If your bathroom is avocado, pink, primrose or a particular shade of blue, you are in very large company. Coloured suites were fitted in huge numbers across 2 decades, and a great many of them are still in Bermuda homes because they were solidly made and never actually stopped working.
That is the whole reason this comes up so often.
Why are so many of them still there?
Because they were built heavily and the material outlasted the fashion. Cast iron and steel baths from that era are frequently in better structural condition than things fitted far more recently. Nothing went wrong with them. The colour simply stopped being what anybody wanted, and replacing a working bath purely over its colour is a hard thing to justify.
So they stay, and they date the room around them.
What has usually gone wrong by now?
The surface rather than the fixture. Gloss that has dulled, staining around the waste and the overflow, chips along the rim where things have been dropped, and surface rust where the finish was broken years ago. In a humid climate with salt air, that happens faster here than it would elsewhere. All of those are surface problems.
Can a coloured suite be taken to white?
Yes, and it is the most common request we get on these rooms. A bath, a basin and the surrounding tile can be brought to a clean white or a light neutral in the same visit, which is what makes the room read as current rather than partly updated. Doing the bath alone and leaving coloured tile around it tends to make the tile more noticeable, not less.
Is the tile from that era worth keeping?
Usually, provided it is sound. Tap it and listen for hollow patches, and look for anything lifting. Where it is firmly attached, the colour and the dark grout lines are what date it, and both are addressed by tile refinishing. Taking that tile off a wall in an older property is exactly the kind of job that turns into a much larger one.
What if there is rust around the waste?
That is normal on a suite of this age and it is not the end of the fixture. Surface corrosion on sound material is repairable, and it is treated rather than covered so it does not come back through the new finish. Where it has gone right through the material, we will tell you, and then replacement is the honest answer. The approach is set out under rust repairs.
How do you decide for your own bathroom?
Look at whether the fixtures are sound and whether what you dislike is the colour and condition or the layout itself. If it is colour and condition, refinishing addresses it without taking the room apart. If it is the layout, it does not, and we would rather tell you that than take the work. The comparison is on our refinish or replace page.
Is the fixture itself worth keeping?
Usually, and the older ones more so. Baths from that era were made heavily, and a cast iron body in a Bermuda home will generally outlast several generations of what would replace it. The enamel wears long before the bath does.
That is the whole reason refinishing suits these rooms so well.
The exception is a bath that is cracked through or has corroded right the way through rather than on the surface. We will tell you that from photographs rather than after starting, because it is not a job worth doing badly.
What order should you do the room in?
All of it together, if the pieces are in similar condition, which on a suite of this age they usually are. A bright white bath against a coloured basin and coloured tile makes the remaining colour more obvious rather than less, and it is the most common regret we hear from people who did one thing at a time. Doing the bath, the basin and the surrounding tile in a single visit is what makes the room read as updated rather than half updated.
Are the fittings from that era worth keeping too?
The taps and wastes are a separate question from the surfaces and not one we take on, since that is plumbing. What is worth saying is that corroded or failing fittings are best dealt with before surface work rather than after, so that a freshly refinished basin is not disturbed a fortnight later.
Mention them when you send photographs and we will sequence the work sensibly.
What should you do next?
Photograph the room from the doorway and the worst area close up, and send them with a quote request. SimPro has been restoring these suites in Bermuda homes since 2008. See finished examples on our before and after page, or call (441) 236-8827.
If the suite is a matched set, photograph all of it rather than the worst piece. These rooms almost always read better done together, and the quote for the room is what tells you whether that is realistic for you.
Common questions
Can a coloured bathroom suite be changed to white?
A bath, a basin and the surrounding tile can be brought to a clean white or a light neutral in the same visit, which is what makes the room read as current rather than partly updated.
Are old coloured suites worth keeping?
Cast iron and steel baths from that era are frequently in better structural condition than things fitted far more recently.
