This week we got called to a record five inspections by people who had all purchased a home or apartment within the last two years, and all have failing refinishes on their bathtub or shower tile. This shows a sickening trend that taints the reputation of all Honolulu bathtub refinishing companies, irresponsible or not.
The problem is that the less reputable companies know the house is or will be on the market, and they figure the person paying for the work (the seller) won’t really care or even know if the job is good or bad. All that matters to the seller generally is that it looks new. So the dishonest refinisher figures that they can do a sub par lazy job and get away with it. And they do get away with it. The buyer doesn’t notice anything is wrong for about a year, and then by that time, its too late.
So how exactly does the dishonest lazy refinisher screw the unsuspecting buyer? They don’t prep the surface correctly. And the sad thing is that maybe, at most, they save 2 hours of time. In order to get a good bond, the surface needs to be thoroughly cleaned, and either scuffed up, or chemically primed with a compound containing a chemical called silane so the coating will stick.
We inspected a Kailua house yesterday that had refinished tile work so bad that it came off using your fingernail with no effort. Home buyers should ask the seller if the property has ANY refinished surfaces. If it does, the buyer should test the integrity of the bond using a dull nail in an inconspicuous area. In the case of the bathtub, a good place is against the wall that is usually near the toilet. If moderate pressure causes the coating to completely come off, it was probably the job of a lazy refinisher and you should have the seller call the technician back to redo the tub.
Lazy refinishers do give us a lot of work, but it isn’t the work we want. Removing failed coatings isn’t fun, and we can’t charge much extra for this service. It likely takes us twice the time to remove a failed coating than the time saved by the refinisher who originally applied it.
