A city of pre-war bungalows and courtyard apartments.

In Rose Park, Belmont Heights, Alamitos Beach and Bixby Knolls you find a lot of twenties and thirties bungalows with the original built-in tub still in place — frequently cast iron. Cast iron is heavy, hard, and almost always worth saving, because pulling one out of a small pre-war bathroom usually means taking a doorway or a wall with it. The enamel is thick, so the surface needs proper etching for a new finish to grip.

The other thing Long Beach has a lot of is nineteen-twenties courtyard apartments and mid-century fourplexes. Those are rental units, and a unit that can't be shown is a unit that isn't earning. Refinishing a tub between tenants keeps the bathroom out of a remodel budget.

If you manage more than a couple of units here, the property manager page is the one you want.