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Bathtub surface

jyang949 | Posted in General Discussion on February 15, 2011 11:35am

Darn it, I managed to damage a bathtub.

I needed to strip paint from some old fixtures. The paint removers* wouldn’t work outside (too cold), so I moved the project back indoors and worked in an old bathtub lined with newspaper. Some of the spatter hit the tub where it wasn’t protected with newspaper, so I used more paint remover to get it off.

A couple of days later I discovered that some of the white tub had come off, too–revealing another layer that was less white and not shiny.  This was completely unexpected; I had always assumed that the surface was ceramic-glazed, giving it a glass layer that protected it from chemicals. 

So, what exactly is a bathtub covered with?

Janet

*Two kinds: Zip-Strip (methyl-chloride), and a Zinsser paint remover that is soy-based

 

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Replies

  1. DanH | Feb 15, 2011 08:07pm | #1

    Two possibilities:

    1) (Unlikely) This is a fiberglass or acrylic tub.

    2) The tub's been "refinished" or "relined".

    1. jyang949 | Feb 17, 2011 12:33pm | #2

      Definitely not fiberglass/acrylic

      A magnet sticks to it, and it is in a bathroom that hasn't been worked on in years. And although it's old, It's ordinary. You must be right about it being relined; true reglazing would cost too much.

      Is relining (or rather, patching up the new lining) a DIY job? 

      Janet

      1. DanH | Feb 17, 2011 10:56pm | #3

        Well, "relining" involves

        Well, "relining" involves dropping a plastic "skin" into the tub.  Gives you essentially an acrylic tub.  "Reglazing" involves sanding down the tub and coating it with a (generally epoxy-based) paint.

        You can generally tell if it's been reglazed by noticing chips here and there, and by checking around the drain and the overflow.  Relining is similarly detected, only chips usually don't occur.

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