Retro Renovation» tubs

The 3 most common questions: On tile, on plumbing fixtures, on steel kitchen cabinets

pam kueber — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:58:51 +0000

The three most common questions I get via email, and sometimes in random places on the blog are:

Where can I find replacement bathroom tile?
Where can I sell, or buy, vintage sinks, toilets, tubs — and how about pricing?
Where can I sell, or buy, vintage steel kitchen cabinets — and how about pricing?

These are all already answered within the blog, but here’s a round-up on where to find these answers… and answers to common questions, in general.

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1. Where can I find replacement bathroom tile?

Answer: My best resource at this point is World of Tile in Springfield, New Jersey. I have multiple stories on World of Tile — read them all by clicking here.
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It’s also possible you may find vintage tile at the Re-Store… and if you’re looking for new tile in retro colors, there are lots of options today. See my navigation — Bathrooms / Tile category for all my stories.

2. Where can I sell, or buy, vintage sinks, toilets, tubs — and how about pricing?

Answer: Check out this 2009 story: Where to find vintage bathroom sinks, tubs and toilets. This story was written with buyers in mind — but use the advice in reverse if you are a seller.
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On pricing: I give no advice and don’t plan to. It’s what the market will bear. You have to do your own research based on your own market dynamics.

3. Where can I sell, or buy, vintage steel kitchen cabinets — and how about pricing?

This one also is answered in a comprehensive story I did in 2009: How and where to sell your vintage metal kitchen cabinets. This one was written with sellers in mind, use it in reverse if you are a buyer.

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On pricing: Reader 52PostnBeam did extensive analysis on sales through 2011 and arrived at some per-cabinet averages for the selling prices of vintage steel kitchen cabinets.

Are you looking for an answer?

I try to keep most common questions in the FAQ.
Please check it out.

Also use the navigation at the top — there’s tons of research and experience captured there.

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Real porcelain enamel coating to restore your drainboard sink, tub or stove

pam kueber — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:25:17 +0000

After Joe was unsuccessful in his attempt to epoxy-coat his vintage porcelain drainboard sink, he replaced it with a new Elkay Lustertone stainless steel drainboard sink. Even though the metal drainboard sink looks great, Joe says he would have preferred to keep his old porcelain sink top and have had the original enamel restored, refinished or replaced. But he didn’t know of a source — and neither did I. Until now. Thanks to reader TappanTrailerTami, who let us know:

I hate to mention this after-the-fact, but it could be something that Pam can investigate for us, and report on. There is a company in Illinois — Custom Ceramic Coatings — that does actual REAL porcelain enameling (the baked-on kind). I’ve seen them mentioned on a couple of different websites. I don’t know how much the cost is, but I think it would be worth checking out and having the information handy just in case someone here wants to save their current sink. It is my understanding that they are the only company in the country to do real old fashioned authentic fired on porcelain enamel work.

Tami

Well, I followed up on Tami’s tip, made a phone call, and yes — Custom Ceramic’s owner John Ballantyne says that, indeed, he does true, old-fashioned re-porcelaining of sinks, tubs, stove parts and even vintage motorcycle parts. And, as far as he knows, he is the only small businessperson in the U.S. offering this service. He does lots of (all the?) reporcelaining work for companies that take apart and re-manufacture vintage stoves piece by piece, for example.

John says can strip and then re-porcelain onto steel substrates, and usually, onto cast iron, although he tells me there is an issue with cast iron right now:

As I told you on the phone, I have been having some trouble with the thick heavy cast iron pieces since I had to change my porcelain supplier. My old supplier went out of business and we had things matched up pretty good. The stamped steel sinks are no problem. We are working with the porcelain for the cast and it has recently worked out on some pieces that had failed badly for outgassing. Once I try a couple of sinks that have failed and if they work out now, then I will return to doing the heavy cast iron again.

