Chip Repair

Before Chip Repair - 1

After Chip Repair - 1

Before Chip Repair - 2

After Chip Repair - 2

Fixture repair service: chips, scratches, dings, pings and cracks.

If you are frustrated or anxious about damage on a bathroom fixture don't worry because we can get you out of trouble pretty quickly.

We can provide a fast response and costing for a repair on a damaged bathroom fixture if you call us on 07766998974 or fill in the enquiry form at the bottom of this page.

In the main we repair enamelled steel or acrylic baths and shower trays of various construction. We can also repair sinks and toilets as long as they are not structurally damaged.

The usual sort of thing is a tiler dropping a tile into the bath or the house holder knocking a heavy object into it. On an enamelled pressed steel bath this usually shows up as a black chip and quite noticeable. On an acrylic bath its not so obvious but nevertheless evident and likely to worsen if the sub fibre starts to absorb moisture One also sees stanley knife cuts on acrylics where someone has used too much force to remove the protective film. You get scuffs and scratches on shower bases and sometimes a tradesman drills a hole erroneously through an acrylic bath!

We will consider any repair and do whatever we can to help or advise.

The basic procedure is to bond the area of the chip so that the filler will stick to the unit, fill the void with filler, cure it and fair it off - restoring the surface to the original contour.

The area of the chip is treated with an adhesion promoter to bond the new enamel on. We then custom make a duplicate colour to the damaged surface. This is mixed with a hardner and misted gently in with a number of coats using an air brush. One usually wipes this off and does the repair few times so that one can learn how good a repair is possible for this situation and then chooses one to leave that is the best.

Steps are then taken to fade the edge of the repair out into the original substrate. Finally any
remaining halo is washed out with a solvent.

We are usually asked to describe in detail the quality and standard of this type of repair because if it is to be done on a new item one has just fitted for a client as part of a bathroom renovation the client is understandably interested to know what he is getting.

The procedure described briefly above usually vanishes out any trace of the original damage and the repair itself, but we can't promise that it will be absolutely undetectable by everybody as each person has a different ability to sense and perceive and a greater or lesser desire to find it and judge it.

The system is designed and specified for the repair of baths and shower trays in newly built properties or hotels where the criteria is such that someone buying the property or using the fixture would not notice anything or be able to find the repair if they knew it had been damaged. Someone can walk into the room, look over the bath and see nothing wrong with it. This is the standard we can achieve with the technology as it now exists.

If however what is required is a standard whereby one knows where the repair is and expects to be unable to tell any difference at all between that area and another that has not been worked on or detect any artefact of a repair whatsoever, we can't promise that. In some situations if you repeatedly run your hand over the area and move your head back and fourth back and fourth so as to catch it in different light reflections or use a torch and a magnifying glass you may be able to discern something. It is after all a repair and the objective is to improve the situation within reason in such a way that it is not noticed in normal use.

We only clarify this point because occasionally over the last 28 years some tradesmen have pushed off repairs on clients who wanted their new and expensive yet damaged fixture replaced and have been promised the repair would be undetectable which is not always possible, particularly if someone wants to find fault with it. In such circumstances it is necessary to be honest with the client get their agreement that they will accept the best that we can do, which is to my knowledge the best that is available as we train other companies operators in this kind of work.

So the devil is in the detail really when it comes to effecting the sort of result that you, the client, wants. It requires a purpose to get it right, good judgement, precision and a perfectionist approach together with high quality materials and a finely honed procedure and adroit hand work.

With a professional service level like this there is a pleasant satisfaction for the technician in really nailing it that is its own reward not to mention the pleasure in seeing the clients relief!

It needs disciplined and methodical work using a tried and tested procedure that fortunately we have perfected over the last twenty eight years. You can't do this sort of thing with dirty, disorganised gear or a sloppy "Oh that will do, I think I will get away with that." kind of attitude.

One thing we are often asked about is, "How do you get the right colour?" This is a good question as few whites are the same, and is in fact a key skill of the job. One has to be able to replicate the colour of the fixture one is repairing. You have to be able to match the colour by custom building it by eye which we do - better than the manufacturers really since we make the colour not for the batch that the item came from but this particular item. In my experience the manufacturers kits are not always that accurate as we sometimes re do repairs that have been done by builders using these supplied kits. This is understandable because even within a manufactures batch of baths you seem to get a bit of colour variation. You can see this in hotels where you go down the corridor and the baths all look the same and were obviously fitted at the same time yet the colour drifts from bath to bath requiring adjustment for each. Colour matching is both a science and an art. It has its own technology. You have to understand what colour is and how to control it. Its quite a craft as you have to be able to tell the difference between the sample you have and the colour of the fixture. You then have to have the knowledge and understanding to know what to add to it to bring it closer then have the judgement to add the correct amount of tint for each adjustment.

As you can probably gather by the way I have expressed myself, to make a really good repair to a bathroom fixture requires a very high level of organisational and personal ability. Not all people can offer this. I can say this because I have had to re repair a lot of pro, semi pro and amature attempts over the last quarter of a century. This can be annoying for us and the client as one has to remove the unsatisfactory "repair" which is usually now bigger because the damage to the original surface is now more extended than it was originally due to over scuffing from too coarse a grade of sand paper leaving new scratches extending from the original damage and these also now need to be included in the re repair. As a result a re repair usually costs more to do than a virgin repair. Therefore repairing a bathroom fixture is something that is best done right the first time.

I hope this gives you some reality in what is involved and what can be achieved.

We usually get our repairs done promptly. Sometimes on the same day sometimes within a few days occasionally longer if you are far away.

Our repairs are cosmetic and seem to last the life of the bath and the work is covered by a years guarantee unless the fixture has been structurally damaged. For example cracks in sinks or loos may continue to develop if they are unstable of their own accord. Also an acrylic bath that has been actually holed and leaking may be repairable but would not be warrantied against opening up again and our insurance would not cover any future water damage as a result. We would not normally take on a job that has structural damage so if this is suspected its best to fully discuss so that we can advise what can and cannot be achieved.

Costs vary per item and depend on the nature of the damage, the colour, the extent or quantity of chips, the number of items that need repaired, where you are and the composition of the damaged surface. The costs therefore have a wide span and vary from £88 to £320, but so its best to call us on 07766998974 to get an instant quote for your situation so that you can work out if its a viable option for you.

I hope we can help.

Ian