Update an Old Bathtub in Three Easy Steps

As far as I know, all of the bathrooms in our new house are original to the house, which was built in 1991.  Most of them were done in pretty neutral colors, so while the tub and sink fixtures look a little outdated, the tile is all in pretty good condition and we're planning to live with the bathrooms as they are for a few years before making major updates.

The guest bath has white tile on the shower walls and floor and the tile and grout are both in great shape.  But when I first laid eyes on this bathroom I barely even noticed the tile because my eyes immediately went to the black along the edge between the shower walls and the bathtub.

Ew, right?  It made the whole bathroom look old and dirty and just gross.

It wasn't until I looked at the rest of the bathroom a little more closely that I realized it was just the black that was giving the bathroom that feel.  And I knew I could take 20 years off the bathroom's appearance just by re-caulking.

If you have a similar situation in your house, you can give your whole bathroom a facelift in just three easy steps:

1. Scrape off the old caulk.
2. Spray the seam between the tub and walls with a bleach and water solution.
3. Apply new caulk to the seam.

I'll break it down for you in a little more detail, too, so you can really see the process.

Most hardware stores sell little plastic tools for removing caulk, but I just used a small flathead screwdriver to gouge it out.  It can be stubborn in spots, but you just scrape away and pull the strings off with your hands or needlenose pliers. 

The tub will be filled with nasty old caulk - I just left it all there until I was finished, then swept and vacuumed it all up.

Better already!

Next I mixed up a 50-50 bleach and water solution in a spray bottle and sprayed the seam where the caulk was to kill any mold/mildew/general grossness.  I let it sit for fifteen minutes, then rinsed with water and let it dry overnight to be sure it was completely dry.

The next day I used a caulk gun to apply white caulk - make sure you get the kind for showers!  You squeeze a long bead of caulk along that edge between the shower walls and bathtub and then smooth it flat with your finger.

Make sure there are no gaps or all that yuckiness will start to build up again.  You want the edge to be completely sealed.

I expected the tub to look better but even I was surprised at how MUCH better it looked.

I'd like to update the bath fixtures at some point, but this easy refresh made such a tremendous difference, I don't feel the need to rush into any big changes anytime soon.

New houses bring all kinds of issues - we're dealing with a majorly leaky roof right now - so it sure is nice when an update is as easy as a new bottle of caulk and thirty minutes!