We have a situation...

Kiwi is fine, but our tub is not. We looked into costs to replace our tub and cannot afford to do so nor do we feel we have the skills to do it ourselves. It had a coating of soap scum probably the thickness of a few coats of paint. Disgusting, I know but the prior residents must've been filthy people who never cleaned (it wasn't just the tub). I decided to just scour the sucker, which worked fine until I got to the last 3' section and low and behold- it began peeling. The tub must've been refinished in the past. We cannot leave it like it is, we cannot afford to replace it and I'm going to have to repair the peeled sections before it becomes a more serious issue. It is our only bathroom too. This is going to require sanding of epoxy based paint as well as using epoxy-based enamel for the repairs. I used an epoxy enamel to paint a desk once (outdoors) and the stuff stunk to high heaven, regular paint smells like roses and fresh air compared to this stuff. The use of the paint will be confined to the bathroom, but the bathroom has a recirculating "vent" and no ventilation to the outside. I need help determining the best solution to repair this screw up and keep Kiwi safe. I am looking at the following options and wondering which would be best:

Buying an ungodly expensive air purifier capable of filtering out VOCs (any recommendations on which of the lesser expensive brands might work?)

OR

Buying a less expensive Ozone generator and figuring out how long we need to be out of the house for it to get the VOCs out and the ozone to dissipate

We have absolutely no one up here we would feel safe leaving Kiwi in the care of, so we are going to have to fix this issue with him in-home. I am just so pissed right now

I've seen what is basically another plastic tub that fits inside your existing one, tub enclosure walls too. I think that would be the safest, and quickest way to get your tub back into service and not have to subject anyone to nasty paint smells for days and days,

Is there a qualified vet where you can board her for a day or two? My vet only charges $20/day, so not terriblely expensive, but I don't know if that's normal.

April, I am so sorry this has happened...I have also seen those inserts, and here they are relatively inexpensive.
Bathroom & Bathtub Remodeling - Bath Fitter

Attaching some photos of the damage. I still have a 2 or so foot section of soap scum left and the peeling may grow but is currently not a terribly large section:




(peeling parts are the slightly darker areas against the lighter soap scum)

As of right now, I think it is small enough I shouldn't need to use massive quantities of the repair paint to fix, but it is still nasty smelling.

A tub insert may be an option, but this is already a small tub and that would reduce the size even more. We also need to replace the bathroom flooring in the future (morons put down laminate wood) and are unsure if a tub insert would make that a more difficult process. It was estimated around $1800 to replace the unit we had with a comparable by a professional, and even half that would really really really be stretching it, especially for an insert. Leaving Kiwi at any boarding facility is not something I would consider doing.

Regarding venting the bathroom while pre-cleaning and applying epoxy-enamel. I would recommend a trip to a Toys-Are-Us or like children store that may still have one or more of those plastic tubes /tunnels (like 36" diameter x length) that are common Summer play. Set them between the bathroom to the nearest window, Place a box fan at each end and let it draw the air out of the bathroom.

SailBoat said:

Regarding venting the bathroom while pre-cleaning and applying epoxy-enamel. I would recommend a trip to a Toys-Are-Us or like children store that may still have one or more of those plastic tubes /tunnels (like 36" diameter x length) that are common Summer play. Set them between the bathroom to the nearest window, Place a box fan at each end and let it draw the air out of the bathroom.

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That is actually a really good idea! We could vent it that way right out the front door and we have been debating getting an air purifier for a while as the prior owners had cats and my allergies have not adjusted in the least and repeated cleaning/vacuuming hasn't helped much either. I'm sure if we ventilated out the door, ran a purifier with a VOC filter and locked Kiwi in the master bedroom (which has no connection to the rest of the house through ducts or anything), it would probably be ok.

I'm just very upset at myself for doing this I should've known better.

SailBoat said:

Regarding venting the bathroom while pre-cleaning and applying epoxy-enamel. I would recommend a trip to a Toys-Are-Us or like children store that may still have one or more of those plastic tubes /tunnels (like 36" diameter x length) that are common Summer play. Set them between the bathroom to the nearest window, Place a box fan at each end and let it draw the air out of the bathroom.

Click to expand...

Great idea, Steven!

Just to add on, perhaps if you secured a heavy curtain type material over the doorway. You know, with the tunnel thing running underneath so as to minimize the possibility of air escaping anywhere save through the ventilating effect of the fans and tunnel?

We are figuring out what to do about the peeling and the winged demon. Fingers crossed we'll be able to get it 'good as new', because replacing the thing would be more than our entire budget we planned to use to update the whole bathroom and would eat into the money to replace the flooring, which has to be done (some moron stuck laminate wood on the floor). In the meantime, I figured now would be the time to re-do the disgustingly stained and horribly applied caulking around the unit door and get the nasty fixtures pulled out. Since I'm not using any chemicals, I had the winged demon up on the top of the door frame. Poor choice. I got hit 3 times with unwanted amazon bombs:16: At least he seemed pretty happy to be dooming me after being banished the past 2 days I was cleaning with chemicals

Clearly the work of a moron. Wet area and laminate wood on the floor, yup moron! Better check to see if they glued it down! Moron factor, you know! Best place to check is behind the door, commonly dry and out of the way.

