This bathtub and tile refinishing job in Daytona Beach started with a full butter yellow bathroom surround. The tub was yellow. So was every tile on three walls, the grout between them, the built in soap dish and the little corner shelf. Nothing was broken. It just looked like another decade.
Now it is all pure white. You will notice blue tape still wrapped around the shower head and valve in the finished photo. That shot was taken right after the final coat, before the masking came off, which is also why the floor edge still looks rough. If you are weighing bathtub resurfacing in Daytona Beach against a tear out, this is the kind of change it can make.
- Location
- Daytona Beach, FL
- Property
- Home bathroom, tub and tile shower
- Surfaces
- Bathtub, wall tile, grout, soap dish and corner shelf
- Work shown
- Before and finished
Before and after photos
Each photo is labeled with the state of the work, so you always know what you are looking at.
Can you refinish a tub and tile surround instead of replacing it?
Yes, if the tile is still firmly stuck to the wall and the tub is not cracked through. Color is a surface problem. Refinishing fixes the surface.
Replacing a tub like this one means pulling the tile off at least the bottom row of the walls, often more, then dealing with the plumbing, the backer board and a new tile job on top of the new tub. That is days of a torn up bathroom. Refinishing leaves everything where it is. The way we handle this kind of job, the tub and tile are scrubbed with a degreaser to get soap film and body oils off, old caulk is cut out, chips are filled, and the surface is sanded so the new coating has something to grip. Everything that should not be coated gets masked. Then the coating goes on in even sprayed coats.
Loose or hollow sounding tiles are the thing to check first. We tap the walls at the estimate. If tiles are moving, they need to be reset before anything else.
How do you keep a refinished bathtub looking new?
Clean it gently. Most refinished tubs that fail early were scrubbed to death.
Abrasive powders and scouring pads wear through a refinished surface far faster than they would through factory porcelain. A soft cloth and a mild liquid cleaner do the job. Skip anything with bleach as the main ingredient for daily cleaning. Suction cup bath mats are another quiet problem, because they trap water against the coating for hours at a time and can leave marks, so take them out after use or use a mat that sits outside the tub.
Give it time before the first bath, too. The coating needs to cure fully before it sees standing water, and we will tell you exactly how long for the product used on your tub before we leave. Caulk lines at the base of the walls should be watched and redone when they start to open, because water behind the tile is what lifts a coating from the back. Cabinets and vanities can be refreshed at the same time, and our cabinet painting page shows how.
Is white the best color for a refinished tub and tile?
For most homes, yes. White goes with any fixture finish, any vanity and any wall color you pick next, and it is what most buyers expect to see if the house ever goes on the market.
It also makes the grout disappear. On this job the grout lines were coated along with the tile, so there are no dingy lines left to scrub, and the surround reads as one clean surface. That is a big part of why the finished photo looks so different from the before. White is not the only option, though. A soft grey hides water spots a little better and suits a cooler bathroom, and you can see one we did in New Smyrna Beach on our residential projects page.
If you have a colored tub from an older remodel and you are not sure what it would look like refinished, call Color Masters Painting. Robert will come look at it and tell you honestly whether it is a candidate.
Is your tub or tile stuck in the wrong decade?
We give written estimates for tub and tile refinishing, and we will tell you up front if a surround needs repair first. Call Robert or send a request.