There is a lot of competition among tub refinishing companies nowadays that leaves the industry with no choice but to lower the cost of their products especially when it comes to DIY kits on how to reglaze a bathtub.
You can see advertisements of products sold as low as $150 and being marketed to reglaze your tubs in just two hours.
Before any quality primer is set to applying the topcoat it would at least take 1 to 2 hours and anything less than the desired time can cause possible delayed cure and failure of finishing the project.
It is important to remember that a quality primer is determinant of the success of the finish.
Companies tend to sacrifice the use of polyurethane primer or epoxy over low-quality shellac based primers that are quite fast drying.
You might want to consider products designed for web conditions for a better finish in the bathroom.
When all is said and done, the preparation is the most time consuming part as written in many how to reglaze a bathtub guides available online and from various manufacturers.
This is also true in the actual process as there are lots of things to do before you can actually spray on the coating.
The project involves several processes which start from the scraping of dirt to acid etching until the tub is dusted which takes more or less 7 hours to finish, during which time you can not use the bath tub at all.
It is a fact that quality products cost money.
While the DIY how to reglaze a bathtub kits usually cost more, a typical tub reglaze can cost approximately $70 including urethane, primer, paper, tape respiratory elements and other materials needed.
On top of that when you hire a refinisher, it would entail another $45 to $50 per hour for his work, and considering the 7 hours of work to completely reglaze the tub, the labor alone would amount to $350.
However, when everything is taken into account, the cost of investing on reglazing your tub is still a lot cheaper than installing a new bathtub for your bathroom.
So when you do decide to start the bathtub reglazing project, make sure that you have enough money and you truly need to make the renovation project.
Once you have started, there is no turning back since you can’t simply leave your bath tub unfinished.
If you do decide to go on with hiring somebody to do the job professionally for you, first get quotes from various companies and see which one inspires more trust and is also cheaper.
Also talk with friends and coworkers and get ideas and recommendations. If somebody has already use a company successfully, you can use them too since they are highly recommended.