FYI Plumbing: I'm sure you know this, but just in case, if its plastic, best to replace as much as possible. Some of the old stuff has been breaking down and also some of the glues used have been failing (most of it was twenty plus years old). So, check any fitting to assure its still strong and that the glue is holding. Best splice point is in a straight run section.

Stinks when you have to pull a project ahead.

Placing an Amazon overhead while you are working below is a beginners error, you know better.

SailBoat said:

Clearly the work of a moron. Wet area and laminate wood on the floor, yup moron! Better check to see if they glued it down! Moron factor, you know! Best place to check is behind the door, commonly dry and out of the way.

FYI Plumbing: I'm sure you know this, but just in case, if its plastic, best to replace as much as possible. Some of the old stuff has been breaking down and also some of the glues used have been failing (most of it was twenty plus years old). So, check any fitting to assure its still strong and that the glue is holding. Best splice point is in a straight run section.

Stinks when you have to pull a project ahead.

Placing an Amazon overhead while you are working below is a beginners error, you know better.

Click to expand...

Ya, the flooring is really nice LOOKING but an awful choice in a bathroom. It is amazingly not damaged, but still... We are thinking it's a floating floor and hope when we're ready to replace with vinyl or tile it comes up easy. They also used MDF baseboards.

The tub handle is one of those nasty plastic ones and has been stuck on "lukewarm" since we bought the place, so we have to replace the handle and valve. We'll be using a metal handle this time. Spout, overflow and drain trim is thankfully metal and pending some polishing, may be salvageable. Will also be adding a new shower arm to better fit our rainfall head too. Unfortunately, the frameless doors for tubs that aren't like 1/2 doors are upwards towards $800, so removing, polishing and re-caulking the current door is about all that's going to happen. That said, we were kinda leaving the tub for last, which is why I thought cleaning it may be a good idea so it looked a little nicer. Now we have to wait to replace the other things like the "charming" western-ish "rope" towel bars. Fun stuff!

The amazon has been put back home so I can work not under him

put plastic up at all doorways in the house in between the bathroom and the bird's area, keep the bird outside for as long as you can and go to town, and use that tunnel idea.

Bath room projects are never one of my favorites, never. Our prior home was built just after the turn of the last Century, like 1907. Every project was a time travel down the road of repairing splices from really old, to kind of old, to kind of recent to current technology! True dreamland at times. The really old stuff was wonderful, commonly only need to replace seals. The fifties and new, nightmares!

Double check tub /shower control unit(s) as the new stuff is all the temperature controlled units. Sometimes they don't blend so well with each other. Find an Old School Plumber that has some of the older stuff in his backroom, if you get caught /stuck!

MDF baseboards, really - that's a hoot, truly moron World stuff!

SailBoat said:

Bath room projects are never one of my favorites, never. Our prior home was built just after the turn of the last Century, like 1907. Every project was a time travel down the road of repairing splices from really old, to kind of old, to kind of recent to current technology! True dreamland at times. The really old stuff was wonderful, commonly only need to replace seals. The fifties and new, nightmares!

Double check tub /shower control unit(s) as the new stuff is all the temperature controlled units. Sometimes they don't blend so well with each other. Find an Old School Plumber that has some of the older stuff in his backroom, if you get caught /stuck!

MDF baseboards, really - that's a hoot, truly moron World stuff!

Click to expand...

Luckily, this complex was built in the late 80's, so nothing is really old and this unit was gutted and renovated in 2007 so while I'm not 100% sure what all they did, I'm guessing we shouldn't encounter too much issues swapping fixtures (actually, not being sure what they did may not be a good thing:33.

While we would like some of the fancier looking fixtures for the tub, we're going to stick with parts made for the Mixit one that's there that'll be easy to swap out (yup, those ugly plastic handles). We don't want to have to deal with figuring out what is compatible and/or how to alter the plumbing to make something else compatible. Fortunately, they do make a chrome handle set, so while not super cool, it's cheap and it'll at least look nicer than the standard plastic ones . Better yet, after hubby replaces the worn out valve, we will at least be able to adjust the temperature of our showers! That was ok during the summer, but very not ok now that it's getting cold out since we do not pay money to heat the bathroom:11:.

I guess buying a 'cosmetic fixer' is a crash course that will be forcing us to learn a lot of new skills Glad we didn't get ourselves into a real fixer yet

DRB said:

put plastic up at all doorways in the house in between the bathroom and the bird's area, keep the bird outside for as long as you can and go to town, and use that tunnel idea.

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It's a bit cold out for him to be outside, but I will send hubby out with him to roam around Petco when the time comes to apply the paint, since that'll be when at it's stinkiest. Due to our layout here, it'll be better to close him up in the master bedroom and stick a towel under the door to keep smells out than to try and mask off the living room (where he is) from the odors.

