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This is the Conversation Forum for Ask h2g2 << Who should I vote for? If I had a million dollars, ... - - - I'd buy you a hootoo >> Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Nick   Posting 1 Now please, 2legs, hold some of your ideas in-check while costs are considered? I have an early '70s tub, common robin-egg blue for the time, that is really wearing badly. The 4" ceramic tile wall surround was doing worse, and so I masked that with new water-works and a cheap moulded wall and such. Yet it is all aging poorly. Has anyone in recent decades (since my friends of the '70s) done a bath-tub and surrounds with paints? Enamels are now spray-able (with a device I recently loaned out) ... Looking for best advice (useful), ... Suggestions (tryable) Totally off of the wall (except when manacled (aka-2legs)) PS: This is Canada, but any ideas can be transconfigured if they seem viable (Or legal, .... ) Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by ~ jwf ~ This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 2 >> Yet it is all aging poorly. << Hmm... call it patina and learn to love it. The alternatives will cost you thousands for a proper refit. The cheapest is a pre-molded fitting to cover the works (available in a variety of standard sizes) will never fit well and not last any longer than the piece you've already put in. ~jwf~ Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Rod This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 3 Don't fancy your chances, Nick. everything else aside, you'd need to abrade the whole bath-tub surface to provide a key for paint (especially enamel) - meaning any areas not perfect will wear away to eggshell thin in seconds. Enamel paints? Limited (very) experience here but no consideration whatsoever would be given to this application. They're ok in the right place but as I recall, that place is on rigid surfaces not liable to movement. Your bathtub flexes when filling, when you get in/out and move around - and then there's the water (hot,too)... Take proper, professional advice before you think seriously about it, I say. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by highamexpat This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 4 Just replace it. No one resurfaces Bath tubs in the UK because they are so cheap to replace. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Nick This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 5 To clarify a little, ... I am not in the UK, I am in Canada This tub was installed circa 1974, the walls built around it. And ceramic tiles. Just to remove it would be a major ripping-away of stuff. And then to evict it from the house, due to lay-out of things, easiest to punch a hole out of the bathroom to the front yard. Which means a window, yards of siding and some brick-work. Best dealing with it in-situ is ideas that I seek. It is understood that a danged good "roughing" will be required for any surface to take, be it paint or outer-shell Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Lanzababy This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 6 I resurfaced a cast iron bath way back in time - because it was the original bath in the Victorian house and I was poor at the time. It was not a success, I had to endure bits of paint floating off into the bath water, but it was better than the rusty bits it covered up. Maybe you could get a professional company to give you a quote? Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Nick This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 7 A refinishing job is not far removed from the cost of a 'liner' idea. Fitted and settled over-layer of the existing tub. Both are well beyond our means at the moment (that recent 11 months of no salary being a big sticker) I did once help a woman to paint her claw-foot tub to stark black ... She was in a mode at the time. Brushed on enamel paint worked, but strokes were always kind of <yuck>. Not being enamoured with a rock-chick, and some 35 years older, I'd like to avoid that appearance <unrelated> Her daughter does still call me and think of me as a Dad .. So some history is often good </unrelated> Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Heleloo - Red Dragon Incarnate This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 8 Go to your local paint store, you should be able to get a two part epoxy paint that will recoat your tub, here in Australia it is called 'tub and tile' paint. It is a one application with enough to recoat one bath. http://www.whiteknightpaints.com.au.../home-restoration/tub-%27n%27-tile/ I am sure there would be something similar in Canada. It is quite expensive though Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by clzoomer- mostly retired. This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 9 Hey Nick, I've done this a number of times and if you take your time it works well. For the tub, wash it well- I mean scrub it with Tri-Sodium Phosphate (TSP) and rinse repeatedly . Then wash it again with a mild solvent like rubbing alcohol and rinse with clean water (use bottled water, preferably distilled). Let dry completely (for most of a day). Use a foam brush to apply an epoxy paint after masking all the edges. The epoxy paint is available in Canada for just this purpose and the foam brush cuts down on brush marks. Count on two full coats separated by a day and don't forget to mask the drain and get all the water out of the shower head and tap before you let dry. For the tiles I've used one of the DIY plastic enclosures, they are easy to install and provide built in shelves. If not then clean them with the TSP when you are doing the tub- works wonders! Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by clzoomer- mostly retired. This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 10 Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by clzoomer- mostly retired. This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 11 The paint is called 'Klenks' in Canada. http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/i...y-Enamel-Paint/_/N-ntlqx/R-I1710330 And you can get it at Home Hardware. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 17, 2012 by Nick This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 12 Thanks, a lot, CLZ ... That looks like the sort of thing that I could make fair use of. We always have a pint or quart carton of TSP around the place, so prepping is easy. I also installed the drain, faucet, shower-head, etc, so can remove or mask well as needed. Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 18, 2012 by (Mahatma) 2legs - Resident loon and Cloud Cuckoolander -- Bliss is folding towels. This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 13 As to removeing an old cast iron bath from a tight space, when the old one here was removed, they just smashed it up for a while with a sledge hammer, to crak off the remainding enamel, then cut the bath itself into three or four bits so they could carry it out the room, down teh three flights of stairs and out into the skip The really* old ennammal baths were rather nice though... They're probably more worthwhile repairing as I seem to recall people still pay a fair bit for them when wanting to fit out an old place with origional fittings and suchlike No idea bout how effective re-ennammeling actually is though... Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 18, 2012 by Lanzababy This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 14 I thought of suggesting using cutting equipment to destroy the old bath - but then you'd still have the problem of getting a new bath into the space. Unless of course you dispense with the bath altogether and go for a shower tray alone? Make it a wet room? Read the First Reply to this Posting Subject: Boring as it is, how to resurface a bath tub? Posted Mar 18, 2012 by Rod This is a reply to this Posting   Posting 15 Two-part epoxy - I'd never have thought of that for a bath. I've still got the tins, 3/4 full, from doing the inside of a big aladdin water-feature. it was thick & heavy. Perhaps the stuff you've recommended is just a little thinner... Shower rather than bath? Yes, every time for me. Haven't had a bath for years <sniff> Conversation list Conversation list

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