If you look online, you can find a lot of articles and videos about how to do things yourself. The people who make this content mean well. Most of the time, if it’s an article, the steps look clear enough to follow, and if it’s a video, it looks pretty easy to do because someone is showing you how to do it.
This might make you feel like you can do it too! But if you try some of the things you find online, you could do more damage to your bathtub. To refinish your bathtub, you need to hire a professional, and here are some of the reasons why:
1. Being around dangerous chemicals
Professionals know how important it is to have good ventilation in the bathroom when they are refinishing a bathtub. Chemicals used to refinish can be dangerous to your health and put you at risk during the reglazing process.
For example, it is dangerous to breathe in methylene chloride, which is found in stripping agents. This chemical can kill you if you get at least 6 ounces of it on your skin. The smell of methylene chloride is sweet, and it looks like a clear liquid. Experts in resurfacing use it to remove coatings from tubs so that a new coat will stick well.
Putting this chemical in your bathroom is very dangerous, especially if your bathroom is small or closed off and doesn’t get much or any air. Since methylene chloride is a volatile organic chemical that evaporates faster when poured, brushed, or sprayed, the vapors of the compound will quickly build up in small spaces.
Professionals who do resurface know the risks of using volatile compounds, so they avoid products that contain them. While working in a bathroom, experts also use special tools to make sure there is enough airflow.
2. Lack of safety in the bath
One sign of a bad job of reglazing a bathtub is that it is slippery. You could try to save money by resurfacing your bathtub with low-quality materials, which could be risky.
If you don’t spend money on a thick, durable coat, you’ll end up with a tub that is dangerously slippery and could cause accidents when you’re taking a bath. Also, after a short time, surfaces like these tend to flake, chip, or crack easily. When you hire a well-trained refinishing expert, this problem doesn’t come up very often.
3. There Are Bubbles on the Top
Tubs that have been refinished correctly are almost impossible to tell apart from brand-new tubs. But not every task goes as planned. Not everyone who refinishes tubs is a pro.
Bubbles on the tub are a common problem that can happen when a refinisher isn’t good at what they do. When air gets stuck between the layers of coating, bubbles form. This could be because the coating isn’t curing the way it should. It can also happen if the tub was refinished by a bad refinisher who didn’t take off the old coat first.
As was already said, a good refinisher knows that removing the old coat makes it easier for the new coat to stick. If you don’t, bubbles could form on the surface of the tub.
To avoid this problem, make sure you talk to a reglazing expert who knows how to take off the old coat the right way. Also, you’ll have to wait at least one day before you can use the bathtub. This will give the new coating time to harden properly. Make sure that the tub doesn’t touch water during the 24 hours.
4. A rough surface
The surface of a perfectly refinished tub should be smooth. But if your refinished tub feels rough, it means that the surface wasn’t sanded or cleaned before it was refinished.
The rough surface could also be because dirt and dust got stuck on it while it was drying. Also, it’s hard to keep dust from getting into your bathroom, so dust might stick to the finish while it’s drying.
Even though it might seem like a small problem, it can make you feel uncomfortable when you’re taking a bath, especially if the rough spots are in places where your skin touches. If it’s too rough, give a bathtub resurfacing pro a call and they’ll smooth it out right away.
5. Fading
Low-quality resurfacing can also cause the color to fade too soon. This happens when the refinishing process doesn’t use the right amount of each material or when the coating mixture is too thin. It can also happen when the person doing the refinishing uses rough cleaners.
You should choose a refinishing company with a good reputation and experts who know how to mix the right amounts of refinishing products.
6. Sticky or tacky to Touch
If your tub feels tacky or sticky, it means the coating hasn’t hardened as it should have. This can happen if the materials for resurfacing aren’t mixed right or if the coating reacts with a chemical or cleaner. When you hire a professional who is well-trained and has a lot of experience resurfacing, problems like these are less likely to happen.
