Tub resurfacing - who has done it?

emoflamingo

I know there's some DIY stuff you can buy, but I'm at a loss for words (combination of blonde, pregnant and tired from the holiday weekend). Figured it out!

We need to resurface the tub base and recaulk the whole stall and I'd like to get it done ASAP so it looks nice. Help a girl out with the name of this stuff? Give me the dirty details. Does it take forever, smell really bad? How long are we going to be without a tub?

cZa

When we purchased our home it was being sold as a flip. Everything was updated and we had a sparkly new white bathtub when we moved in 2 years ago. Well, the guy who flipped the place actually had the tub resurfaced and it is chipping and peeling up showing an ugly mauve/beige. It only took a couple of months to start peeling especially around the tub's edge where water sits from the shower. I am not sure if he DIY'd it or had it professionally resurfaced but it looks like crap and now we need a new tub in an already remodeled bathroom.

emoflamingo

I started googling (once I found my vocabulary again lol) and found some awful reviews on the DIY stuff, so I sent for a quote for the professionals. The tub doesn't look bad, but there are some chips in the bottom. It'd probably be more expensive (considering time and money) to replace vs. resurface professionally so hopefully that works out.

offbeatmama

This probably isn't very helpful but when I was in college a LL did this to my beautiful pink bathtub (insert sarcasm here). I think it took about a week. He kept the door shut and the fan running. We didn't smell it unless we opened the door. I think it happened in several steps. I remember him removing the caulk and sanding the tub. Then he put 1 coat of something on and waited for it to dry. Then 2 more coats of the actual refinishing product and re-caulked. I believe we waited a couple of days after that and then used it. I rented that place for 2 more years and it looked and worked great. I know he told us not to use something too scrubby on it (like a brillow pad) but it cleaned so easily it was a non-issue. He opted to do the refinishing because the tub was too big to be removed without cutting it in half and it had a chip in it (he was able to fill it in and refinish). It had a minor smell for maybe a week after it was done but we just kept the door shut so we didn't have to smell it unless we were in there. I bet the smell would have been non-existent if we had a window we could have opened.

ETA: I just saw your comment. There was a decent size chip in the tub before he refinished it. The kit came with something to fill it in. I've heard bad things about the one step DIY ones. I think the reason this one worked well was because of the first coat he did. I can't for the life of me remember what it was though.... maybe epoxy?  Or the whole thing was an epoxy? My memory sucks. Sorry.

emoflamingo

offbeatmama:

This probably isn't very helpful but when I was in college a LL did this to my beautiful pink bathtub (insert sarcasm here). I think it took about a week. He kept the door shut and the fan running. We didn't smell it unless we opened the door. I think it happened in several steps. I remember him removing the caulk and sanding the tub. Then he put 1 coat of something on and waited for it to dry. Then 2 more coats of the actual refinishing product and re-caulked. I believe we waited a couple of days after that and then used it. I rented that place for 2 more years and it looked and worked great. I know he told us not to use something too scrubby on it (like a brillow pad) but it cleaned so easily it was a non-issue. He opted to do the refinishing because the tub was too big to be removed without cutting it in half and it had a chip in it (he was able to fill it in and refinish). It had a minor smell for maybe a week after it was done but we just kept the door shut so we didn't have to smell it unless we were in there. I bet the smell would have been non-existent if we had a window we could have opened.

ETA: I just saw your comment. There was a decent size chip in the tub before he refinished it. The kit came with something to fill it in. I've heard bad things about the one step DIY ones. I think the reason this one worked well was because of the first coat he did. I can't for the life of me remember what it was though.... maybe epoxy?  Or the whole thing was an epoxy? My memory sucks. Sorry.

Yeah, we have one bathroom in our house and I can't be without it for a week. Not to mention living in the smell might be bad for us, so hopefully the pros can do it faster and with less of a stench. Otherwise, I'll see if I can disguise it another way and then put into our contract with the buyers to have it refinished before they move in. Especially if it's only a few hundred to do so.

Jason&Christy

We used the Rustoleum Tub Refinishing kit in our last house. It smelled horrible and i believe it took two days. Looked nice... well better than the prior baby blue color but we never used the tub so I have no idea how well it held up. DH was very careful but we still ended up with a couple of drips marks.

  

simplein06

I just got quotes for this today.

I had two quotes.. one for $325 and one for $450.  Each had a 5 year warranty.  This is to turn a 60"x30" yellow tub to white.  It took 2 days for both quotes.

I'm