Know if you are paying for apartment grade "quick fix" Bathtub Painting or, if you are getting a new permanent porcelain glaze surface etched, chemically bonded and integrated into your old surface!

Over my 30+ years in business, I have personally tested acrylic urethane, standard epoxy paint, and various other coatings from several of the top suppliers. I quickly realized that these products may work for short-term use—such as apartment or hotel refinishing—but they are terrible for long-term use in a residential home. As a consumer, it's important for you to know that each refinishing company uses their own brand of finish coat, most all are using Acrylic urethane paints to paint the tub and instead of testing the surface for themselves, they just know what the supplier has told them. Most of the times they genuinely believe they are doing the worlds best refinishing. If you combine that ego with the inability to take an honest look at what they are using and truly educate themselves about the refinishing industry, the technician will soon blame the customer for any thing that happens. I see this happen literally every week, the technician has been told to clean everything and apply a layer of epoxy, then top coat with acrylic urethane. This is because epoxy paint will bond decently to a clean dry surface. The acrylic urethane paint then bonds to the epoxy and can be manipulated to gloss up and wont yellow as bad as epoxy. I call this apartment grade refinishing. Let me explain how easy it is for an unknowing customer to purchase an inferior bathtub painting service instead of a proper surface restoration. At the end of the video below see what happens when bathtubs are quickly painted to look good for a picture, but not for daily use over time. This is why so many like using acrylic urethane paint. It can be manipulated to look very, very good. However, it is still a paint that is on top of the old surface. Whereas, I am applying a permanent surface etched, integrated, and bonded into, not simply painted on top of, the old surface. I used this same painting process myself in the early 1990's. We didn't have a choice. However, now technology has made huge advancements! I am sanding and stripping paint off bathtubs almost daily. Last week I was lightly sanding a bathtub that had been painted two times in two years, by two different professionals. Just sanding them heats up that paint and the solvents stink so bad I wear a respirator. I could not help but think.... what is being released into the bathwater? People bathing children and pets in this toxic stuff and I had no clue what it was I was removing. Urethane paint contains Isocyanates (chemicals that bond with the 2-part mixture then harden and cure.) A quick google search will tell you how harsh and very dangerous these chemicals are. I absolutely do not expose you to these chemicals because I do not use urethane and Isocyanates are not in anything I use. Very low V.O.C. and No Isocyanates. You can expect any residual odor to dissipate about an hour after completion. A standard size bathtub usually takes about 3, maybe 4 hours to complete and it is ready to return to service 24 hours after completion. Thank you for learning a little about my trade! I appreciate you considering me to work in your home!     W