Am helping friend remodel bathroom... we've got it about 80% together now, tomorrow's job was supposed to be to install the sink and then start caulking and shopping for paint colors. Unfortunately, one of his cats, affectionately known as "oranage fuzzy f**kwit" or "he who f**ks s**t up" and sometimes less affectionately known as "dammit cat" got to the sink base before we got it bolted to the floor, with predictable results. Fortunately the floor tile is fine, but the sink base lost two big pieces near where the bowl sits, and putting the pieces back in place shows that there's a lot of little chips missing. This is white ceramic, BTW.
We're cheap, and this is a basement bathroom, and he wasn't really planning on buying a new sink at all (amazingly, the thing kicked around in the back room for weeks, but managed to get broken the evening before we were going to install it.) Honestly, if I epoxied the pieces back in place he'd probably be happy, but I was wondering what the recommended filler would be if I wanted to do a more professional looking job. Suggestions welcome!
Epoxy would be the professional job - as long as you applied it in a professional manner. ;)
Epoxy it up nice, goober some on the inside where it'll be hidden and use some fiberglass mesh tape to cover the joints, hold the epoxy back a bit from the outside face and rough up the epoxy surface to improve the bond for the next step - Bondo or fairing compound. Sand smooth, spray with an appliance paint rattle can.
I have no idea what the best choice would be, but I'd try unsanded tile grout. It's hard enough to hold a toilet level and sets up pretty quick. If you can piece in the largest chunks, it would be a plus. A little grout sealer and you're done :o)
I was thinking that there ought to be some colored filler that I could apply to the divots after it's all gooed together. But possibly your way is easier and will look about the same when it's all said and done.
I did, for various reasons, end up cracking a floor tile that I was trying to make a tricky cut in, and it cracked cleanly so I epoxied it back together as well (because I'd invested a lot of time in it already, and the crack would have been hidden under the toilet base.) Due to a change in tiling strategy, it ended up not being used and we attempted to break it just out of curiosity. It broke, but not along the epoxy line. So I'm fairly confident that the stuff I have will make a strong repair, I was just worried about cosmetics.
As an alternative, you could use one of those little nail polish size bottles of porcelain repair paint that the Borg carries. That stuff is thicker and would build up if done in several layers.
Well, discussion is now academic. I epoxied the pedestal back together but didn't attempt to fix cosmetics at all... figured I could do that after bathroom was functional again. tried to fit sink and discovered that the thing was just defective out of the box (even though it'd been previously installed in bathroom) as the base was about 15 degrees off of the axis of the pedestal, so even though the floor was pretty close to level it required a ludicrous amount of shims to make it fit right. I guess that explains why it was pulling away from the wall even with the bracket in place, and was all goobered up with caulk etc. Got into a heated discussion w/ homeowner where I said that I would rather buy him a new sink than install that POS because the caulking required to cover up the gap was waaaaaay outside the parameters of any product that I was aware of, and we didn't really have any plywood or any power tools that would make a nice tapered shim for the base of it from aforementioned plywood. He insisted that he could make it work, I let him try.
The whole conversation became moot when he left the bathroom door open with the sink loosely in place and orange fuzzy knocked it over. Again. And cracked two (brand new) floor tiles. Apparently cuteness is a survival strategy.
On the upside, he found a cheap vanity at HD for $50 which, while being evidently shit, was waaaaaaay easier to put in place and make look reasonably good. I think I figured out why it was so cheap though, the sink bowl piece didn't have any provision for an overflow drain. I guess just don't let morons use that bathroom. On the downside, "Glacier Bay" faucets are, unsurprisingly, complete shit. The faucet itself, while cheap, seems to be fine, but I had to salvage the nut from the old tailpiece that holds the drain stopper actuation rod in as the one that came with the new faucet kit cracked upon installation. Additionally, it still doesn't work as the plastic flotchy that works said rod broke when I attempted to attach it to the rod that sticks up through the faucet (and the one from the old sink broke when fuzzy knocked it over for the second time.) I have tried to impress on him the benefits of spending a little more money to get quality stuff, but he doesn't seem to get it sometimes.
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