How to Refinish a Bathtub

Redecorating and making repairs in your bathroom can improve the value of your home. Bathtubs can be expensive to replace and making your old bathtub look like new isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

It is important to not only have the material to do your job, but you need to have the safety supplies as well. When you refinish a bathtub, you need to have a well ventilated area and you are going to want to use a good face mask. If you have no windows in your bathroom, you might want to get a respirator. Whatever you choose, you need to protect your respiratory system when you are refinishing your bathtub. You will also need:

• Bathtub cleansers (chemical cleaners that are going to strip the tub clean)

• A palm sander and sandpaper
• Caulking
• Masking tape and paper or plastic (newspaper works well, or you can use plastic to protect the rest of the bathroom)
• Spray gun (to apply the acrylic paint)
• Chemical bonding agent for porcelain
• Epoxy paint or primer
• EP-acrylic top coat

You need to use chemical cleaners to clean the surface of the tub. Remove all caulking and make sure the surface is residue free. It is important that the surface is clean before you apply the new surface.

Sand the surface so that the new coat you are applying will stick. If there are any chips, nicks, scratches, or other blemishes on the surface now is your chance to get rid of them. A palm sander is easy to handle and will give you a smooth surface to work with. Chips, nicks, and scratches need to be sanded out as much as possible. The end result is going to be greatly affected by how well you sand the tub.

Once the sanding is finished, you need to clean the tub. Do not leave any of the dust or anything else on the surface, including water or chemicals. You need a clean dry surface to work with when you are applying primer and the acrylic top coat. Wearing a mask during this step is a good idea since a mask will greatly reduce the amount of dust that you inhale.

Using masking tape and either paper or plastic mask anything you don’t want to be covered with the finish for your tub. Drop cloths are great for floors. You will be using a sprayer that can end up covering everything in your bathroom in the finish that you are applying to the tub so make sure you have everything protected BEFORE you start spraying.

After the area is masked you need to apply a bonding agent to porcelain using a cloth. Allow the agent to dry for 5 minutes or so before you paint the surface. Make sure your area is as well ventilated as possible and use your mask/respirator when you apply the primer and acrylic polymer paint.

Follow the directions for preparation on the primer packaging. Paint an even coating of primer on the tub with the spray gun. Use a slow, even spraying motion and cover the whole tub. Don’t slow down to the point that you have paint running down the sides of the tub. If you haven’t used the sprayer before, you should practice on another surface to find out how to hold and move the spray gun without messing up the bathtub.

After letting your primer dry, you should apply a second coat of primer. Then apply three coats of acrylic polymer paint. You need to give 30 minutes dry time between applications.

Reapply caulking after letting the tub dry for 48 or more hours. Your caulking needs to cure for a few days and then your bathtub will be like new again.

As you can see, its not very difficult to do. You just need a good set of instructions, the right supplies, some determination and you can easily refinish your bath tub in no time and get it back to looking like new once again!