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Bathtub refinishing can help outdated fixtures look like new. (Photo courtesy of Chris Fure)
You can buy a brand-new bathtub unit for as little as $300 at a retail hardware store, but the actual costs of removing and replacing will likely be much greater.
Houses are typically built around bathtubs during the initial construction. To start, most bathtubs are installed in a home during its initial construction. To remove an existing tub, finish items such as trim, bathtub surrounds and plumbing that are built up around the bathtub and will need to be removed. Depending on the tub’s size, it can also mean that removing a bathtub from a room may require cutting it into pieces to fit through a door frame. When installing a new replacement bathtub, the plumbing would have to be reconfigured to fit and all the surrounding trim would have to be recreated.
The costs, which may run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, and headache involved with replacing a bathtub may it a project that many homeowners would rather avoid.
Refinishing a bathtub, on the other hand, offers a cost- and time-effective solution. Starting at less than $300 to $400 for a standard-sized bathtub, a bathtub refinishing company can add a brand-new coating to the bathtub, allowing it to be used again in two to four days without the additional delays caused by replacement.
Although there are DIY products are available, bathtub refinishing is a probably a job best left to the professionals. Stripping an old finish off a tub, repairing and patching holes or cracks, and ventilating a room to expel the fumes produced by the refinishing process are all steps better left to a trained professional.
And refinishing isn’t just limited to bathtubs, the process can be applied to sinks, wall tile, countertops, shower stalls and kitchen countertops of almost any material, including orcelain, cultured marble, fiberglass, acrylic, Formica and tile.
Comments
drains and facets
can the floor drain with rust and the facets be replaced as well
Drain & Fixtures
@Marlene,
In regards to the drain and faucet on your tub, they can typically be removed and replaced in this process. Your faucet will either have a notch in the bottom rear of it where it is secured by a small allen screw, or it may simply twist off counter-clockwise. The drain can be removed in most cases with relative ease. Some older drains get rusted in place and need to be removed by notching into the metal and hammering them out. Regardless, it is ideal to have the drain removed during the refinishing process and installed again after the coating dries. If the drain is left it place, and simply taped over, there is a near certainty that it will be the initial failing point of your coating down the road. I would find a refinisher that will pull that drain for you, or if it is stuck beyond his/her level of expertise, get a plumber to remove it and install a new one. The refinisher could then easily remove the new drain when they come to do your tub.
Cleanliness
I'm weirdly squeamish about old bathtubs that have been used by God knows how many people. I'm buying an older home, and although the bathtub doesn't look that bad, I still have a hard time putting my child into that bathtub when it just doesn't seem clean enough to me (probably irrational on my part). Would refinishing or one of these tub liner solutions be cleaner than presumably an old tub can get by scouring powder alone? Or is this an impractical service if there are no obvious flaws?