More Bathtub Talk

Remember the whole saga of getting our 1,000 pound cast iron tub out of the bathroom, down the stairs, into our living room and then finally into the dumpster? Remember how we decided the 2nd 1,000 pound cast iron tub would stay?

Well, it received some damage during construction, and even if it hadn't, we decided to reglaze the tub. For approximately $350.00, we couldn't justify not doing it. So once the sledghammer fell and knicked off some of the existing finish it was official.

All of the companies we looked at gave a 5 year warranty on their refinishing job, and after looking into the standard refinish length, this warranty looked to cover a pretty average life expectancy of the refinish job. So, we'll possibly have to spend $350.00 every 7-10 years to maintain the original tub if we are good about taking care of it in the meantime. I'll deal with it.

Once the drywall was installed and the tile set, we had the refinishers come in to do their work. It took them about 4 hours. They taped up the plumbing covered the tile and all surrounding surfaces before starting. They even vented out to the exterior of the house in order to keep the small gritty dust out of the air.

As a side note, they prefer to be the very last people on a job. I was afraid I couldn't wait for that. They do not like to repair a tub before the tile has been installed mainly because the chance of the tile contractor messing it up during construction is pretty high. Once I explained that I was the tile subcontractor and I would have no one to blame but myself, they relented but because of schedules and time frame, they didn't start work until this afternoon. The day our furniture arrived. This is cutting it close people. And after installing the wall tile, I can see why they want to be last. Every trowel of mortar I put on the wall resulted in a glob of mortar in the tub. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

It might be a little difficult to tell, but the top photo was before they refinished, dingy and cracked and the second photo is almost immediately after they finished.

 

Just as quickly as they had come in, they were gone and the tub was "setting up" or "curing". We could have used the tub in 24 hours. Since we stayed in a hotel for a few nights, that wasn't an issue. We'll probably use Addison's bath as a family for a couple of days while ours is getting finished out. It's nice to have a practically brand new tub.