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Here's a question from Delairen:
I hope you can help me. My husband and I recently purchased a 1960's era ranch style home in the Bay Area. We would like to spruce up our bathroom while A) not spending a lot of money and B) trying to be as green as we can. Our bathtub (currently an icky brown, probably original to the house) is peeling. We're wondering if we should resurface or save up to replace. On the one hand, replacing would put more waste in the landfills, on the other reglazing uses a lot of harmful chemicals. Do the chemicals used in reglazing a bathtub make the whole thing "a wash" (lol!) as far as green renovating goes?
Cost is also a consideration. Reglazing could be done soon; a full bathroom renovation would be years down the road.
Not sure what's greener, but similar posts on apartmenttherapy have concluded that re-glazing tends not to last very long. You might want to do a search on their website to see some of the user comments before you move forward either way...
view mh330's profile
If I was gonna trash the tub in the long-run anyway, I'd probably go to a salvage yard or try one of those Re-Use stores – you know where people donate their extra housing materials?
view mniche's profile
Think about the space you have in your bathroom- I have a late 40s ranch, and since new tubs seem to be either gargantuan jacuzzi style or thin/noisy fiberglass. For me the original tub fits the beyond tiny bathroom (ruling out the jacuzzi tub) and the low quality of fiberglass rules that out. We re-glazed, while it was stinky for a few days, we just left the door closed and the window open, hopefully minimizing the truly non-green aspects (offgassing).
view pdx-R's profile
Re-surfacing a tub does not last for many years, the new surface is a kind of plastic, and must be treated very gently, and even so, as a professional housekeeper, I see many many "peeling" bathtubs. Once the surface starts to degrade there is no way to repair it, it will need to be stripped and resurfaced again. If you are planning on only living in your house for a few years it will probably hold up for a while...
The offgassing of the resins is not the only non green thing about the process. The resins are highly toxic while they are in a liquid state, and I'm sure that the manufacturing of said chemicals is not "green"
view fjorlief's profile
Thanks everyone for your help! I'm leaning towards the resurfacing - the fact that we can afford to do it sooner rather than later, and the fact that it would be making use of something we already have makes me think that in spite of the chemicals, it's probably the better choice.
And if 5 (hopefully more!) years from now we end up having to replace it or resurface it again, perhaps there will be more options. :-)
view Delairen's profile
What kind of tub are we talking here? A lot of the bathtubs that I've seen around tend to be the flimsy type pdx-R mentioned. I'm not sure they'd be worth resurfacing, or if you even could (there's not much to them anyway.)
But, yeah, getting a new tub would create its own pollution (although the stinkiest part would not be in your home.)
Where does one find long-lasting tubs these days? I, too, hope we get more options.
view whytephoenix's profile