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refinishing/reglazing bathtub

13 years ago

We are doing a partial reno of a small bathroom and are considering having the original tub refinished (professionally). Have any of you had experience doing this? If any of you live in the greater Boston/Boston metrowest area, do you have experience with companies whom you liked/disliked? Thanks so much!

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Comments (5)

a.girl.named.max
13 years ago
I checked into it before starting my budget bath reno. In my area the price of a new Kohler tub wasn't that much more that refinishing so I went with a new tub and I'm glad I did. I'm near Minneapolis, MN
jaidog
13 years ago
When we renovated our bathroom, we decided to keep our old cast iron Kohler tub and had it professionally reglazed. The old color was pink, new is white. The cost was $300 with a 10-year guarantee. It's been three years now and the tub still looks great. We're in the Chicago area.
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After slipping on a plastic mat with suction cups that didn't grip the tub, I bought non-slip shower treads on Amazon. They're made by a company called SlipX Solutions. Several posters on GW recommended them. They're fabulous: clear, not too visible, clean easily, and best of all provide excellent traction. I highly recommend them.
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>>I would actually be a little leary about reglazing....from what I've heard you will get one year max out of it before it starts peeling, and you have to use special cleaners to avoid damage. >> How about the experience of someone who had it done in 2003? As with ALL paint jobs, prep is everything. Check references and do your homework. This is smelly paint, a high gloss polyurethane similar to auto paint. They will block off everything with plastic and should remove window screens as well. They will leave you a touch-up kit - USE IT immediately if the surface gets nicked. Water going underneath the paint will lift it off. The most critical thing to remember is that ALL paint jobs, no matter what type of paint and what surface, needs a full 30 days to cure completely. You can use the tub after three days, but be gentle with it until those thirty days are up. People who don't pay attention to this are the second biggest reason for reglazing failure (first being not doing your homework and using bad installers). The tub bottom may be quite slippery afterwards - I neglected to ask if they had any non-slip texturing they could do for the bottom, but my 83-yr-old MIL who uses the tub, is accustomed to using a non-suction cup bathmat. She had the same reglazing done in her house on tub and shower, and 24 yrs after it was done, she sold the house and it was still in perfect shape. The paint formulations have changed since hers was done and I wasn't expecting it to last forever. We have suction cup safety bars (plastic) which we use on the solid surface shower surround. Every once in a while they pop off and fall into the tub, or we knock over a big bottle of shampoo when we're cleaning. They're fairly heavy for being plastic, but there has been no damage to the paint at all. The tub still looks perfect. Because of the high-gloss, cleaning is simple. You can't use abrasives, but you don't need to - a spraying with one of those soap scum removers and a swish of a sponge gets everything off and the tub is gleaming again. Smartest $350 we ever spent!
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I renovated the bathroom in my condo last year, which included replacing the tub. The enamel on the old tub (installed in the 1970s) was very scratched. The new one is a a Bootz porcelain on steel tub. It's only been about 15 months since the renovation was completed but I have no problems so far. The non-slip bottom is not difficult to keep clean. I use Barkeeper's Friend cleaner (easily available in stores and not expensive) per the manufacturer's instructions. I went with porcelain on steel because I live on the second floor of an apartment building, and since the old one was not cast iron I didn't know if the weight of a new cast iron tub would be a problem. I went with Bootz on the recommendation of my contractor, who has installed a bunch of them with no complaints. A neighbor refinished their tub a few years back and the fumes were terrible.
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Cover them with porcelain enamel paint?..get a bathroom refinisher to touch them up? Doesn't seem worthwhile to refinish the whole tub.
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esga
13 years ago
Jaidog - there are several systems that can be used to professionally reglaze tubs - Miracle Method and Ceram-something are two. Do you know what your company used? And can you use hair dye in the tub now? I don't want to send a perfectly good tub off to the landfill, but the finish on mine is wearing.
dkauf
Original Author
13 years ago
Also - I understand that suction cup bath mats are NOT recommended b/c they will lift the finish. Has anyone had the refinisher do a non-skid finish and how do you like it? I am concerned that it will eventually not clean as well as the rest of the smoother finish and ultimately always look dirty. Thanks!
jaidog
13 years ago
pinelake: I don't know which method was used on my tub. The name of the company is Aarco and they are in the Chicago area. I've left a message with the company to find out which method they used and also about hair-dye. I just couldn't part with a solid, cast-iron, Kohler tub that was in great shape (aside from being pink). And, it doesn't look outdated at all now that it's white. In a previous home, our builder installed a really cheap, flimsy tub and its horizontal surfaces flexed with pressure. So, the caulk would come loose where the tub met the wall and we had leakage. Our Kohler is solid, cast-iron and I know I won't have these type of issues with it.

dkauf: I think you are correct that suction cups are not recommended on a reglazed tub (probably not recommended on a non reglazed tub, either, but am not sure). We had the non-skid finish put on the bottom. It looks fine and requires a little more elbow grease to clean than the rest of the surface, but it's not that difficult to keep clean.

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