It took about 10 solid hours of scouring (spread out over several days) to get the full amount of soap scum off the tub and surround. That was using a powdered cleanser and a brillo pad. Seriously went at the pace of if one had to hand sand a couple layers of paint off with fine grit sandpaper to get this scum chemicals didn't touch removed. It wasn't necessarily the grossest thing I've cleaned, but it was certainly amongst the most difficult things to get clean. Then the doors had so much caulking cementing them on, hubby had to pretty much pry them off, the frame is now a twisted pile of metal and there are numerous screw holes in our tub I have to fill (joy!). I now see why people with the money to do so just rip these units out and replace them:56:.

I uncovered a large area of already peeled finish when I finished the final section yesterday. These nasty people let their tub peel and did nothing about it for so long it became totally encased in scum, you couldn't even tell it had peeled until I started scouring it and hit fiberglass. At least it is now temporarily useable again until we get supplies etc... ordered. Had we know this up front, we would have put in a lower offer so we could have afforded to just buy a whole new tub/surround. Now we will have to rig up ventilation, proper surface prep (sure to be a joy on this kind of project!), get the bird out of the house while I paint, undoubtedly deal with residual odors from the paint for at least a few days if not weeks etc... What a mess! And all because I was trying to clean like a normal person would. I think this was pretty much the 'grand finale' though for the mess these people left behind. I think I also may have formed a slightly more OCD attitude towards cleaning than I already have because of my experience cleaning this place up to a normal standard of cleanliness and hygiene

Glad everything is coming along so well! Good news is, if you are able to use the paint I recommended, you shouldn't even have any odors by the next day. Especially with rolling it on. Have you decided if you plan on doing everything, or just the tub yet?

My 2 cents as long time chemist/remodeler. Assume that you will not be able to vent the air completely. Labs use specially designed high flow fume hoods, specifically made to eliminate eddies and turbulence that could push air out into the house. You would need a very high volume fan, and it might be difficult to get all the air exhausted. You are likely to have a tunnel of clean air that moves through the room and vent while fumes build up on the floor. After a while you won't be able to smell them so you won't know if they are confined to the bathroom.

Boarding for a day is a good idea. If the weather allows, maybe baby could stay in the car?

If you can tolerate the peeling, just live with it until you can do the rest of the work and take care of it all at once. It's just cosmetic. Better to tolerate it for a while and then fix it right, because when you make do you make do for a long time.

We picked up a $2000 bathtub at Lowe's for $200 because it was a special order return. I've also seen them cheap on Craigslist - people order things then change their minds, and remodel houses that have just been remodeled. If there is a Habitat ReStore near you, they also often have very good or new fixtures for almost nothing. If the tub is cheap enough you can afford to have it put in - but putting in a tub is dead easy. There are simple drain and faucet connections and it has to be properly supported and leveled. Great instructions online and you can do the thing!

When you pull up the old floor - check the age - many old flooring materials contained asbestos. And the adhesive could contain asbestos. You want to wear respirators just in case unless it's fairly modern. Pulling up the floor is a good time to replace the tub, check for any water damage and fix it, and it can be very inexpensive. We did our own installation for tub, shower, toilets, etc. and I would be happy to help. Good luck!

The surround got scraped by the razor pretty good trying to get the door frame off, so it needs to be done too. Figured it's best to do both at the same time so we don't have to deal with doing the surround at a later date. Going to try to work it so we can do this on a weekend so hubby can take Kiwi out while I apply the paint and we can shut him in the bedroom hubby is using as his work office and he won't disturb his work like on a weekday until the smell wears off (the bedroom is not connected to the central heat, so it seems the safest place indoors for Kiwi). We also did some intensive research and found a relatively inexpensive ($80) air purifier with the carbon filter for VOCs that will hopefully help clear smells as I work (in addition to ventilation measures) and also to try to minimize the dust when I do the sanding. If I have learned anything from refinishing the amount of furniture I have, it is the highly tedious and irritating surface prep which is the key to proper adhesion and given this is a tub which will be in contact with lots of water, I probably need to be extra diligent with prepping it. That means lots of dust, so since this can't be taken outside I feel we need something extra to help even if it's not the most powerful filtering unit.

I'll be looking into ordering the refinishing stuff today. Hopefully that all works out. Guessing if doing the surround I'll need double the quantity?

The quantity is the one thing I can't give you a super clear answer on. The person I apprenticed with back in the day started off rolling, but by the time I was at a point I was doing the work myself, he had switched completely to HVLP sprayguns.

Rolling the floor of a tub usually takes about 4 oz of paint, primer is 1-1, so in total you will have 64oz of that. That *should* be more than enough. The topcoat is 2:1, so the 2 quarts on that will be 48oz, with half the catalyst left. That might be a bit tighter.

Oh, and I don't know if you considered this or not, but you could probably save a bit by hitting up a lowes or home depot and renting an air purifier.