OOOOoooooOOOOoooOOOooo! January 26, 2008 zuzu I spent a good part of today refinishing my sad, sad bathtub. Whee! Paint fumes! It looks *fabulous* now, though. Even though I’m still lightheaded from the vapors.
When we gutted our bathroom right down to staring at the dirt floor below (100+ year old farmhouse) and got it all redone 3 days later, it became my favorite room! Floor was completely rotted out- we had to rebuilt the entire room from scratch. Until then, I had endured 8 years of a 3/4 bath with either washing the babies in the kitchen sink or in a big purple utility bin set inside the shower stall, icky 50+ year stained, peeling linoleum… it is now tiled, all new fixtures, a tub/shower, clean and elegant. Looks likes a mini-spa! Congrats, zuzu; hope the fumes fade w/o “hangover”! 🙂
Pictures please. I like seeing the ideas that people implement for their homes. I have a lot of white ceramic tile in my bathtub area. I’m trying to figure out how to add some color and interesting but no overpowering pattern to it without damaging the tile. It would be cool if I could find something that would hold small candles for a truly relaxing bath.
I didn’t take a before picture, but I can’t even blame the fumes for that. Picture a burgundy tub (yes, burgundy, with that tile), with bits of old white paint still clinging to it and large chunks of enamel missing on the edges, so that rusted iron showed through. I *do* need to clean up the floor; the spray-on enamel paint worked well, but it got *everywhere*. I’d have preferred brush-on, but they didn’t have any left at Lowe’s. I’d love to replace that floor, but I can’t afford to right now. That will be a huge project, involving replacing the subfloor, which is rotten due to the crack you can barely make out at the base of the stem. So it will get passed to the next owners.
Well played, zuzu. We have to sell our house soon and I’m thinking this might be something worth trying. Congratulations!
Thanks! All it has to do is last through the closing, and I’m willing to shower at the gym to make that happen.
Ooooooh pretty!!!!! You just need a teal shower curtain and you’re good to go. Wanna do my bathroom next?
Zuzu, that tub and tile are classic! You could box in that waste pipe on the side, but otherwise, just cleanup the tile, you can’t get tile like what they made during te turn of the century and don’t you live in NYC? Those buildings are classic. As a remodeler and restoration professional, I think preserving original as much as possible is always best. Kudos on a job well done.
Zuzu, It looks great! So great, in fact, that I will now ask you a bunch of nosy questions. How much did the whole project cost? Were there special cleaners or prep or tools you had to purchase along with the enamel? Did it take long? A day project or weekend?
Kate, I do live in a prewar, from 1938. I hate that tile, actually, but I know it’s good and that having the original bathroom is important to a lot of people. Plus, it costs too much to replace. The floor *is* kind of a mess, though, since the building settled at some point and the tile cracked, letting water get into the subfloor. It’s also grungy. If it were just a matter of replacing the tile, I’d take a shot at it, but since the subfloor needs to be replaced, we’re now talking tools and skills I don’t have. My strategy for sale is to clean it up as much as possible, throw a bathmat over the bad parts, and hope buyers are dazzled by the eight windows and the oak floors and the proximity to the park. Christina, the kit cost me $40, and included the cleaner and steel wool for prep (you have to get the surface veryveryvery clean first). I also bought tape and plastic sheeting, which cost less than $10. I regret not buying a paint respirator for $30, but my debit card didn’t go through on the first try, and I thought maybe there wasn’t enough money to cover that. So I used a dust mask, which worked well enough (though some of the spray did get on my face, so safety glasses are a good idea). As for time, the prep work takes a few hours if you do it right (and you can see where the sheeting came loose or just didn’t cover). Actual spraying takes very little time, and you wait no more than half an hour between coats. It does take three days to cure, though, and it has to be bone-dry and warm in the room, so I’m showering at the gym and keeping the door shut.
Oh, yeah. I’m going to have to re-caulk, too. I should do the kitchen sink while I’m at it, since that caulk is mildew-stained. Best part is, even though my shower leaks and the shower body needs to be replaced, it stopped dripping long enough for me to tackle this job. I thought I’d have to get the shower body replaced before doing this, and that would cost me $$$$$ that I don’t have, and require a major retile job on top of it. But several days ago, I noticed that the tub was dry and the faucet wasn’t leaking at all. I gave it a few more days to make sure, but it’s really truly not leaking, and as long as I don’t use the shower, it will continue to not leak. Which means I’ll be at the gym a lot.
zuzu — does it look and feel like a glazed tub? My tub is all scratched up. People who use abrasive cleansers should be shot.