8720 Enamelling..???

I want to have an iron bath re-enamelled, but haven't been able to find anyone who does this work in Italy.

Has anyone on the Forum had re-enamelling work done in Italy, and if so, can they let me have details of who does this work?

thanks.

Category
Building/Renovation

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 11:23

I've not had any oif this type of work undertaken, but when I was in the shopping mall near to Pescara airport there was one of those temporary stands advertising bath re-enamelling.

I've not got any more details so not much of a help, but it proves there are these type of firms about.

Cheers

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 11:44

Generally it's not even possible to have a cast iron bath re-enameled in the UK. Or not at a reasonable price anyway. Vitreous enameling requires that the bath be removed, sent to a factory, stripped back to bare metal and then to have molten glass applied while the bath is red hot. Is this what you are after Equestrian? It's the only real repair, but the cost could well be more than the value of the bath.

We has a similar dilemma with replacing an old cast-iron bath in the UK and discovered that an exact replacement could be had for about £250 which was cheaper than any quote we had for a proper re-enameling of the bath.

The alternative is re-surfacing which consists of cleaning the bath to a high specification then applying a cold coating material (plastic resin) which looks similar to enamel but isn't as good as the original surface. You end up with a cast iron bath with the drawbacks of a plastic bath (easily scratched, breaks down relatively rapidly).

If it's resurfacing that you are after there are kits to DIY but results are usually awful. There are professional companies in Italy that will spray a bath in situ with a resin coating, just as in the UK. This is one:

[url=http://www.m2vasche.it/site/d_page.asp?IDPagina=9]M.2 Srl - Rismaltatura vasca[/url]

You need to search Google for [Rismaltatura ghisa vasca riparazione] which will eturn a number of hits for companies performing the work. Sorry I've got no idea where you live so I can't give local recommendations.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 05:08

Firstly, thanks for both of the replies, above.

I knew that the quick-and-cheap solutions gave results that looked exactly like that.

Since posting the initial question, I had a quotation from a UK based enamelling specialist for 1200 pounds, to re-enamel a full size bath. As suggested above, that isn't so different from the cost of a new bath...... (and then there's the transport costs / hassle).

The bath was originally in my house, and was moved next door when my house was sub-divided, about 40 years ago. Since posting the thread, I have been able to have a much closer look at the bath, scrub the accumulated dust off (as the bath had never been plumbed in next door). What looked as if it might be a waste of time, or fairly expensive, confounded my rather pessimistic expectations.

Thanks for the info provided though.