Cast iron bath!

DWhite

I’m looking at a second hand cast iron bath for my house. It’s in pretty good condition, needs a lick of paint and a damn good scrub otherwise I’m pretty ok shape.
It’s obviously very heavy!
Does my bathroom floor need to be reinforced to hold its weight when full of water (and me)?
What are people’s general experience of cast iron baths? I’ve always wanted one so this would be a long term investment for the house if I buy it.

PollyWollyDoodle

I've never tried restoring one, my skills are not good enough. I used to have one, and I don't think that the floor needed reinforcing. However they chip very easily. If you have a shower over the bath, don't even think of having a metal shower head. Ask me how I know :rotfl:

buildersdaughter

I have used a cast iron bath in the past, and so have many people I know. On reflection, this was in older houses, maybe built to a different building spec?
Apart from the weight, my caution would be 'heat up' time - the solid metal absorbed a lot of the water heat, so used a lot more hot water / heating than the light modern bath I have now. I couldn't tell you exactly how much, but I think it's a factor you need to consider.

firebubble

A friend of mine was desperate for one when she installed her house - windows were removed to crane it in, floor reinforced as a precaution, finally it was installed and although it had a cost a fortune in installation, looked beautiful.

She ran her first bath... and realised the huge disadvantage of cast iron is that it's cold to sit on, even when full of hot water. And the hot water doesn't stay hot because the iron conducts the heat far better than plastic, so it's actually more inconvenient and expensive to take a bath. She doesn't use it anymore, but it's too expensive to get removed and replaced with modern plastic.

A cautionary tale, but in summary, avoid cast iron baths if you love having baths...

Slinky

We have a steel rather than cast iron bath (Kaldewei) and don't have problems with it being cold.

caronc

When I moved into my 1920s house many moons ago, it still had the original bathroom complete with rather neglected though lovely cast iron bath. We spent a lot effort, elbow grease taking the old enamel off and cash restoring it to only find what others have said, it's cold to sit in though you can put a rubber mat down which helps and takess a huge amount of very hot water to fill and even then it cools very quickly. We also found it very hard to get a professional finish on the new enamel so it was a bit rough to the touch and very prone to chipping/flaking. I couldn't wait to replace it in the end up...