Bathtub Refinishing Cost Calculator
Refinishing a bathtub runs about $610 in Atlanta — $419 to $801 — for a multi-coat system on a sound tub with a non-slip floor. That is $2,569 less than a new tub today and $76 a year against $127 over the life each one buys. ⚠️ The catch is not the price: it is that a second coating cannot go over the first, so doing it repeatedly converges with replacing.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost of refinishing the tub
$610
typical · range $419 to $800 · 5.2 trade hours · about $76 a year over the 8 years this model assumes a coating lasts
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 59% of this figure comes from modelled coating, preparation and repair prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
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Reglaze it, or replace it
| What you do | Buys | Per year | Today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refinish the tub you have | 8 yrs | $76 | $610 |
| A new bathtub | 25 yrs | $132 | $3,302 |
“Is it cheaper to reglaze or replace a tub?” is one of the questions Google shows on this search, and the obvious answer — yes, by $2,693 — is the one that surprises people six years later. A coating is a coating. Even per year of tub bought, refinishing still wins: $76 against $132. ⚠️ But the lifespan that whole comparison rests on is a declared assumption of 8 years, not a measurement of ours — the industry advertises ten to fifteen and a family bathroom realistically gives 5 to 10 years. If yours lands at the bottom of that band the two columns meet. Which is why the table below matters more than this one.
And if you keep refinishing it
| When | What it involves | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Now | Straight onto the original surface | $610 |
| Year 8 | ⚠️ Strip the old coating first | $882 |
| Year 16 | ⚠️ Strip the old coating first | $882 |
| Year 24 | ⚠️ Strip the old coating first | $882 |
| 32 years of tub | against $3,302 for one new tub lasting 25 | $3,256 |
Here is the thing almost nobody says, and it is the reason this page exists: a second coating does not go on top of the first. The old one has to come off, and stripping is the dearest and slowest step there is — which is why the second and third times cost $882 rather than $610. Keep it up long enough to match the life of a new tub and the two paths land within a few hundred dollars of each other. ⚠️ Two things that genuinely favour refinishing and are not in the arithmetic: the money is spread over decades instead of spent today, and a cast iron tub in good condition is worth keeping for its own sake. Two that do not: each strip is another day without a bathroom, and each one is another round of the chemistry below.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masking, containment and forced ventilation1 per job | 1each | $28–$95 | estimated±54% |
| Etching, abrasives and cleaning agentssquare feet of tub surface | 26.5sq ft | $22–$78 | estimated±56% |
| Preparation — labourpreparation hours for the substrate × access factor | 1.8hour | $83–$89 | sourced |
| Bonding primer and multi-coat industrial topcoatsquare feet of tub surface, on a multi-coat system | 26.5sq ft | $105–$285 | estimated±46% |
| Spray the coating — laboursystem hours + 0.25 h for a colour change, × access factor | 3.4hour | $157–$168 | sourced |
| Applied non-slip floor1 when a non-slip floor is applied | 1each | $24–$85 | estimated±56% |
| Total | $419–$800 | ±31% |
Where these numbers come from
- The comparison that gets it wrong, and the one that does not
- “Is it cheaper to reglaze or replace a tub?” is a question Google shows on this search, and the answer everyone gives — yes, by a mile — is the one that surprises people six years later. This page gives two better ones. Per year of tub bought, refinishing still wins: $76 against $127. But a second coating does not go on top of the first. The old one has to be stripped, which is the dearest and slowest step there is, so the second time costs $883 rather than $610. Repeated 4 times to buy 32 years, the total is $3,260 against $3,180 for one new tub. ⚠️ Two real advantages of refinishing that the arithmetic cannot show: that money is spread over three decades rather than spent today, and a cast iron tub in good condition is worth keeping on its own merits — getting three hundred pounds of it out of a bathroom is why our bathtub replacement page charges for demolition separately.
- The chemistry, which is the part nobody selling this will raise
- ⚠️ Most of the downsides of refinishing are cosmetic. This one is not. The strippers used to take an old coating off a tub were the classic application for methylene chloride, and OSHA, Methylene chloride (retrieved 2026-08-24) publishes, under that name, the case of a worker who died refinishing a bathtub in a residential bathroom using one. A bathroom is the smallest, worst-ventilated room in the house, which is exactly the condition that makes this lethal rather than unpleasant. There is now a regulatory answer as well: EPA, Risk management for methylene chloride (read 2026-08-24) says consumer paint and coating removal use was prohibited in 2019, and that EPA’s final rule of April 2024 prohibits most industrial and commercial uses including paint and coating removers, with most prohibited uses phased out within two years. So there is a concrete question a homeowner can ask that is in no brochure: what stripper are you using in my bathroom, and what extraction are you bringing. A professional should already have a good answer.
