Over time, any plumbing wears out and loses its original appearance. Rust, chips, scratches, cracks, loss of gloss and whiteness are the inevitable consequences of daily use and improper care. Do-it-yourself bath restoration is capable of returning a decent look to old plumbing. In order for the renovation of the bathtub to take place with the least cost and effort, you need to have a good understanding of the algorithm of this procedure at home, understand how to restore the bathtub, how to paint the bathtub inside, what products to choose.
There are three ways to restore a bathtub on your own. Depending on its initial state, you can choose one of them:
- Enamelling.
- Restoration with liquid acrylic.
- Insert installation.
Bathtub enamelling
Enameling a bath with your own hands is a feasible procedure for any owner. To understand how to restore the enamel of the bath, you need to pay attention to the condition of the container.
Repairing a cast-iron or steel bath with enamel is justified if there are no deep chips and cracks. Otherwise, the enamel, even applied in 2-4 layers, will not hide serious damage.
[smartcontrol_youtube_shortcode key="bath enamel" cnt="4" col="2" shls="true"]How to restore a cast-iron bath yourself at home? When choosing how to paint the bathtub inside, preference should be given to high-quality epoxy enamel from trusted manufacturers, guided by the following criteria:
- The choice of enamel application method: brush, roller, aerosol or bulk method. The most acceptable are the application with a brush or bulk, since the roller can give an unnecessary porous texture, and aerosol spraying can be used only in case of repair of individual areas.
- Completeness of a set for restoration of a covering. It is convenient to purchase a kit, which includes everything you need for repairs - enamel, auxiliary components, application tools and compositions for preparing the bath.
Important! High-quality epoxy enamel, due to its thick consistency, is able to create a smooth, even surface and repair small chips. But it should be understood that self-repairing a bathtub at home is inferior to the industrial method of applying enamel: there may be a change in the color of the new enamel, increased vulnerability to bumps and chips, and restrictions on care products.
Self-enamelling of the bath takes place in two stages: preparatory work and enameling.
Preparatory work
Repair of a cast-iron or steel bath begins with the preparation of its surface. The work algorithm looks like this.
- Removal of old enamel. Apply abrasive powder and sandpaper or a grinding nozzle to clean off the enamel.
Important! The prepared surface does not have to be perfectly smooth. Roughness is important for better adhesion.
- Rust cleaning. Using special tools (rust converter, powerful chemical compounds) or folk methods (ammonia and hydrogen peroxide, salt and wine vinegar, hydrochloric acid), try to remove traces of rust as much as possible.
- Degreaser treatment. For quality adhesion new enamel surface requires degreasing. You can use alcohol, acetone or any special tool.
- Filling with hot water. The cast-iron bath must be warmed up before enamelling, filling it to the brim with hot water and leaving it for 10 minutes. Then drain the water and wipe it dry.
Enamel application
How to restore the enamel of the bath, it becomes clearer after reading the instructions for the purchased composition for enameling.The important points here are:
- Composition preparation. Following the instructions, prepare the enamel by combining the active ingredient and the hardener in the required proportions.
- Coating with the first layer of enamel. Cover the surface with a thin layer of enamel using a hard wide brush, starting from the top, gradually descending deep into the bowl. You can especially carefully walk along the bottom of the bath and the drain as the most worn out places.
- Application of the second layer of enamel. A new enamel layer is applied after some time specified in the instructions. After that, it can be left to dry for 15 minutes.
- Leak correction. All detected smudges of enamel must be smeared with a brush, moving up and down and from side to side. This must be done quickly before the enamel dries.
- Re-enamelling. To achieve a more reliable result, increase the strength of the enamel and protect against new chips, a cast-iron or metal container can be painted over with one or two more layers of enamel.
And how to restore the enamel of the bath, if the chips are deep? It is necessary to repair chips with putty, polish and degrease. All chips and cracks must be carefully repaired:
- using sandpaper soaked in water, polish the edges of the chip;
- degrease cracks with a solvent or white spirit;
- dry the surface;
- apply enamel.
After enamelling, the bath should dry for 7-8 days. Proper care of the bathroom should exclude the use of abrasive detergents.
Restoration with liquid acrylic
Repairing a bathtub with liquid acrylic is an easier process at home than enamelling. Acrylic is resistant to chemical and mechanical stress, unpretentious in work. With the help of liquid acrylic, you can get a beautiful smooth surface that is resistant to temperature extremes and hard water.
Due to the way the acrylic is applied, this method is sometimes referred to as a "fill bath". A do-it-yourself bulk bath is a suitable economical way to update cast iron products.
Acrylic brand "Stakryl" is often used - a two-component high-density enamel, including a base and a hardener.
Do-it-yourself acrylic bath coating consists of the following steps:
[smartcontrol_youtube_shortcode key="liquid acrylic bath cover" cnt="4" col="2" shls="true"]- Surface preparation. This process is similar to preparing for enameling: you need to clean the bath from the old coating, degrease, repair cracks.
- Acrylic application. Having combined the components according to the instructions, acrylic is poured from a convenient container in a thin stream onto the side of the bathtub, pushing it under the edge of the tile. The acrylic layer should be approximately 4-6 mm and flow down to the middle of the container. Moving along the side, you need to pour acrylic evenly. After applying acrylic along the outer edge, continue to pour it into the middle of the container, gradually narrowing the circles and moving in a spiral. The rest of the mixture flows into the prepared container through the drain.
- Drying. Liquid acrylic can dry from 6 to 24 hours. But still, it’s better not to rush to immediately use the updated bathroom, but to wait a few days.
Restoration with acrylic inlay
The third way to repair is to install an insert or "bath in a bath". It is impossible to make an insert at home, it is made industrially and is an insert that repeats the shape of the bath itself. This is an easy and quick way to renovate a bathtub yourself. But it also has disadvantages:
- Installation requires the removal of the bottom row of tiles to secure the edge of the insert.
- The impossibility of repeating the exact shape of a cast-iron bathtub with an insert. This is due to the fact that cast iron is a complex material for molding and has various depressions and protrusions, which, when the liner is installed, provoke the formation of voids.All this negatively affects the quality of the new bath.
Insert installation algorithm
- Remove the tile adjacent to the bath.
- Clean up old enamel.
- Wash, degrease and dry the bath.
- Dismantle the drain system and seal the hole with silicone gaskets.
- Try on an insert. Mark the place where the drain neck will be located with a marker. Trim excess acrylic if necessary.
- Pull out the liner and apply two-component foam or mounting adhesive to the entire surface of the tub inside.
- Return the drain device and install the insert.
- Treat the joint between the bathroom and the wall with sanitary sealant.
- For better tightness, install plastic borders.
Conclusion
Do-it-yourself bath restoration is an option that is far from always dictated only by modest repair budget. In addition to the obvious monetary savings, this is also an opportunity to solve the issue “with little bloodshed”: not to dismantle the bath, not to disturb the wall and floor coverings, and to minimize labor and time costs compared to a complete replacement of the bath.
