[Closed] Cast iron bath- restore or scrap it?

Whatever you do be careful removing it. Taking an enamelled cast iron bath down steep Victorian stairs is not something I want to repeat again.

Hit it with a sledge hammer.
It'll make a noise similar to Big Ben and give you something to chuckle about whilst you're recovering from your double hernia operation.

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/house-viewing-faux-pas

Some cast iron bath stuff on there.
I'd keep it personally.

I've seen enamel baths re-coated in-situ before, no idea of the cost, but it would certainly be easier than moving it!

Our house has one. As a bath, one major problem is that it has a massive heat capacity so you need a boiler that can make some seriously hot water!

We've one, it's ace as very deep and the only bath I've managed to have a proper bath in (been over 6').

Ours was re-enamelled in-situ about 20 years and probably could do with doing again sometime.

Clean up and re enamell gets my vote we picked up a 20s deco style roll top for £25 and moved it 200miles to replace the tiffany blue monstrosity in our house.

I have used a re-enamel kit for our bath and it turned out quite nice. A bit of elbow grease and took my time, think it was called Tubby or something like that. Cheaper and easier than replacing IMO.

We got rid of the one in our house. Never use a bath and it was in a bad way.

You can repair small amount of damage relatively easily but it will be harder to remove staining.

Enamel is (crudely) a glass coating melted onto cast iron. You can have this re done but it will cost about as much as a new bath and has a reasonably high chance of cracking the bath and destroying it.

Repairs done in situ are pretty much just painting it. You can get some good paints but it isn't quite the same.

We looked at selling it but the market in the NE is saturated and it was worth more as scrap.

It depends on whether you like it or not really. If you think it adds something to your house then keep it - otherwise get something you like. IMO nothing wrong with mixing new with old. Don't want to remain stuck in the past forever.

If I recall correctly, cast iron baths are seriously heavy, think ballpark Miele washing machine territory of ~100Kg! 😯

Could be worth a few quid at scrap yard if not restoring.

I have an old bath in my Victorian house.

Used one of the re-enamelling kits and it came up lovely - still in use by the family around 10 years later.

If you like the shape etc then its probably easier and quicker to fix the old one.

(I have broken one up in a different house - very noisy and bad on the ears to hit it with a hammer to break up into manageable pieces)

Sell it on ebay. A mate of mine bought a house recently and there was a cast iron bath in the garage. He put it on ebay with zero reserve, just hoping that someone would come and take it off his hands - iirc it went for about £400.

Think how many new bike bits you could buy with that.

The horrible horrible primrose yellow one in my house was much much heavier than a Miele washing machine and was well over 100Kg more than likely closer to 250Kg, floor sanders are 97Kg and I can carry one of those on my own and there was no ****ing way I could pick the bath up, three of us struggled.

Hitting it with a sledgehammer to break it up might work, but if you do throw a damp sheet over it first to catch to splinters. I couldn't break mine neither could the builder I was working with and he was really determined to break it and work off some 'roid rage.

For breaking up ... Could you not take an angle grinder to it ?

I say keep it.

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Cheers for all that!

I might try ebay and see what it goes for.

Scrapped ours one of the worst decisions I've made in house renovations.

Bilmey.

The feet sand blasted and primed are £100 on ebay. The taps if refurbished are £300!

How much to sand blast and prime the feet and refubish the taps?

the bath its self 99p 🙁

Could be worth a few quid at scrap yard if not restoring.

iron is currently about 4p / kg so hardly worth the petrol to drive it to scrapyard just now

As a bath, one major problem is that it has a massive heat capacity so you need a boiler that can make some seriously hot water!

How much to sand blast and prime the feet and refubish the taps?

You could try electrolysis first. That'll remove rust without harming the metal and is very easy to do at home with a few bits and bobs (see YouTube for inspiration).

Drac- why the regret?

Found it far better than the plastic jobs, bigger, stronger and just felt better.

the way to break cast iron is with a pick axe not a sledge hammer.
keep the feet and taps and put them on a nice insulated epoxy reproduction

the way to break cast iron is with a pick axe not a sledge hammer.

I was just about to post that.

Beware though, the shards WILL enter your body 🙂 I wore goggles, boiler suit and gloves, but I still looked like I'd stood in the path of a nail bomb.

cast iron baths are ace. Pop a couple of tea lights under them and the water stays hot!

If it's the same age as the house it will more than likely have been put in as first fix. Trying to extract it in one piece without causing damage to paintwork and doorways will require the strength of a few front row rugbyists. If you do break it up, wear earplugs AND earmuffs and goggles and have the vacuum ready. For something so strong it's amazing how many infinitesimally small pieces of razor sharp shards it produces.

Don't listen to the muppets suggesting breaking it with a hammer without first filling it up with water to deaden the sound.

I like the t-lights idea 🙂

1st, maybe this?

I've just smashed up a cast iron bath to get it out.

Now I know why they used cast iron in hand grenades, bloody effective.... (literally) 🙂