Refinishing bathtub?

[Southpaw]

I have a strange question.

Word on the street is that the bathtub at my new house needs to be refinished - I never actually looked in the tub the 2 times I've been in there, but my sister and my realtor thought it looked like it needed some help.

I have quite a few other things I'll need to get done, but if the bathtub is gross looking, then just for my own comfort it's going to be a pretty big priority for me to get that taken care of before I'll want to move in and actually use that tub.

I'm a fan of saving money hahaha and saw this DIY kit: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Ole...ERCH=RV-_-rv_homepage_rr-_-NA-_-202246270-_-N

Has anyone done this?? Obviously a professional would be better but that looks like it'd be hundreds of dollars and I just... don't want to do that right away. Nobody I know has needed to refinish their tub so I don't know!

 

[amberdyan]

I haven't used that exact stuff, but I did refinish my mom's tub! Physically, the hardest part was definitely the sanding... You clean it with a strong cleaner (I used lime-away, bleach and dawn dish soap). Then you sand it down. We don't have an electric sander so I did it by hand. You want to get any of the cleaning gunk off and give it a rough texture for the paint to hang on to. Then you rinse, let it dry and paint the refinishing stuff on. If you are at all a perfectionist, you will temporarily hate it. It's thick and it kind of bubbles up, but the kind we got specifically said it would smooth itself out as it dried, and it did! It was hard work but I think it cost her less than 50 bucks total.

(excluding the fact that she took me out to dinner for helping) ; )

 

[Southpaw]

Cool! Do you know how long she waited for it to cure before using the tub again? I think this kit says 3 days but then it looks like some people wait even a couple weeks??

 

[amberdyan]

I think she waited a week- but she had 2 bathrooms so it was super easy.

 

[Southpaw]

Bah, I figure that's probably best but yeah... only 1 bathroom Such a silly thing to have to postpone moving in over! But can't exactly just put it off either lol.

 

[Barb04]

I would say just make sure it cures. We hired a company that did it to our tub years ago and the finish would come off it your dropped something in the tub.