What is best bathtub material
Bathroom Basics: How To Pick The Best Bathtub In 2019
what is up rude modeling's I am Dave
with remodel media and for the last 14
years I have helped people put together
kitchens maths outdoor kitchens and
various other home renovation projects
in this video we're going to cover how
to pick the best bathtub for you here we
go
[Music]
the first decision to make when deciding
on which bathtub to get is how you want
that bathtub to be installed
installation number one is typically
referred to as a three wall alcove
installation something like this where
you have the walls on three sides and a
door in front there's usually an apron
or a skirt that crosses the front of the
tub and this is your most basic type of
installation I think pretty much all of
us have seen it at some point the second
type of installation that you need to
decide on if you didn't want to do an
alcove tub which would have a tub/shower
combination you could do a drop-in tub
something like this one right here so a
drop-in tub is just that it is a tub
where your contractor has built a box
and there's a surround and usually this
is tile or granite or something like
that and the tub is dropped in as a side
note you can actually under mount a
drop-in tub as long as it has a flat
edge like some of these that I'm showing
you today so the way they do that is
they build up the plywood and take the
tile or granite and go over the edge of
the tub
the third tub choice is of course a
free-standing bathtub now many of us
when we think of a freestanding bathtub
many of us think of something like this
clawfoot cast-iron porcelain enamel and
definitely a very classic look if that's
the look you're going for but there are
a number of freestanding tubs some with
jets some without that we can do in a
variety of different materials that are
not clawfoot now once you've decided on
the installation of the bath tub now you
need to decide what material to use so
the first material that you could use
would be plastic and a plastic bath tub
is cheap but also does not hold up over
the long term so I would only recommend
this for a customer who was installing
in maybe a house flip or as a landlord
something where you're looking for super
low investment the way a plastic tub is
formed is you they take a fiberglass
shell and they spray coat it with a gel
plastic material that hardens and so the
support is actually coming from the
fiberglass which is not its original
intent now some things as a consumer to
watch out for with regard to plastic
tubs as companies have gotten good at
using other words to describe the same
or similar materials so for example any
word that has coat in it gel coat last
coat things like that the other way
companies get a little bit sneaky when
they're labeling their plastic material
is they make it rhyme with acrylic or
they make the word sound acrylic ish
words like acrylics Vicryl
Varitek things that kind of feel like
the word acrylic but in this case these
materials are all a plastic or a plastic
composite type of a material they're not
actually acrylic again each material is
right for somebody but make it an
informed decision on what material
you're gonna get the way an acrylic tub
is formed is there's usually a sheet of
acrylic that gets bent and formed into
the shape of the tub and then the
fiberglass is sprayed on the back as
simply an insulation device so the
acrylic actually provides all the
support the insulation comes from the
fiberglass so I must have gotten this
question probably a hundred times over
the course of my career it goes
something like well most of these tubs
aren't plastic they're actually acrylic
get your nails done right huh what's the
difference between a Lee press-on and an
acrylic nail the next material to
consider is cast-iron
porcelain enameled cast iron has been
mainstay in the plumbing industry pretty
much since a Bulgarian immigrant named
John Michael Kohler poured enameling
powder on a cast-iron pig trough put
some feet on it and sold it as a bathtub
cast-iron tubs come in a lot of
different shapes a lot of different
sizes a lot of different configurations
cast iron is a cost-prohibitive material
to work with as compared to acrylic
that's why the prices on cast iron are a
lot higher the other pitfall to cast
iron is today's cast iron is not the
same as the cast iron was 50 years ago
today's cast iron is low lead now low
lead sounds like a really good thing not
that I lick my bathtub that often but
I'm not going to get lead poisoning from
it so your low lead cast iron however is
also going to be very brittle and more
prone to chipping so this is something
as a consumer you need to be aware of as
well when making your decision on the
bathtub
the last material you could choose would
be a composite stone or a composite type
of a resin material where this material
which is available in some sinks and
some tubs and various other fixtures is
actually it starts out looking like this
and it is a volcanic limestone mixed
with a resin and poured into a mold this
particular material is from a company
called Victorian Albert out of England
and they've been doing this for well
quite a while actually but there are
other companies doing some interesting
things with the composite stone resin
material here now blue bath works is a
company that makes composite quartz
bathtubs and fixtures now the
interesting thing about quartz as
opposed to limestone is it's a far
denser material so when these folks that
actually emboss a tub that is they put a
design on the side that design is
actually etched into the tub as opposed
to like a screen print that some other
companies would do other companies would
do some sort of a screen print put down
the
a tub this company actually you can etch
a design into the side of the tub and
have it be structurally sound now this
material bluestone as I mentioned from
blue bath works is a material designed
by a designer named Michael Gottschalk
and as the story goes he was looking for
just the right stone for one of his
projects because he's an architect and
he couldn't find it anywhere so he went
out and had it made and he figured if he
had that problem
well then other people probably had that
problem too and that is how he began a
company called blue bath works my final
note for you on bath tubs is every bath
tub that I sell just like every faucet
just like every every appliance is right
for somebody and they're right for
different reasons because people are
different so if you want to choose a
particular tub great just make sure that
the decision you're making is an
informed one I hope you enjoyed that
video as usual I will leave some
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