Plastic Laundry tub discolored - any fixes?

[mattl]

I have an old, circa mid 70's, plastic laundry tub that has seen better days. It's yellowed and discolored and I have not had much luck cleaning it up. Anyone have any tricks or suggestions to get it looking a bit better? I know it will never be white again, but it looks bad. It never had a shiny finish, it pretty much looks like those PVC lawn chairs - more a matte finish.

I'd replace it but not having much luck finding the same size, roughly 18" x 24" (16" deep) give or take an inch either way. It originally was in one of those metal laundry tubs that Sears sold to match the washer and dryer. About 10 years ago I built the tub into a new white cabinet so I don't have much room to go any larger.

HD has an 18x24 tub kit, but it's online only so I can't really tell if it would work or not. Plus it comes with legs and a faucet neither of which I need.

 

[tlee618]

Hey Matt, not sure if it will help yours but I have good luck with Bar Keepers Friend.

 

[yogitunes]

How about repainting it white

since you mentioned lawn plastic lawn furniture.......at Lowes, and I think its made by Krylon or Rustleum, anywho, they have one that will paint plastic, and bond to the surface, it won't peel, I did some patio furniture, in a soft green, what a day and night difference, doesn't peel, crack or fade, and powerwashing won't make it come off either, season after season

prep is the key for this.....I powerwashed the furniture first, let dry completely in the sun, and then gave it 2 coats

I would love to find one of those sinks you have with the cabinet, NLA, not even in a hardware thrift store, rare!

 

[yogitunes]

How about repainting it white

since you mentioned lawn plastic lawn furniture.......at Lowes, and I think its made by Krylon or Rustleum, anywho, they have one that will paint plastic, and bond to the surface, it won't peel, I did some patio furniture, in a soft green, what a day and night difference, doesn't peel, crack or fade, and powerwashing won't make it come off either, season after season

prep is the key for this.....I powerwashed the furniture first, let dry completely in the sun, and then gave it 2 coats

I would love to find one of those sinks you have with the cabinet, NLA, not even in a hardware thrift store, rare!

 

[yogitunes]

How about repainting it white

since you mentioned lawn plastic lawn furniture.......at Lowes, and I think its made by Krylon or Rustleum, anywho, they have one that will paint plastic, and bond to the surface, it won't peel, I did some patio furniture, in a soft green, what a day and night difference, doesn't peel, crack or fade, and powerwashing won't make it come off either, season after season

prep is the key for this.....I powerwashed the furniture first, let dry completely in the sun, and then gave it 2 coats

I would love to find one of those sinks you have with the cabinet, NLA, not even in a hardware thrift store, rare!

 

[magic clean]

There

is epoxy paint that's especially suited for refinishing bathtubs & showers. The home improvement centers have it.

Here is a link to the cabinet style laundry tubs

http://www.mustee.com/product-lines/laundry-utility-tubs/index.html

 

[mistereric]

Try whipping up some Retr0Brite.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

 

[hydralique]

Mustee Model 12 Utilitub . . .

I bought and installed one of these for a good friend a few weeks ago. He had bought a house with a large old laundry tub that made the installation of a washer and dryer in the laundry room impossible - at some point decades ago someone had added a powder room that drastically reduced the size of the once-large laundry. With an 18" tub, I calculated there would just be enough room for a stacked washer/dryer pair. After my friend bought the house he asked me for a recommendation for an 18" laundry tub suitable for installation under a wall-mounted faucet.

I've specified residential plumbing fixtures for years and figured this would be no problem. After hours of research, though, I found out that laundry tubs less than 24" wide are rare, rare, rare. Duravit makes a very nice one, but it's expensive and I hate to order Duravit - they make very nice stuff but if it's not in stock in Georgia then it has to come from Germany, which can take weeks and weeks. I finally broke down and ordered that Mustee from a local plumbing supply house after a conversation with a Mustee tech guy who assured me I could cut the sink deck off. BTW, they are only sold with the faucet, so if you have a wall-mount faucet you'll just have to disgard the supplied faucet. After I cut the sink deck off with a dremel tool, I ended out modifying the back mounting to eliminate the rear two legs via a custom wall bracked made of pressure treated lumber. This all took awhile but the end result is nice, all for $112 if I remember correctly.

 

[mattl]

hydralique, Odds are that is the same tub I see on the Home Depot site for $87, I might consider it. By chance do you have any pictures?

I did cut off part of the tub when I dropped it in the new cabinet, just a basic 24" white laminate cabinet. I under mounted the tub and built a formica top, with a removable lid, like it had in the metal cabinet. I wanted just a bit of counter space so I shifted the tub over to the side and have about 4" of counter next to the washer. If I can get it cleaned up I'll post some pictures. I'm doing a little updating to my laundry room so it's a mess at the moment...

Eric, that mixture sounds like it might just do the trick. I have both items sitting around so I might research it a bit more and give it a try.

Yogi, with all the detergent and stuff I don't think paint would survive. At the moment the washer drains into it, though I might change that. The tub has the small metal spout with 2 discharge points for a suds saver washer. If I get ambitious I might switch to a stand tube and that would definitely keep it cleaner.

 

[circlew]

You might also try automotive rubbing and polishing compounds.

 

[hydralique]

Matt . . .

It is a Mustee Model 12, I believe the same one as sold by Home Depot. I called around to a couple of Home Depots and found it is sold only via their website and not stocked in stores. By the time I added shipping and sales tax there wasn't much savings buying from them and I wanted it asap. One of the local plumbing supply houses had it their Orange County warehouse about 60 miles from me, but was able to bring it up to their Van Nuys store in two days.

I don't have any pics now but will take some next time I'm near the house. The tub is made out of decent plastic, although the metal legs are pretty thin. Cutting the faucet deck off wasn't much of a problem with the dremel tool. I suspect your big issue will be how to undermount the tub as there are different ways of doing this. In my modification, the rear of the tub is supported by the remainder of the faucet deck so as to eliminate the rear legs. There isn't much deck at all on the sides and front, just a little lip, so supporting the tub via this would take some careful work. It might be easiest to throw a couple of treated 2 x 4s under the tub from front to back just underneath where the legs slip into the plastic, and then disgard the legs. That would keep the support where it is designed to be and make adjustments easier during fabrication.

 

[mattl]

Thanks, that is exactly what I did, support on the front and back.

I'll try giving it a good scrub, and perhaps try the peroxide treatment and see how it turns out.

 

[neptunebob]

You can always paint the tubs.

I used oil base paint on our tubs and if you cannot get that anymore, Benjamin Moore's paint should be OK. You might have to do this maybe twice a year but it does help the tubs look a lot brighter.[this post was last edited: 9/29/2010-22:50]