how to refinish a not so old tub/shower?

[amickracing]

During my ambitious house fixings up (2 years in the process, and I'm finally almost done with one room of painting lol). The bathroom is one of the next projects.

I'm not sure what the tub and shower is made out of, it's probably the original (1970's), feels kinda like plastic of maybe fiberglass, but I'm not sure. Point of this post... the surface is a bit aged, and that causes soap scum and gunk to build up pretty quick on the surface.

I don't want to replace it since it's in good shape aside from that, plus, that involves money and labor.

I guess the best idea I've come up with is to buff it out really good, then seal it with some sort of "wax" like product to recondition it. That's where I'm stuck, y'all have any suggestions of said product to recondition it?

[adamste81]

any good soap scum remover should work, or CLR. I am guessing this is a plastic shower you are referring to, so it should take some elbow grease but not too bad. being in the tile industry right now i suggest you rip out that old shower and put some bad-a$$ tile in there on the walls and floors. yeah, it will be more $$$$$ than you want to spend but it will look great.

[amickracing]

I see how ya are!
Yeah, I'd love to go nuts with tile... but I'm almost talking myself out of putting tile down on the floor instead of that sticky backed linoleum crap that's there. Eventually I'll get around to it...

So, I can get the tub and surround clean, and yes, lots of elbow grease involved, but the surface seems very porous instead of somewhat slick, which I think is what's making the grunge stick so good and so fast.

What can I do to seal it up?

[the dangling wrangler]

Around here,there's a few companies that re-surface tubs and tile.
It's some kind of epoxy paint that's sprayed on.
It won't last forever, but, it'll get you a coupla extra years.

[dandyme]

check the boat store for fiberglass cleaning products

don't know if anti-fouling paint will work for a tub?

[adamste81]

I see how ya are!
Yeah, I'd love to go nuts with tile... but I'm almost talking myself out of putting tile down on the floor instead of that sticky backed linoleum crap that's there. Eventually I'll get around to it...

So, I can get the tub and surround clean, and yes, lots of elbow grease involved, but the surface seems very porous instead of somewhat slick, which I think is what's making the grunge stick so good and so fast.

What can I do to seal it up?

That is a good question man. I would almost say maybe drive to the local home depot, lowes, ace etc.......and see what they say . at my job we deal mostly with commercial jobs like schools, malls, chain stores so don't know too much about the tubs.

I am sure people on this forum may have correct advice but if you have a hardware store within reasonable distance you may want to see if they have more info. sorry bud.

[yellowirenut]

parents would use this...and now i use it
clean the tub really well and wax..seals everything up nice, making cleaning much easier.

http://doitbest.com/Marble+FiberGlas...sku-631640.dib

[adamste81]

parents would use this...and now i use it
clean the tub really well and wax..seals everything up nice, making cleaning much easier.

http://doitbest.com/Marble+FiberGlas...sku-631640.dib

interesting, never heard of that before but sounds like it works good.