Bathtub Paint and Refinishing Advice

Painting your tub is often suggested as a cheap way to upgrade your bathrooms appearance. Whilst this is true, it can have some big down sides.

Let us first cover the benefits. By painting your own tub you are able to completely customise the style and look of your bathtub paint. If you have a particularly styled bathroom, it is easy to match your bathtub paint to its surroundings when you have complete control over the painting. It allows you to indulge your own creativity, and truly create an individual work of art. Bathtub paint is extremely cheap, do it yourself bathtub paint kits can be purchased for under $50 and depending on your painting speed, you could have the work completed in less than a day.

Now for the down sides. The major problem reported by people who have bathtub paint is that the paint peels, and peels fast. Sometimes in just a matter of weeks, your newly painted tub can be left looking awful, as much of your hard work has peeled off. Whilst many of the bathtub paints are supposedly anti peel, this problem still persists. If you are considering painting your bathtub, you must ensure that you have treated the bath prior to painting with an anti peel coating, as well as after painting. Doing this can prevent the peeling from occurring, but it is not guaranteed.

Even if your bathtub paint survives peeling, the newly painted surface has poor durability. It will chip easily, and will fade with cleaning. Within a short space of time, your bathtub paint can look very shabby indeed. You also run the risk of the final product not looking good simply because your own painting skills are lacking. Be honest with yourself. Are you a good bathtub painter?

Overall, it is generally recommended that you consider other alternatives such as installing bathtub surrounds, liners, or resurfacing your bathtub. Only consider bathtub paint yourself if you have relevant experience, the correct equipment, and are confident that the outcome will avoid the listed pitfalls.

but, not all the same time b/c I can’t afford it. which project should be done first? a friend told me it is better to replace the tiles first because the dust is not good for paint.
paint vanities or
replace tiles or
replace the bathtub?

I think it is galvanized tin–has a few rust spots, but hasn’t rusted through… Think I can get out the spots with steel wool, but not sure what I could use as a clear coat to protect it… clear coat paint? polyurethane? stone sealer? What would hold up best to water? (would like to use it as a tub again) thanks!!
It is from the 1850s, have been told it is worth quite a bit, so don’t want to ruin it in any way.

I’m painting an apartment and the drywall around the tub had crumbled away so I patched it. I would like to find something that is water resistant like plastic but doesn’t look cheesy. I would like to be able to paint it to look nice. Can anyone recommend a good material? Obviously wood would be a bad choice.
I didn’t say maverick. Oops, now you need to take a drink beeeeeotch!

We are remodeling the bathroom and are retiling around the tub. We are wondering if we should tile all the way up to the 10′ flat ceiling? Or if we should stop at say 8′ and paint the rest of the way. What is the current school of thought on this?

Yesterday, I was cleaning my bathtub with Fantastic with Bleach. When I came back to check on the bathtub it had a brown stain in the center. Is there a way to get rid of it perhaps by painting it? What products should I use?

The grout surrounding part of the tub has been worn away already, so when I shower–water is seeping through the walls. My house is only 3 years old. I noticed the section below my bathroom (my dining room) is discolored and the paint is peeling. Will my bathtub fall in? I’m concerned. What I can do to help remedy this?

having glass tiles installed. These are very small tiles and wondered if anyone has had any experience with them.

I rent an apartment.

I mentioned it to the super and he told me that the landlord would charge me 0 to fix it. I think he just said that because he doesn’t want to do any work- an issue in the past.

Should I call for this issue? Is this a safety concern (the peeling paint in my tub, that is)?

By the way, I did not do anything to make this happen. I just noticed it one day.

A little more comes off each day and it’s driving me crazy.
It’s on the inside of the tub. When I clean the tub (often), more paint comes off.

I just bought an apartment, and the tub wasn’t in great shape to begin with. Once we took the sink out of the kitchen, the bathtub was the only source of water we had. We were painting every room, and began washing our paint trays and brushes in the tub. The tub drained slowly and this built up water in the tub.

This activity left my tub with what seems like a layer of hardend paint residue. I was wondering if there was a way to clean this off with out damaging the enamle on the tub.