Monday, February 19, 2007

Splish Splash

At this point the first floor was pretty well roughed in ready for finish work except the powder room next to the kitchen. I had been gathering pieces for this room for some time and finally had a plan and was ready to get started. The first order of business was restoring the claw foot tub that I acquired on EBAY from a place out in Lancaster. The outside of course needed refinishing, but the porcelain was in great shape, just a little worn by the drain.



If I recall correctly the date is stamped 1920 American Standard. The wall side had never been painted and the exposed side had maybe two layers of paint. I scraped and sanded down the white layer, but the pink first coat was really on there, so once everything was feathered, I primered the entire outside and feet. For a finish coat I used semi-gloss white Rustoleum - 2 coats. Here's the results.



To finish the job, all new hardware was purchased. I bought a drain assembly and faucet from Vintage Tub and Bath. I was very happy with the quality, since these days most repro parts seem to be poorly done. The supply lines for the hot and cold are actually original from a faucet assembly I got a great deal but decided not to use since it needed refinishing, but the lines are in good shape and really won't be seen.


Here it is ready for it's new home.

4 comments:

kingstreetfarm said...

Wow! Really great job! For some reason, refinishing a tub or other porcelain is one project I have always been scared to tackle. Your awesome results almost make me want to drag the 800 pound antique farmhouse sink from our woods into my barn to work on.
Almost ;)

Mike said...

The porcelain is original - all I did was give it a good cleaning with diluted bleack and a powder cleanser scrubbing. Outside is just paint. I shyed away from pieces needing porcelain recoating since I keep hearing they only last a few years before thay start to break down, especially if used daily. 800 lbs - I think that bad boy is definitely retired in place!

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I have been wandering around on the internet for days now trying to find hardware to install the feet for my clawfoot tub. From your pictures it looks like yours might be like mine, although most of them do look the same, and I was wondering if you could email me a picture of the feet. Any advice would help
Thanks,
Brianna

Mike said...

There's no mounting hardware for the feet. The back of the foot is a tapered flat bar that slide into tabs cast into the tub until it wedges tight.