Bathrub Replacement or Refinishing

[Clairitek]

DH and I are about to start our first serious home renovation. We are going to blow out two closets in an adjacent bedroom to our bathroom and make it a bit wider. On top of that we need to replace or refinish our existing cast iron tub, put in a new vanity, retile floor and tub surround, and put in a new toilet.

We have gotten quotes for refinishing that are around $400. The tub I have my eye on for replacement is a Kohler cast iron tub. Its $300 but I have no idea on how much the labor would be to get out the old tub and get the new one in. We will do the tile work ourselves so that isn''t an issue.

The other tub options are either acrylic or fiberglass. Cheaper and much easier to install I can imagine but not as sturdy as a cast iron tub.

Does anyone have any experience with replacing or refinishing a tub?

I have a sneaking suspicion that the tub has already been refinished once which could jack up the cost of refinishing the surface because they would have to remove the old finish before starting in on the etching and stuff.

If you were in our shoes, what would you do? Spend a little more to get a whole new tub in there or just get the finish looking decent enough to sell in 1-5 years.

Any other DIY bathroom remodeling advice is welcome.

 

[neatfreak]

Well...my parents had an old cast iron tub they wanted to refinish. They ended up replacing it. They heard horror stories of new finishes peeling off, cracking, yellowing, etc. So they decided to replace.

We are in the middle of replacing our tub too. And the biggest hurdle is getting the old one OUT and the new one IN. Mostly because our room is the same width as the tub is long-so it's hard to turn and get it in and out. But otherwise it's been pretty easy overall. We're doing the entire thing ourselves and it would be super easy if our room was a bit bigger to work in.

If you guys are seasoned DIY'ers you'll have no problem putting it in yourselves if you want. If you want to pay someone it might be somewhat costly simply because it takes awhile to take things apart, demo the surrounding tile, replace the floorboards below if necessary, move the bracing if necessary, etc.

BUT beware those old cast iron tubs are HEAVY and you might need 3-4 guys to move it.

 

[Clairitek]

The potential for failure of the finish is what makes me cringe. All of the places I''ve spoken with have told me about their 5 year "warranty" but I''m cynical about whether or not they will actually follow through.

I''m really really tempted to replace the tub ourselves. I am SO skiddish about plumbing though but I think I''m up for the challenge. DH is even MORE skiddish about that sort of thing. It will take some hardcore convincing. My philosophy is that if we succeed we will have a new tub for just the cost of the parts, if we fail, we get a pro in here to help finish the job and we learn a lesson.

The guy at Home Depot suggested trying out this stuff.

DIY Tub Refinishing Kit

I''m wondering if its worth a try and if it sucks, then we replace the tub entirely with only $30 and a weekend lost.

A plumber is coming tomorrow morning so we will have more answers then. Thanks for the inspiration that we might be able to replace the tub on our own.

 

[neatfreak]

No problem. DH is in LOVE with the Black and Decker series of home improvement books. They are pretty great and tell you all the steps with pictures for projects. They have a plumbing one he has and that along with a friend who has done it before has made the process pretty easy.

I've heard that those kids look fine with the caveat that you need to use a high pressure sprayer to put the finish on. Seems to defeat the purpose to me considering who the heck would want to do that in their own bathroom. Otherwise I think they are pretty crappy looking afterwards from what I have seen online.

And FWIW 5 years is nothing in the life of the tub. If you need to invest $400 every 5 years for it look nice that's not a very good investment IMO.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

The black and decker books are awesome.

Re the tub. I would not do DIY glazing, there are some professional re-glazers who do great work that lasts far beyond the 5 year warranty. We found some in NYC that had a 15 year guarantee (if it''s the first re-glazing, subsequent ones have a shorter life), great references, and were around the $400 mark.

Replacing the tub would be a giant PITA in our NYC coop so we''re keeping it, but some of my friends have taken theirs out. Neatfreak is not kidding when she says they''re heavy.

