RETROFITTING A FIXTURE

irst, decide whether you want that needle shower or Fuller lav set reconditioned, or fully restored., where the finish on a given piece is stripped down to bare brass, polished, and replated. Other restorers, notably The Old School Plumber and the Plumbing Geek, offer reconditioning, where function is fully restored but the exterior patina remains much the same after corrosion removal and cleanup. Brian Marrone (the Plumbing Geek), for instance, was asked to refurbish a standing waste assembly where one of two risers was nickel plated while the other was brass. To make them match, the nickel-plated riser was stripped and polished, then fumed with sulfur (don’t try this at home) to re-create the look of dull brass found on the original brass riser.