The porcelain re-enameling process is not cheap, because it is time-consuming and requires craftsmanship, materials and the tools and equipment. John explains that porcelain = glass. To re-porcelain a piece, he says, he first must blast away all the old porcelain down to the bare metal. He then applies a “ground coat” — a special primer, more or less — usually two coats, each fired separately. Then, he creates a special chemical mixture of ground glass and other materials — this is called “slip” — and applies thin coats in a wet spray, drying and firing in between. The firing all occurs at up to 1500 degrees F. The “outgassing” he refers to, is when there are problems getting the porcelain coats to adhere to the ground coats during the firing process. Expansion, contraction, chemical formulations — all must be just right or you get bubbles and pocks and flaking or worse.

John can create white porcelain, or color-match to about any color you want. Vibrant reds and yellows are more expensive, he warns, because the formula for these colors use cadmium, an EPA-controlled substance requiring special procedures.

Costs vary according to the piece. John read to me from his rate card: A 42″ sink runs $750-$800, plus shipping. As you can imagine, shipping can be a substantial part of the expense, too. For example, John is in Illinois, just across the border from St. Louis, and one-way shipping to California for a piece sitting in his shop while we talked was looking like $230. He says he works with a special shipper to help get the best cost possible.
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That said, remember that it’s probably at least $1,500 for an Elkay Lustertone stainless steel drainboard sink. And I bet if anyone ever started making porcelain drainboard sinks new, they would be in that price range or higher. As I’ve said before, if you want or need to aim for cheap and cheerful: Take your measurements for a drainboard sink with you everywhere you go. Stalk your Re-Store, even renovation sites, and look for a sink top that is as perfect as possible. Or not-so-perfect, and use one of the porcelain repair products from deabath.com and don’t sweat perfection.

A 40″ stovetop, in white, with four burner holes, would be about $335, John said.

He can also do stove grates, with simple single grates starting at $50.50.

Currently, lead times are three-to-four weeks.

John says that he started his business in 1997, after running a large porcelain plant in St. Louis. He got his start when he reporcelained the exhaust pipes on his Harleys.

Link: Custom Ceramic Coatings — tell John you heard about him on Retro Renovation!

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Colored ceramic soap dishes and shelves for the tub and shower area — NOS from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s

pam kueber — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:30:10 +0000

Pastel pink soap dishes, mint green soap dishes, regency blue soap dishes — and more — you can get them all at, yes: The magical mystical World of Tile, our favorite place for New Old Stock (NOS) 50s, 60s and 70s bathroom and kitchen tile, sinks, and more.

If you are looking to replace a soap dish that is broken, I would instruct you to do the same thing as if you are looking for replacement tile: Send Chippy an actual sample, so that she can see if she can match it.

If you are building a bathroom from scratch, you have more room to play. I absolutely adore the soap dishes just above. I guess you’d call them late 1960s or 1970s? I never thought I would get so excited about a soap dish. As I told the New York Times, it is very painful that “my house is done.” I need to sell this one and get another, so that I can renovate it with whole roomfuls of tile from World of Tile.

I am trying to show you all the photos of World of Tile’s soap dishes. They are all in one circular room, just off the main showroom.

If you are building a bathroom from scratch, as I said, you will have more flexibility in choosing your soap dishes. But, you are still going to have to be matchy-matchy to a degree — you’ll have to select a “field tile” first. If you want to get an “entire bathroom” from World of Tile, maybe you could plan a vacation that gets you into the area. They are about 7 miles from the Newark Airport. If you can drive there, maybe rent a small van with enough capacity on the rear axle to haul a heavy load of tile home? This stuff is heavy to ship.

Plan on staying in the area couple of days — because you are going to need at least several hours to look at everything at World of Tile, have them check inventory levels, and mull over your final decisions. Be sure ahead of time to bring all your measurements — to know the s.f. of tile you will need.

Don’t forget bullnose, base cove, inside corners, outside corners…. Chippy also can advise you on how much extra to order to accommodate the waste created when you cut the tiles to fit.

For more information and where-to-buy: World of Tile, Springfield, NJ

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