook dinner in that electric skillet on the toilet for too long...

Posted by: Rehab at February 19, 2008 3:16 PM

"we realized a clawfoot tub isn't the most ideal place for drunken guests ... to bathe" LOL! Is that a regular occurrence? Are they still drunk in the morning when they wake up?

Posted by: Brooklynnative at February 19, 2008 3:26 PM

Rehab - What? You don't like to cook your eggs while on the toilet? Its a great way to save time in the morning!

Brooklynnative - Hmm..good point. Our potential guests probably don't bathe at all. Dirty birds. Seriously, this will be our first foray into having a bathroom that isn't shared by the entire house no matter how many people are staying over...so I don't know what guests do in their own bathroom. Im planning for all raucous possibilities including drunken bathtime.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 19, 2008 3:36 PM

"Raucous drunken bathtimes" Hmm, sounds like a lot more fun than fixing the fixtures.

Posted by: Brooklynnative at February 19, 2008 4:02 PM

I love the way the tub and sink look resprayed.

As to the tiles: the last owners of my prior apartment had them "reglazed" Trust me: this didn't look good at all.

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 4:13 PM

Looks great! Did they sand the existing porcelain down before they started spraying? We have a tub we need resurfacing but it's already got a layer of (really crappy, DIY-looking) resurfacing that would need to be taken off first.

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 4:17 PM

Also: How much did they charge you, if you don't mind my asking?

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 4:19 PM

The paint is epoxy. Do not be surprised when starts to peel one day. We had peeling with our tubs on P.A. years ago. It didn't make sense to remove the great pre-war tubs and the epoxy is the best solution...though hardly "green".

But be prepared. It will eventually peel in sections, especially where the sink takes abuse and in the tubs where water sits and feet tire out the surfacing.

To get them repainted, they need to strip the old epoxy off. We had this done and had to vacate because of the strong fumes!

Good luck!

TheGrammarLady

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 5:35 PM

We had that spray-on treatment done to a tub, though someone our contractor recommended.

It lasted about a year before it started peeling up off in one corner. Possibly they didn't rough it up enough first.

It cost $300 and if I had to do it again I probably wouldn't. Looked great for the first 6 months, though. Don't forget that you can get a brand new clawfoot for about $1,000.

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 5:52 PM

My parents had a tub sprayed this way. When it peeled in one spot a few years later after something was dropped, the company came and fixed it for free. They didn't need to strip off the old or redo the whole thing. Check for a warranty.

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 6:30 PM

Were you able to save any of the old tiles with the embossed swags? Love those.

Posted by: guest at February 19, 2008 6:31 PM

Total cost was $600 - I believe that broke down into $350 for the tub respray, $150 for the repairs where it was broken from its trip to the dumpster and $100 for the sink.

Yes, we were able to save some of the swag tiles. Not sure what we'll do with them though.

I realize I could have bought a new tub but while Im hardly the type to create a shrine to original features of the house, it just felt right to keep the tub in the house.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 20, 2008 7:06 PM

Re-use of old fixtures is awesome. It's the truly "green" way to go if people are trying to do that. I admire how you've done this throughout your house, Mrs. Limestoner like using the cleaned off tiles for your backsplash in the kitchen.

True, the bathtub paint peels. The seller of our house had the tub painted and it's started to chip. But it's only chipped where it got knocked hard by tools when our handyman was doing some re-grouting and removed a sliding shower door off the tub (hate those!).

So just be careful, don't use harsh cleaning chemicals and scrubs but instead use baking soda & vinegar, that's my new (old old fashioned) favorite cleanser all over the kitchen and bath. And you should be able to keep it from peeling for quite a while.

By the way, there is such thing as getting a new porcelain layer. It can't be done in your home, they have to bring the pieces to a workshop. But it's the same thing that's done to old vintage stoves that are refurbished.

Posted by: guest at February 22, 2008 12:05 PM

is there a window in that bathroom? we're considering spraying our clawfoot tub, but there's no window in our bathroom and we're afraid the fumes won't have a chance to dissipate.

Posted by: guest at February 29, 2008 12:07 PM

There isn't a window in any of my bathrooms. (there is a skylight in the bathroom that has the sink)

The respraying people bring their own equipment that sucks the air out of the confined space and out a window nearby. In my case they had ducting that went thru the house to the closest window. The smell isn't totally eliminated by this but its mitigated. And yes, eventually the smell is totally gone.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at February 29, 2008 3:27 PM