I'm finding it much more difficult than I would have thought to find a replacement bathtub. I was hoping for some ideas.
I need an alcove tub with apron. My bathroom is 60-1/8" " to 60¼" wide by ~8' gutted. Due to the proximity of the toilet a 30" wide tub is preferred although a 32 would fit. The surround will be tile.
I would have liked to keep my old cast iron tub. Stylistically it's pretty cool and unless you look closely it looks good, but close up it's really etched and dull. I tried buffing compounds and such but they didn't do much. I know about the refinishing option but why go with something that may look like crap in ten years when you have the bathroom gutted?
Stylistically, I prefer simple with rounded features such as the American Standard Princeton. I'm not so big on angular features or superfluous contours.
Material-wise, I would love cast iron, but haven't found anything that fits that isn't some ugly coffin shaped thing. I really don't want plastic. I would be fine with one of the whatever-casts. I've seen some people say that the finish goes bad on them fast but I can't imagine why that would be. They're still porcelain aren't they? Plus I see that American Standard has be making them for many years and has pretty much ditched CI tubs for them so they can't be that bad, can they?
So here are my two big concerns that are keeping me from just going with the A.S. Princeton:
1)The no skid surface. I really don't want a no skid surface. Ugly, hard to clean and most importantly, irritating when you want to sit down for a bath. An American Standard rep told me they are required to have a no skid surface is this true? Don't they bug the crap out of people who really want to use the tub for baths?
2)The tiling flange: Their documents say you have to shim the wall even with it. That's like over a ¼" of shimming I'd have to do to the entirety of the big walls, isn't it? Or are the flanges not that thick?
I need an alcove tub with apron. My bathroom is 60-1/8" " to 60¼" wide by ~8' gutted. Due to the proximity of the toilet a 30" wide tub is preferred although a 32 would fit. The surround will be tile.
I would have liked to keep my old cast iron tub. Stylistically it's pretty cool and unless you look closely it looks good, but close up it's really etched and dull. I tried buffing compounds and such but they didn't do much. I know about the refinishing option but why go with something that may look like crap in ten years when you have the bathroom gutted?
Stylistically, I prefer simple with rounded features such as the American Standard Princeton. I'm not so big on angular features or superfluous contours.
Material-wise, I would love cast iron, but haven't found anything that fits that isn't some ugly coffin shaped thing. I really don't want plastic. I would be fine with one of the whatever-casts. I've seen some people say that the finish goes bad on them fast but I can't imagine why that would be. They're still porcelain aren't they? Plus I see that American Standard has be making them for many years and has pretty much ditched CI tubs for them so they can't be that bad, can they?
So here are my two big concerns that are keeping me from just going with the A.S. Princeton:
1)The no skid surface. I really don't want a no skid surface. Ugly, hard to clean and most importantly, irritating when you want to sit down for a bath. An American Standard rep told me they are required to have a no skid surface is this true? Don't they bug the crap out of people who really want to use the tub for baths?
2)The tiling flange: Their documents say you have to shim the wall even with it. That's like over a ¼" of shimming I'd have to do to the entirety of the big walls, isn't it? Or are the flanges not that thick?
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