Remodeling an older bathroom . . . . consider refinishing

[Andy Sabisch]

If you have a property that you are rehabbing the bathroom on, the usual route is to gut and replace with new especially if the fixtures are dated; i.e., 1970's avocado green or goldenrod yellow for example.  We are working on a 1976 vintage house with two bathrooms that fell into that category.  We priced out new tubs, surrounds, tile, etc. and saw the dollars swirling down the proverbial drain.  We looked into refinishing and found a wide price range to do them so a little research pays off as we found out.  We settled on a local guy that has been doing bathrooms and kitchens for 10 years and his before / after photos were pretty impressive.

He arrived 15 minutes early (always a good sign) and went right to work.  He prepped the tile enclosures, filled holes from the old shower doors, patched gouges in the old finish and taped the walls, faucets, floor and baseboards.  So the end was he refinished two yellow knicked-up bathtubs, two speckled yellow tile enclosures, two yellow spare bath sinks and did his magic on the linoleum counters in the hall bath making them look like marble.  The total cost was less than what replacing one tub would have been and he was done in about 6 hours.

Bottom line, if you are renovating a bathroom, consider refinishing if the footprint works for the flip (or rental) . . . we were amazed at the results and would use it again when we need to redo a bathroom.