Looking to have speciality bathtubs made, where do I start?

Jamerican

Looking into a potential new business, and would need about 5 bathtubs made (none on the market here would suit). Who could I contact? Trying to get an idea of the costs involved with having them made, thanks.

Peterdalkey

plastic, ceramic, cast iron, concrete?

Jamerican

not fussy, but plastic or fibreglass, or whatever normal household tubs are made of.

Peterdalkey

If you only want 5, your costs for moulds are going to be huge, even for GRP (fibreglass). You might find a boatbuilder who would do it but the unit cost is going to steep and you will ~need CAD drawings etc!

Have you ever seen what you want, if so import them!!

lucky john

Jamerican wrote: »

Looking into a potential new business, and would need about 5 bathtubs made (none on the market here would suit). Who could I contact? Trying to get an idea of the costs involved with having them made, thanks.

Are you talking 5 different designs or 5 identical baths?

Do you need it to be a complete finished product or would a realistic dummy ,to give you an idea of a finished look, be ok to start with. A prototype type mock up would cost €2500...3000 per unit.

A complete grp mould for a standard size bath I would guesstimate to cost around €5000. Any design work and drawings between 30..50 euro per hour. If the answer to my first question is 5 different moulds then needless to say you are in the €30,000 region.

Once you have a mould then you can make as many baths as you like. A guess, but a standard bath type product made in ireland... €300 maybe. Way out price wise with the bulk made, imported baths available in your local hardward. I suspect that to make this work you may have to look to the east to manufacturer and be competitive. If you have come up with some new twist thats not available already and can charge a premium for it then that might work.

Jamerican

Thanks, I would need them for shop use, not reselling them. I can import them from the US, but you'd be talking astronomical prices with shipping. Just trying to look at all of my options. I know a CAD drawer so it would simple to draw them up as there is very little curves on each bath. I can even build the bases, so just need the fibreglass hull.

Peterdalkey

Importing is going to be miles cheaper than having them made here and you have an uncertain outcome. You have typical pricing for molds from LuckyJohn. These baths probably nest for transport, so 1 or 5 the shipping would be similar!

Do they have distribution in Europe?
Are there similar products made in Europe? Just because you cant find them in Ireland means absolutely nothing more that!!

lucky john

I can give you the name of a small company in cavan that make plugs and moulds for Fibreglass baths and shower units used in caravans and mobil homes. If you're interested I can pm it to you. They have a cnc machine and a full design service as well but they don't come cheap so price your product landed to you from US/Europe and then compare maybe.

Jamerican

lucky john wrote: »

I can give you the name of a small company in cavan that make plugs and moulds for Fibreglass baths and shower units used in caravans and mobil homes. If you're interested I can pm it to you. They have a cnc machine and a full design service as well but they don't come cheap so price your product landed to you from US/Europe and then compare maybe.

I would appreciate that, thanks very much!

lucky john

Jamerican wrote: »

I would appreciate that, thanks very much!

PM sent.