You can probably do it yourselves with a good DIY plumbing book and about 4 really strong friends as long as your current plumbing is in good shape and straight forward (better if its modern and not old pipes that already have issues) and if the measurements work to take the old tub out and the new tub in. My friends had some scary moments when it almost didn''t fit, even after we''d taken off the door jamb

 

[ponder]

I think I have the kholer tub you are talking about and it is fabulous! Bought at HD for $300 and I think we paid about $300 to have the plumber install it (its REALLY HEAVY) and change some of the plumbing. Our plumber was really impressed with the quality of the tub.

Personally I would shy away from refinishing, you can always tell its been refinished. The new one is clean, shiny and very pretty. And if you are looking to sell in the not so distant future, remember that kitchens and baths sell homes.

Oh, yeah removing the old one is not that difficult especially if you like demo. Cast iron is very durable, yet brittle. I think all you need is a good sledge hammer. It will break into pieces.

 

[Clairitek]

We''re waiting on a quote from the plumber. We asked him to include tub installation. I would LOVE to get that Kohler tub, especially since the other tubs I''m considering are only $75 less to purchase. We would also do all of our own demo. But still, we weren''t planning on replacing all of our waste lines which is what he said he wanted to do. This project is starting to get more and more expensive.

 

[ponder]

If you think your plumber is trying to go above and beyond what you want to do/think is necessary get a second opinion.

How old is your house? Is everything currently up to code? Sometimes their hands are tied by current code. If they touch anything then they have to fix everything.

 

[elrohwen]

My parents refinished their tub years ago and the result was great. It looks brand new!

I do remember that we couldn''t use the tub for about a week which would''ve been a huge pain if we didn''t have another shower. But I guess the same probably applies to new tub installation.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 12/31/2009 12:57:23 AM
Author: ponder
If you think your plumber is trying to go above and beyond what you want to do/think is necessary get a second opinion.

How old is your house? Is everything currently up to code? Sometimes their hands are tied by current code. If they touch anything then they have to fix everything.

Our house was built just after WWII so it does have lead waste lines. He didn''t mention anything about code but I have a feeling that might have something to do with it because my friend in the next town over had to replace all of her lead waste lines during her bathroom renovation.

We are definitely going to get a second guy in here this week. We still don''t have our building permit in hand for the other work so we haven''t done anything to it even non-plumbing related.

Now we are considering a tiled shower stall. I''m hesitant to remove the tub because I know people with kids would prefer to have a tub in there for bathing purposes. But even with the stall instead of a tub we still might have to replace the lead waste lines and would definitely have to move the supply line knobs up the wall a little higher to make sense aesthetically for a shower stall.

We keep going back and forth on the fact that we are sinking money into a house that we might not stay in very long. I am in the process of interviewing and for all we know we might end up in Dallas or SF or wherever by the end of next summer. I''d like to think that if we put in some cash for work on the bathroom that we would see our money back and then some on the sale of the home. The rest of the house looks pretty nice, better than when we bought it.

 

[neatfreak]

Can I just say that if you don't have another tub in the house DO NOT remove the one you have. It would be a total dealbreaker for a LOT of people with kids. And even some without. Even if we didn't have kids it would be a dealbreaker for me because I love to take bubble baths. So something to consider before converting it to a shower especially because if I had to guess you guys probably would be trying to appeal to a first time homebuyer market? And that market includes a LOT of young kids who need a bathtub.

 

[ponder]

I agree with neatfreak. You need at least one tub in the house.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Definitely keep at least one tub in the house. Families with young kids, older people, people who like baths, people with pets...your house won''t be attractive to a lot of buyers if it doesn''t have at least one tub.

 

[Clairitek]

One weird thing about our house (and I realize that this trend might not continue) is that no one with kids has lived here for at least 20 years. The woman who lives up the street has been here for that long and she told me that the house has always been filled with single people or couples without children.

The other thing is that you can't plug our tub up. Someone before us removed the mechanism that stop up the tub and our drain is formed in such a way that you can't put a plug in there.

But, we just got a quote for our plumbing (included in this quote is installing a new tub, the plumber visited us before we thought about a shower only situation) and it was $3500. We are definitely NOT spending that kind of money on this bathroom. A make-over is one thing and possibly a new tub but $3500 worth of new plumbing is not in the cards. Ugh.

ETA: Just wanted to add that I am not using the fact that this house has been childless for 20 years as a reason to take out the tub, I just thought it was interesting.