Replace It or Refinish It

What refinishing can address

Surface condition: staining, dullness, chips, a color nobody wants any more. It is a coating applied to the tub you already have, and it leaves the fixture, the drain, the overflow and everything behind the wall exactly as they were.

Which is the advantage and the limit in one sentence.

What it cannot address

Anything structural or anything behind the surface. A tub that flexes underfoot, a crack, a failing drain or overflow connection, or water that has been getting past the tub into the floor are not surface problems and a coating does not reach them.

Nor does it change the height of the rim, which is the thing the injury data is actually about.

The question that decides it

Is the complaint about how the tub looks, or about how it behaves? Looks, and refinishing is a real option. Behaves, and the fixture is coming out.

And what replacement opens up

Taking a tub out exposes the wall behind it, the drain and overflow, and the subfloor beneath — which is where the cost and the surprises live. It is also the one moment when a conversion or proper blocking for a grab bar costs very little extra, because the expensive part has already happened.

What to ask

Ask what will be found out only after the tub is out, and what happens to the price if the subfloor is soft. A quote that does not contemplate that has not priced the likeliest version of the job.