Should I Refinish or Remodel My Cast Iron Tub?

LESLIE: Hiric (sp) in Colorado is on the line and has a bathtub question. How can we help you?

HIRIC (sp): Yes, thank you for taking my call. I moved into old house in Colorado.

TOM: OK.

HIRIC (sp): And then – hello? I’m sorry, dogs.

TOM: That’s OK.

LESLIE: And you moved in some dogs, too.

HIRIC (sp): That’s right. And I have a cast-iron tub.

TOM: OK.

HIRIC (sp): And should I refinish it or change it to California modern style, classic one and …

TOM: Well, there’s really two questions there. If you love the old style, it’s definitely worth refinishing. They’re beautiful, they’re irreplaceable and if you decorate your bathroom around that, I think you’ll have a really beautiful space.

If you don’t want to go that route, then, of course, you can always remodel. But I wouldn’t be in a hurry to do that because cast-iron tubs are few and far between.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm. That’s why you can buy them from architectural salvage shops at such a great cost, because they’re so desirable.

TOM: Yeah. Yep, exactly.

HIRIC (sp): Oh, really? So by refinishing it, do I chemically – should I (inaudible at 0:13:40)?

TOM: Well, you can – listen, you can do it yourself, Hiric (sp), but you’re better off to have a pro do it. Because it really is quite a difficult job; there’s a lot of steps to it. You have to …

LESLIE: And a process.

TOM: A big process. That’s right. You have to make sure that the new finish binds to the old finish. And if you can have a pro do it, I think it’ll last a lot longer than if you do it yourself.

HIRIC (sp): Oh, no, I have no plan to do it myself.

TOM: Alright.

HIRIC (sp): Oh, yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you very much for the good suggestion.

TOM: You’re welcome.

HIRIC (sp): Thank you. Good job.

TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.