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You might absolutely love the idea of slipping into a warm bath at the end of a stressful day to melt all your worries away. But if the bathtub in your bathroom has seen better days, you might not get around to doing it very much.
Would you like to change that? If so, you should consider either putting your bathtub through a tub reglaze, refinishing your tub, or even replacing your tub altogether. It’ll give you an opportunity to use your bathtub way more than you do now.
Before you do anything to your bathtub, though, it’s important for you to think about each of your options and select the right one.
You should find out what goes into renovating a bathtub to bring it back to life and look into the bathtub cost associated with a replacement project. It’ll help you come to the right decision in the end.
Continue reading to learn more about doing a tub reglaze, tackling tub refinishing, and performing bathtub replacement.
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What Is a Tub Reglaze?
Is your bathtub in relatively good shape outside of a few minor blemishes that are dragging down its overall appearance? Then you might be interested in doing what’s called a tub reglaze.
During a tub reglaze—also known as tub reglazing—the surface of your bathtub will be sanded down to erase any small blemishes that might exist. It will then be primed, painted, and buffed to make it look its best again.
When you go with a tub reglaze while renovating a bathtub, you’ll fix all of the cosmetic issues that exist with your tub. It’ll have a like-new appearance once it’s all done.
The Pros and Cons of a Tub Reglaze
There are, of course, a series of pros and cons that come along with going with a tub reglaze over your other tub restoration options. You should weigh out these pros and cons prior to deciding that tub reglazing is the right choice for you.
One of the biggest benefits of going with a tub reglaze is that it’s easily your most affordable option. You can have a bathtub reglazed for somewhere around $500 on average. That’s a small price to pay compared to your other options.
Tub reglazing is also a great option because it doesn’t take very long to do. In most cases, you can have a tub reglaze over and done with within just one day. As a result, it’ll have next to no impact on your home or your ability to use your bathtub.
There are a few downsides to going with tub reglazing as your preferred option, though. One of the main ones is that tub reglazing is viewed as a temporary solution to a long-term problem. Your bathtub isn’t going to look great forever simply because you reglazed it once.
Another big issue with tub reglazing is that it can only be reglazed one time. If you try to reglaze it again after that, it’s going to look like a mess and will pretty much need to be replaced.
Keep all of these pros and cons in the back of your mind when you’re considering tub reglazing as a viable option.
What Is Tub Refinishing?
In some circles, tub reglazing and tub refinishing are considered to be the same thing. They both involve sanding down the surface of a bathtub before applying primer and paint to it to breathe some life back into it.
But normally, those who do tub refinishing will take this process to the next level. After they have their bathtub sanded down, they’ll fix any cracks, chips, or other imperfections in it before putting primer and paint on it.
This can often make a bathtub a lot stronger than it was before. It can also extend its lifespan while making it look even better than it would with tub reglazing alone.
The Pros and Cons of Tub Refinishing
Just like with tub reglazing, there are many pros and cons that you’ll have to think about when considering tub refinishing.
Let’s begin by discussing some of the benefits of going with tub refinishing. It is, for starters, very affordable just like tub reglazing. You’ll usually only have to pay a few hundred dollars to have your tub refinished.
It’s also a pretty simple process when it comes right down to it. Although you might need help from a professional when it comes to repairing cracks, chips, and other imperfections in your bathtub, you might be capable of taking on the entire project yourself and only have to spend a few hours to complete it.
The problem with tub refinishing, though, is that you run the risk of ruining your bathtub if you try to DIY the job and don’t do it right. You also run the risk of not repairing cracks, chips, and other imperfections properly and having them come back to bite you again in the near future.
Additionally, you’ll need to be very careful about when you do tub refinishing. If it’s too humid inside your home when you refinish a bathtub, it’ll take forever to dry and might not dry properly in the end.
You should make sure that you’re 100% confident in your ability to refinish a tub before trying it. If you’re not, you’ll need to call the pros to come out to your home to get the job done the right way.
What Is Tub Replacement?
If your bathtub is still in decent enough shape, it’s worth considering both tub reglazing and tub refinishing as options. But if certain aspects of your tub seem like they’re beyond repair, they might not be the right choices for you.
Instead, you might want to go with tub replacement, which is the most self-explanatory option of the three options listed here. When you do bathtub replacement, you’ll take your old bathtub and throw it away so that you can replace it with a new one.
There are several different types of bathtubs that you can choose from when doing a tub replacement. They include:
- Acrylic bathtubs
- Fiberglass bathtubs
- Cast iron bathtubs
- Steel bathtubs
You can also choose from different bathtub styles. Some of the most popular styles are:
- Bathtub and shower combos
- Drop-in bathtubs
- Clawfoot bathtubs
- Freestanding bathtubs
The possibilities are almost endless when you decide to replace a bathtub.
The Pros and Cons of Tub Replacement
In theory, doing tub replacement might sound like a no-brainer when you don’t like your old bathtub anymore. But just like with both tub reglazing and tub refinishing, there are pros and cons that must be considered before choosing tub replacement.
On the pro side, the biggest benefit of going with a new bathtub is that it’ll be, well, new. You won’t have to be too concerned about replacing your tub again anytime soon once you put it into place.
Replacing your bathtub will also give you a chance to rethink the way that your entire bathroom looks. A bathroom redo will make such a big difference in the space that you’ll also be able to make other changes to go along with it.
There are, however, going to be some bumps in the road when you go with tub replacement. The biggest one will be the bathtub cost that you’ll face when picking out a new tub.
You might be able to get away with installing a cheap tub for just a few hundred bucks. But more often than not, this type of tub isn’t going to look much better than your old tub.
You’ll usually need to spend at least a couple thousand dollars on a high-quality tub and the tub installation services that you’ll need to go along with it. That could be too much for some people to pay.
You can shop around to try and get the best deal possible on a tub. But you will still often end up spending a pretty penny to put your new tub in your bathroom space.
Consider These Three Options and Choose the Best One for Your Bathtub
There is no sense in having a bathtub in your bathroom if you’re not actually going to be able to use it for one reason or another. It’s why you should think long and hard about doing a tub reglaze, tub refinishing, or total tub replacement.
As you’ve seen here, each of these three options has its own pros and cons that are worth considering. You can choose the right option for your specific situation based on the current condition of your tub, your budget, and more.
Just make sure you don’t let an old bathtub linger for any longer than it has to. It can bring down the appearance of a bathroom and make you cringe every time you walk in and see it.
Would you like to learn about some of the other things you can do to improve the look and feel of your bathroom? Check out our blog for more insightful articles.
