Going Green: How to Refinish an Antique Bathtub

You can enhance the beauty of the bathroom by refinishing your antique bathtub. This is no quick, easy job so it is advisable to tackle such a task after becoming well informed and taking special care and attention to safety procedures. You will be handling various chemical substances which can harm you.

Step 1 – Covering the Bathroom

Place some plastic sheathing over your bathroom floor, at a minimum distance of two feet away from your antique bathtub. Use duct tape to fix the plastic sheathing securely. Put some painter’s plastic on the walls and any fixtures or cabinets that you may have hanging from them.

Make sure that the walls are completely covered from the ceiling all the way to the floor. Fasten the painter’s plastic firmly in place with masking tape. Keep the room ventilated with an exhaust blower or a window fan when you are going to refinish your antique bathtub.

Step 2 – Removing Soap Deposits

Cover any parts of the bathtub that you do not want to refinish with tape and masking paper. Rub the surface of the bathtub with a scrubber pad and an abrasive cleaner. You can also make use of a razor blade in order to get rid of any deposits of soap in the tub.

Step 3 – Applying Hydrofluoric Acid

Make an etching solution made from hydrofluoric acid and apply it to the inner surface of the antique bathtub. Wait for a quarter of an hour to let the solution sit, as this will cause the surface to become rough so that when you will paint it, the paint will stick fast. Be very careful not to get any on your skin.

Step 4 – Washing the Bathtub

Use warm water to wash the antique bathtub repeatedly, and use a scrubbing pad to get rid of any residue in the bathtub. After you wash the bathtub, dry it up with paper towels. Check the antique bathtub to see if there is any damage caused by the acidic etching. If you find some damaged areas, use fiberglass filler putty to fill them up.

Step 5 – Spraying the Bathtub

Put some masking tape over the drain and sand the surface of the antique bathtub with 240-grit sandpaper. Get rid of any sanded dust by using a vacuum cleaner, and then use a tack cloth to remove any dust that the vacuum cleaner did not pick up.

Apply some primer reducer first before spraying the urethane primer. Attach the air compressor to the sprayer to spray the primer base coat. Let it dry thoroughly and then apply the polyurethane paint. Let it dry for two days and sand it with 1500-grit sandpaper to refine the surface.