That's great! Any estimates on what it would cost to do an enamel sink with the side drainboards?

Depends on the size (length). I was asking about double-drainboard sinks, which are of course the longest kind, and he said 54" ones were $960 and 60" or 66" were $1050. That's to blast off what he described as "all of the old lead-based porcelain"--eek! I added the italics there so everyone could freak out, since I had no idea old porcelain contained lead--and put on entirely new porcelain. The photos he sent me of sinks they had recently refired were an almond-colored double drainboard sink and a jadeite green one. So evidently they can do colors, and they were very very pretty. So I guess you can get a trashed half-destroyed formerly white sink and turn it a different color if you want.

Obviously you also have to add shipping costs to the prices. If you wanted to be super clever maybe you could find the sink of your choice on the St. Louis Craigslist, and that way you would only have to pay to ship it across town to them and then across the country (wherever) to you, instead of cross country both ways.

Is there any way to reglaze an old sink, like you would a claw foot tub? They can do that in place and just tape off the areas, you don't want glazed. Once I find a tub, I'll probably have to do both! :)

phew (wish I could whistle on here), that's a wee bit more than I was hoping. Cool idea, though. Lead? lead???. . . eek. I had NO idea. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Lavender Lass,
Reglazing doesn't work well on sinks because of the beating they take in everyday use. (Typically your tub does NOT have to deal with pans being plopped into it, dishes sitting there, filthy food remains, vinegar from the salad dressing, etc...). I've heard there are some companies that advertise sink reglazing, but it's really a ripoff because once you do it you are stuck redoing it every 5 years, max, since that's the outside end of how long the surface will last in a kitchen sink. It's more money up front to reporcelain but it lasts forever, assuming you don't drop hammers into your sink on a regular basis.

Laughable,
Yeah, it ain't cheap, but it's once in a lifetime and the price depends on the size of your sink. Assuming you don't have a double-drainboard sink, it's not going to be as big as the ones I was getting quotes on so the price is going to be lower.

Oops, I just noticed you were specifically asking about double-drainboard sinks. Ok, so yes, it is going to cost that much! :)

Fantastic work, ideagirl2.

Lead glazing on old sinks is what made it so durable. It is not a massive contributor to lead blood levels by any means, unless you encourage your children to hack at your sink with an axe and then lick it.

I do become a little concerned when I hear GW members who want very unique kitchens but balk at the cost of everything. Certainly I'm sensitive to price, too, now that my house has made me po' and I'm picking up coal down by the train tracks. However, if you expect custom trimwork and highly ornamented built-ins and vintage features re-tooled to modern standards and all the rest, it's important to understand what things cost before a lot of time is wasted planning the impossible. Shop wisely, play your angles, hunt for finds--but ultimately, one also needs to either put up some cash or get off the vintage wall-mounted thunderbox.

I wonder if Independence Porcelain Enamel does sinks too.

They're located in Independence, MO. I had all my Chambers porcelain stove parts (burner grates, drip pans, etc) done there. They completely sand blasted all the old coating and applied a new porcelain coat. My parts look brand new. Absolutely gorgeous.

If anyone is interested, call:

Jeff W. Gaylord
Independence Porcelain Enamel
703 S Cottage Ave
Independence, MO 64050
816.252.8180 Phone
816.916.2038 Cell
816.252.8181 Fax
jwgaylord@ipe-porcelain.com

Here is a link that might be useful: IPE

That's fantastic info, kathec. How long ago did you have it done? How well did it hold up?

I wish I could find somebody like this on the East Coast.

Thanks for that email, Kathec. I emailed their general email (info@) on Friday and hadn't heard back. Just forwarded that same email on to Mr. Gaylord himself. Will let you all know the results...

@nutherokie, our local place told us the same thing about cast iron sinks when I asked oh-so-long-ago. They specialize in re-porcelaining the old footed bathtubs, but don't recommend it for cast iron sinks because it doesn't wear well with the new enamel finishes and the use a sink gets. (The guy basically said, well, we'll do it if you insist but I can pretty much guarantee you'll be back here in a year or two complaining about how it's chipping.) I don't know if all re-porcelaining involves stripping first, though, as ideagirl2 described. We did that for our heating registers (though they then got powder coated, not re-enameled) and they came out very nicely, except for the color being not what I wanted (but that's another story!)

marcolo, check out this place in Boston. They strip and powder coat sinks and bathtubs. Powder coating is a process often used in automotive applications. It is said to have ''extreme'' abrasion resistance, but I don't know what that means. No, I will not take a serrated knife to my brake calipers for you. Among other things, it is used for brake calipers, so it laughs at heat. It is fairly cheap, well for small parts anyway, so might be an option even if you have to unbolt the sink and re-coat it every decade or so.

