When one of the bathtubs in Robert Alfiero`s 1940s home near Reading, Pa., became unsightly from stains and wear, Alfiero faced a dilemma that confronts many owners of older homes.
Hiring a plumber to tear out the old tub and install a new one would have meant damaging the walls and floor around the tub and would have resulted in costs Alfiero believed would be too high.
Alfiero decided on a course unavailable to homeowners until recently but widely used by owners of hotels and motels: He had the tub relined with a quarter-inch-thick slip-in shell of gleaming acrylic.
”If it holds up as good as it looks, it will be fine,” Alfiero said.
”It`s nice and solid. It amazed me. We also had them cover the old ceramic tile on the wall with the same stuff. It looks like a new one-piece bath and only cost us about $1,000. I`m sure the plumbers aren`t going to like it.”
Alfiero`s tub and wall were relined by Bathtub Liners of Pennsylvania, a Downingtown firm that has one of the Philadelphia area`s first geared-to-homeowners franchises issued by American Bathtub Liners Inc., of Mesa, Ariz.
”This is an in-between route between ripping out the tub and spraying”
a new finish on the tub, said Don Tantala, owner of the Downingtown company.
Tantala said he bought the tub-liner franchise last year after assisting in several commercial tub-lining jobs in the area, including installation of about 200 liners at the Airport Holiday Inn near Philadelphia International Airport.
”Everyone kept asking, `Why not homes? Why not homes?` ” he said.
Tantala said the typical price for installing a liner in a regular five-foot tub is $550. Lining the walls of a typical tub recess with similar acrylic material costs $580.
The tub liners are designed so that the only plumbing work needed is installation of a new overflow cap and drain plug.
The liners, each custom-molded for a precise fit into an existing steel or cast-iron tub, are made of a tough acrylic plastic similar to the material used for boat hulls, football helmets and airplane windshields. The liners, available in white or almond, have a high-gloss finish with slip-resistant bottom. Each liner carries a two-year warranty, but the manufacturer contends that the plastic with proper care will last almost indefinitely.
”The liner will never wear out,” said David G. Sanders, national sales manager for American Bathtub Liners. ”We have them in hotels where they`ve been in for 10 years. In a residence they will last 10 to 15 years. We`ve taken sledgehammers to them, and it doesn`t hurt them.”
Why is the warranty limited to two years?
”The same reason there is a one-year warranty on a cast-iron tub that lasts for 25 years,” Sanders said. ”We don`t try to sell on warranty, but if there are problems after the two-year period, we`re going to take care of them. The liners are indestructible if cared for properly.”
Sanders said the liner system is more cost-effective than installing a new tub, even though a new standard bathtub can be bought for $85 to $200.
”The actual replacement is very expensive,” he said. ”Replacement entails tile work on floors and walls, plumbing, sheetrock, paint. Ripping out and replacing a tub can cost $800 to $1,500 or more. Also, that takes a good week, whereas our gentleman comes in for a few hours and the tub can be used that night.”
The relatively fast installation of a tub liner is a big advantage for commercial customers as well as homeowners, Sanders said, since it reduces down time and lost revenue for the rooms involved.
”Basically, we do 10,000 to 12,000 hotel-motel units a year,” he said.
”I can`t think of a hotel chain we don`t do work for. The liners are the largest renovation product in the hotel-motel industry. We`re especially prolific on the East Coast, and probably 50 percent of our business is from Upper New York to Florida and inland to Pennsylvania`s western border.”
James E. Greenwood, owner of the Sea Shell Motel, in Beach Haven, N.J., said he had American Tub Liners do all 52 tubs at the motel last spring and is ”very pleased” with the results.
”We looked at different options, and it was the most economical approach for us,” Greenwood said. ”I`ve had minimal problems (with the liners). One liner came loose a little, but they came and fixed it right away.”
Sanders said American Bathtub Liners has been in business since 1978, concentrating on commercial clients for several years. Entry into the residential market was made in the Los Angeles area about six years ago, and about 20 residential franchises are operating in various parts of the nation. ”Hotels and motels are our bread and butter, but obviously there is a big market for home bathtubs,” Sanders said.
Francise owners order tub liners from American Bathtub after making careful measurements and taking photographs of the tubs to be lined. At the factory the measurements and photographs are compared with more than 300 bathtubs of all ages, sizes and brands. A tub that matches the client`s fixture is used to mold the liner.
”Basically, we have any tub in the country,” Sanders said.
To mold the liner, a sheet of acrylic plastic is placed over the top of the tub and heated to 350 degrees. Air is pumped out of the tub to create a vacuum, and the acrylic takes the exact shape of the mold. After cooling, the acrylic is removed from the mold and shipped to the dealer-installer.
At installation, the liner and old tub are cleaned with solvents to retard mildew growth. The liner is glued into the tub with a waterproof adhesive, trimmed and caulked around the edges. A new overflow cap and drain plug are installed, the caulk allowed to cure for five hours and the tub is ready for use.
Tantala hopes to do a brisk business by installing liners in apartment-house tubs as well as in individual residences. One recent installation, at the Waterview Apartments in West Chester, Pa., brought the comment from manager Karen Curley that ”it looked absolutely wonderful.”
Considerably less enthusiastic about tub liners is Tom Bielski, district manager of Ark Porcelain Refinishing Service, of Milmont Park, in suburban Philadelphia, which refinishes tubs with a spray-on system and advertises ”41 years` experience.”
A tub liner ”is a good idea, but it doesn`t work very well,” Bielski said. ”If the liner doesn`t fit precisely, it has a tendency to crack. Also, if it`s not perfectly sealed and water gets behind it, molds and mildew will form and create quite a stink.”
Bielski said he has examined tub liners in a number of ”hotels and motels across the country.”
Sanders said cracking is not a problem with his company`s liners.
”Liners made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic do crack, but we don`t use it,” he said. ”Our liners do not crack. We did have a period when there were some leaks, but we improved the sealing, and now less than 1 percent of liners get leaks.”
Bielski conceded that some paint-type refinishing systems also don`t work well.
”About 40 percent of our work is redoing peeling tubs that other companies have done,” he said. ”There`s a lot of amateurs in this business. A lot of guys come and go.”
Bielski said that Ark Porcelain guarantees its tub-refinishing process for five years against peeling, chipping and other defects from normal use.
”We use a porcelain-enamel finish that fuses with the bathtub,” he said. Applying two coats of the finish to a tub typically costs about $300, he said.
”The disadvantage with us is the down time for the tub of about a week,” Bielski said. ”It takes two or three hours to do the work, but the curing takes about a week.”
