I read most if not all of the reviews, blogs, and watched videos. I am experienced in woodworking, refinishing, and painting. I already owned 2 HVLP sprayers. I thought this would be easy for me. In the end, the finish is beautiful. But...I won't ever do this again.
I followed the directions to a T, except I opted for a coarser grade of sandpaper because our tub is preformed acrylic and has lightly textured walls and a textured base so I was worried about adhesion. It was beige and I wanted it white. It was new when the house was built 2003 and saw almost no use until around 10yrs ago when our kids were old enough to bathe alone. Those 1st years were rough on my linoleum & sublfoor, but the tub itself was still new looking.
I cleaned and sanded. Cleaned again. Went over everything twice with tack cloths. I used my HVLP gravity feed sprayer for 1st coat, not thinning because many people talked about how thin the epoxy paint was. It looked absolutely lovely...for about 3 minutes. Then it began to run just everywhere. I waited 2 hours and sanded the drips down. Then I used a new brush to trim & a mini roller with 2 HD foam roller covers to apply the 2nd coat and things looked good but the beige was still showing through on the tub floor and inside walls. It took 2 box kind to get this far.
I bought a 3rd box kit, waited 24 hrs, lightly sanded, used a tack cloth & applied a 3rd coat to just the tub w/ 2 more HD foam roller covers. It looked great. Amazing. But, I shouldn't have mixed the whole box...
Because then I had a plumbing mishap. You see, we only have a whole-house main shut-off for all of our water (sinks have their own shutoff but showers fo not). And since 6 people needed to use the master bath & the half bath while I worked on this full bath, we had to temporarily install a trim kit to the shower handle & turn the water back on. I am not a plumber, & I managed to install the trim kit wrong-- trim said water was off but actually it was on; the error happened bc i failed to notice that the internal plumbing rotated when I removed the trim kit. Since the tub spout pipe was covered, water mostly arched out of the tub onto the subfloor but did splash all over the new epoxy beneath the spout and around the drain as well as a little down the front of the tub. After the 3am dash to dry up the mess with buckets & towels, I was able to fix the plumbing error but the epoxy paint had gotten wet in places. I emailed Rust-Oleum but it was like 4am Friday morning so I didn't receive a reply until some time Monday afternoon. By then I had already acted.
I read online that epoxy paint's dry & cure time could be affected by the moisture; at worst the paint's adhesion would be destroyed. I waited 24hrs for the surface to dry. The surface that had gotten wet felt like the rest & sanded like the rest. So I bought a 4th kit & mixed up half. Then I used a tack cloth and then re-coated the affected areas. Because I am still in the middle of renovating the bathroom & no one will use that shower/tub fir at least 2 weeks I am hoping that everything will turn out alright.
Rust-Oleum advised me in the e-mail that I received afterward that it would be best to wait 3 days, then sand & recoat. Whoops! All this occurred the week of 7/21/20. I will try to leave an update next year as to whether the paint holds up.
If I were to advise someone about using this paint, I would say to wear a sweat band (seriously glad I did) & buy an extra box to play around with. The paint is very weird in that it is super runny initially, but thickens over time. It is tricky to work with in either state. I think that experience with this specific type of paint would've helped me avoid a lot of my errors. The rest was unpredictable plumbing error.
But in the end, the look is just lovely.
And btw, the other posters are dead-on regarding the fumes. They are really, really bad. I wore a P100 carbon filter respirator & experienced burning eyes & got a headache the 1st day. Our bathroom is small & has no window. We ran the vent fan for the 7 days, had upper story windows opened & ran ceiling fans in upper story rooms. The fumes were the worst the 1st day (Non-masked people moved downstairs pretty quickly), but were bearable the next 2 days. After that a chemical smell lingered inside the bathroom itself for about 4 days although a mask was not necessary to be in there (I have asthma & had no issues breathing in there those last few days).
| Brand | Rust-Oleum |
|---|---|
| Color | White |
| Finish Type | Gloss |
| Size | 1 Quart (Pack of 1) |
| Item Volume | 946 Milliliters |
| Special Feature | Stain Resistant |
| Unit Count | 32.0 Fl Oz |
| Paint Type | Acrylic |
| Specific Uses For Product | Interior |
| Surface Recommendation | Ceramic,Porcelain |
| Indoor/Outdoor Usage | Outdoor |
| Item Form | Liquid |
| Included Components | Rust-Oleum 7860519 Tub And Tile Refinishing 2-Part Kit, White |
| Age Range (Description) | Adult |
| Is Waterproof | True |
| Model Name | Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit |
| Package Information | Can |
| Color Code | White |
| Coverage | 110 sq ft |
| Manufacturer | Rust-Oleum |
| Part Number | 7860519 |
| Item Weight | 2 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 2.2 x 2 x 2.2 inches |
| Item model number | 7860519 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Style | Gloss |
| Finish | Gloss |
| Material | Multi |
| Pattern | Tile Refinishing 2-Part Kit |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Special Features | Stain Resistant |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