The other option that people should be aware of is re-plating. You can bring steel parts to a metal plating shop and have them returned gleaming with fresh new chrome, zinc, cadmium, etc plating. Probably not durable enough for a sink, but I'm not going to take a wire brush to my suspension arms to check. Might be useful for some appliance restoration projects.

Here is a link that might be useful: Linky

Ideagirl- My sink is going to be in the laundry/pantry area, so hopefully won't get as much abuse. Maybe a few plants to be watered or veggies to be scrubbed, before going in the kitchen. Would reglazing work, in this situation?

Love the sink, but as you can see, it needs a little sprucing up! :)

{{!gwi}}

did you see photos of a refinished cast iron sink or just steel?

I don't know. I should ask. They were forties style, but those can be either.

My sink is going to be in the laundry/pantry area, so hopefully won't get as much abuse. Maybe a few plants to be watered or veggies to be scrubbed, before going in the kitchen. Would reglazing work, in this situation?

I have no idea. Maybe you can get the number of Artemis78's reglazing guy, since he was honest about it not working on her kitchen sink, and he could give you the scoop? And maybe the powdercoating thing Johnliu mentioned would work.

In other news, I've just spoken with IPE in Missouri and they do reporcelain steel sinks, but not cast iron. The woman I spoke with said they don't do cast iron because it has unpredictable results: "Sometimes it comes out nice, sometimes it comes out terrible, so we just don't do it anymore." She thinks it may be due to there being differences in the chemicals each cast iron sink has been exposed to and has absorbed over the years. *shrug*

BTW, Lavenderlass, is that a steel sink? Lots of the sinks in that style were made of steel as opposed to cast iron. So hey! For only $900 you could have it looking like new in whatever color you want! :-)

Artemis, I would think that true reporcelaining would involve removing the old porcelain, because by definition it involves putting the sink in a furnace at around 1500 degrees. I'm not sure it's even possible to keep the old porcelain on in those circumstances. But then I have no idea what I'm talking about, really. I do think it has to come off because if it's in bad enough shape to be worth $1000 to refinish, it's probably got plenty of impurities in it, and not to mention the metal underneath might need to be cleaned up before the porcelain could stick properly.

nutheroakie, I just adore your sink!

LOL! I have no idea...I guess I should get it cleaned up, first...and then maybe I'll know more details :)

Hello everyone,

I just stumbled across this thread because I'm looking for someone to re-enamel my porcelain sink. I have a couple of questions:

1. If you've powder coated your sink, are you still in love with the finish?

thanx,

joyce

2. Does anyone know of someone on the west coast (specifically California) that you would recommend to redo my sink in porcelain?

I can't imagine being one dropped fry pan from a do-over.

CA has many more restrictions on the usage of noxious chemicals than do most states. You're not likely to find anyone to even risk powder coating a sink. The other places mentioned above may have been regulated out of business as well. The last time the website linked to in the original was updated was 8 years ago.

Call Custom Ceramic and see if they're still doing it. At the time I spoke to him last, he was the only person in the US still reporcelaining steel (not cast iron) sinks. You have to pay for shipment.

As far as powder coating goes--all you can do is call around locally and ask. It's been suggested here repeatedly (I remember hollysprings bringing it up) but I don't know of anyone who's actually done it.

Best bet is always to find an original in the best possible condition. Retro Renovation is also a good place to look for information and sources--check all of their sink posts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro Renovation

thank you everyone -- especially marcolo. I purchased a sink in pretty good condition, but it's 75 years old (1939), so it needs to be re-enameled . I'll try custom ceramic.

One last thing, I'd love a good recommendation for a shipper to wrap and crate my sink.

joyce

Talked to John Ballyntyne from Custom Ceramics recently about a small sink I want reporcelained. He can do it but there is a 3 year wait. He hugely backlogged with work. He's probably the only one in the country doing reporcelaining.

I spoke to him as well in late March. I'm on the list for a couple of years from now (assuming that he's still doing it by then).

I spoke with him on Thursday and the wait has gotten to be 5 years. Not sure what to do with our cast iron sink . . . it is unique in that it is 36 inch single basin with 2 detachable drain boards. Would like to use it in our remodel but also don't want to wait 5 years.

I sent my steel porcelain sink to Custom ceramic Coatings to have it reporcelained this summer and it came back beautiful! It only took 5 weeks. I used R&L trucking to ship it. They were half the price of UPS.