- What decides whether it lasts, and what it cannot fix
- The coating is not the variable people think it is. What decides the outcome is the preparation — the etching or abrasion that gives the new surface something to key into — and it is the invisible hour, which is why a quote that is much cheaper than the others has usually taken it out of there. The number of coats is the other one, and you cannot inspect it afterwards either: two coats is $464 and multi-coat is $610, and that gap is most of the difference between the short and long ends of the lifespan. ⚠️ And three things a coating genuinely cannot fix. A fibreglass tub that flexes when you stand in it will crack the new surface at the flex point within a year — the support underneath is the problem. Rust that has gone all the way through is a hole, and a hole is a replacement. And the applied non-slip floor is a real trade-off rather than a free upgrade: a refinished floor is smoother than the moulded-in texture it covers, which matters because falls are among the most common causes of serious injury in American homes — CDC, Older Adult Falls Data (retrieved 2026-08-24) — but an applied texture is harder to clean and shorter-lived than a moulded one, and a mat is free.
- Where the numbers come from
- Labour is official: wages from BLS OEWS for painters and coating applicators, May 2025, retrieved 2026-08-20, adjusted to your metro area and benefit-loaded from BLS ECEC. 59% of the total is estimated rather than official — there is no federal price series for a tub coating — with every band and its reasoning on the dataset page. ⚠️ One declared assumption carries the whole comparison and it deserves saying twice: the 8-year coating life is a model value, not a measurement of ours, and the realistic band is 5 to 10 years. At the bottom of that band the two columns meet. If what you actually want is a tub that is easier to get into rather than one that looks new, the honest comparison is on our tub to shower conversion page, and the whole method is on the method page.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-24.
What this figure does not include
- A tub that has rusted through
- ⚠️ A coating is a surface, not a repair. If the rust has gone all the way through the steel, or the tub floor has cracked because it is unsupported, no refinish fixes that — and a company that quotes for it anyway has told you something. Our bathtub replacement page prices the alternative.
- Cure time, and a bathroom you cannot use
- Not a cost and often the deciding factor. The tub is out of use for a day or two while the coating hardens, and full cure takes longer. In a two-bathroom house that is nothing; in a one-bathroom house with a family it is the reason people replace instead.
- The plumbing
- Refinishing does not touch the valve, the spout, the diverter or the drain. If the taps drip or the diverter has failed, that is a plumbing job and it should be done before the coating rather than after — a dripping tap is one of the ways a new surface gets stained in its first year.
- A do-it-yourself kit
- ⚠️ They exist, they cost a fraction of this, and this page will not pretend otherwise. What they do not come with is extraction, a supplied-air respirator or the preparation that decides the outcome. The chemistry that makes these coatings bond is the chemistry that makes them dangerous in a small unventilated room, and a bathroom is the smallest room in the house.
- How long yours will actually last
- The lifespan used in the comparison on this page is a declared model assumption of eight years, with a realistic band of five to ten. It is not a measurement of ours, and it depends on the preparation, the number of coats and how the tub is cleaned afterwards — abrasive cleaners take years off it.
Questions people actually ask
What is the average cost to resurface a bathtub?
$610 on this model in Atlanta — $419 to $801 — for a multi-coat system on a sound porcelain-over-steel tub with a non-slip floor applied. A two-coat system is $464 and taking the same coating up the surrounding tile brings it to $887. ⚠️ Rust breaking through the porcelain has to be ground back and sealed first, which takes it to $803 — and if it has gone all the way through, no coating fixes that at any price.
Is it cheaper to reglaze or replace a tub?
Today, yes, by $2,569 — $610 against $3,180 for a new tub in Atlanta. And per year of tub bought it is still cheaper: $76 a year against $127. ⚠️ But that comparison rests on a lifespan we assume rather than measure — 8 years, with a realistic band of 5 to 10 years — and it hides the thing that actually decides it: a second coating does not go on top of the first. Repeat it enough times to match the life of a new tub and the two paths land within a few hundred dollars of each other, because stripping the old coating costs more than applying the new one.
How long does tub refinishing last?
The industry advertises ten to fifteen years. This model uses 8, with a realistic band of 5 to 10 years in a bathroom used every day, and says plainly that this is a declared assumption rather than a measurement of ours. ⚠️ What moves it is not the brand of coating: it is the preparation, which is the invisible hour a cheap quote takes out, the number of coats, which you cannot inspect afterwards, and how it gets cleaned — abrasive cleaners take years off it. A fibreglass tub that flexes underfoot will fail at the flex point whatever anybody promises.
What are the cons of reglazing a tub?
The whole trade lives on doing this, so here they are from somebody who does not. ⚠️ It is a coating, so it chips, and a chip cannot be repaired invisibly. It cannot be done indefinitely — the second time costs $883 rather than $610 because the old layer has to be stripped. An applied non-slip floor is harder to clean and shorter-lived than the moulded-in texture it replaces. The tub is out of use for a day or two while it cures. And the one that is not about appearance: methylene chloride strippers have killed workers doing exactly this job in exactly this kind of small unventilated room. EPA prohibited the consumer paint and coating removal use in 2019 and its 2024 rule prohibits most commercial uses including paint and coating removers. Ask what will be used in your bathroom.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 2026-08-24, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- Tub to shower conversion cost
Shows which configurations fit the two budgets people ask about, and finds the one decision that is free to make and moves the figure most: the drain.
- Walk-in tub cost
Prices one installed rather than advertised, and calculates the figure nobody publishes: the minutes you sit inside it waiting for it to fill and drain.
- Carpet installation cost
Carpet is sold by the roll, not by the square foot, and a room one foot wider than the roll can cost eighty per cent more in material. This works out what you actually buy.
- The full bathtub refinishing cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.