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DIY Tub or Tile Painting?

Are you trying to decide whether you should

attempt a DIY tub paint kit?

With all of the bathtub DIY tub painting videos and bathtub reglazing kits out there, it can be very enticing to attempt a DIY refinishing job on your bathtub or walls. We urge you to see what we have to say and to think twice before making that choice. We caution against painting a tub yourself for several reasons. Out of all of the years that we have been in the business, we have only had a handful of customers that said they did a DIY tub repainting kit and that it lasted for over a year. By far, most of the time the coats start to fail within days. Sometimes, DIY bathtub refinishing jobs start to fail during the first use.

red bathtub before and after refinishing

Once the bathtub coating starts to fail, you will find out pretty quickly that you just made the refinishing job more complicated for the bathtub refinisher and it is going to cost you. The cost to remove an old coating varies from city to city and tech to tech. But you can pretty much guarantee that you will have to pay at least $150 on top of the average cost to refinish a bathtub, and more if it is a larger item.

Another thing to consider is the chemicals you are working with. While we work with products that are as environmentally friendly as possible, they are still considered hazardous. Store bought may be a little safer, which is another reason why they tend to not last as long. But you still have to take precautions. Plus, you would have to figure in proper safety gear when you are comparing costs of the DIY project, to having a professional do it.

DIY Tub & Tile Paint

Another factor is time. Depending on the bathtub DIY paint kit, some of them recommend a multiple day process in which the item cannot be used between the different stages. In one extreme case, we had a customer that spent one week following every step to the T, only to have the DIY tub reglazing coat fail during their first bath. However, we can get your tub back into use within 24-48 hours from start to finish in most cases.

DIY bathtub repainting kits are also designed to be short lived. Our experience shows that most of them will fail within a year. Compare this to a professional refinishing job that can last around 5-10 years on average. You can see that the better value is in a professional job.

While you might be able to save money up front with a DIY refinishing job, you will lack any warranty. Once it fails, which it will, you will either have to pay a bathtub refinishing company to redo it or you will have to attempt it again yourself. Either way, this would require the removal of the previous refinishing coat. If you had started with a professional from the get go, you would have a warranty to utilize if the refinishing coating should start to fail prematurely. Please note though, that all bathtub refinishers who warranty their work do have stipulations against accidental damage or failure due to misuse.