Why Bathtub & Cabinet Refinishing Peels (And How We Guarantee Ours Won't)

You just moved into a beautiful Victorian in the Haight-Ashbury or perhaps a mid-century Eichler in Palo Alto. During the open house, the kitchen cabinets looked bright and the bathtub looked like brand new porcelain. But three months later, you notice a small bubble near the drain. A week after that, a piece of white film the size of a silver dollar peels off in your hand, revealing an ugly, stained 1970s avocado green underneath.

This is the "landlord special" in action. It is the most common complaint on Reddit and Yelp when it comes to home restoration. You might have read horror stories about companies like Miracle Method or seen DIY kits from Home Depot that look great for a month before they start to flake away. If you are currently looking at a peeling tub or a kitchen where the cabinet doors look like they are shedding skin, you are likely feeling frustrated and skeptical. You should be. Most refinishing fails because it is done cheaply and quickly.

In the Bay Area, we deal with unique challenges. We have high humidity in San Francisco and Daly City. We have old housing stock with layers of lead paint and decades of wax buildup. Bathtub and cabinet refinishing can last fifteen years, but only if the person doing the work understands the chemistry of why coatings fail.

The Science of Failure: 3 Reasons Coatings Delaminate

When a coating peels, it is called delamination. This means the new finish never actually bonded to the old surface. It is just sitting on top like a sticker. There are three main reasons this happens in Bay Area homes.

Improper Degreasing (The #1 Culprit)

The biggest enemy of a new finish is not water. It is oil. In an old Oakland bungalow or a 1990s tract home in San Jose, the kitchen cabinets have been exposed to twenty years of cooking grease. Even in the bathroom, hairsprays, body oils, and traditional cleaners leave behind a thin film.

The most dangerous contaminant is silicone. Silicone is found in many common furniture polishes like Pledge and in many bathtub caulk products. If even a microscopic trace of silicone is left on the surface, the new finish will pull away from it as it dries. This creates tiny craters called "fish-eyes." A cheap contractor will just spray over these, but those fish-eyes are weak points where the paint will eventually lift.

True professional refinishing requires a multi-stage industrial degreasing process. We don't just use soap and water. We use heavy-duty solvents to strip the surface down to its original, bare state. If the degreasing is skipped, the project is doomed before the first drop of paint leaves the spray gun.

Skipping the Acid Etch (Porcelain) or Sanding (Wood)

To get a permanent bond, you need "teeth." Imagine trying to tape two pieces of glass together. The tape slides right off. But if you scratch that glass with sandpaper, the tape has something to grip.

Porcelain bathtubs are essentially glass. They are non-porous and incredibly smooth. If you just spray paint onto a porcelain tub, it has nothing to hold onto. This is where most DIY kits and low-bid contractors fail. They skip the mechanical prep.

For a bathtub, we use a professional-grade acid etching solution. This creates millions of microscopic pores in the porcelain finish. You cannot see them with the naked eye, but they turn the surface into a "hook" for the primer. For wood cabinets, we don't just "scuff" the surface. We sand through the old clear coat to ensure the new industrial coating can bite into the wood fibers. Without this mechanical bond, the finish is just a fragile shell waiting to crack.

Using House Paint Instead of Industrial Coatings

There is a massive difference between the paint you buy at a hardware store and the coatings used in a professional shop. Most DIY projects and cheap contractors use "1K" coatings. This is typically a latex or oil-based paint that dries by evaporation.

When the water or solvent evaporates, the paint becomes solid. The problem is that this process is often reversible. If you get a 1K coating wet for a long time, it can soften. It never truly becomes one with the surface.

We use "2K" Polyurethane. This is a two-part chemical process. We mix a resin with a catalyst right before we spray. This triggers a chemical reaction called cross-linking. The molecules in the coating literally weave themselves together into a plastic-like shield. It does not just dry. It cures. This creates a permanent, waterproof bond that is recognized by the KCMA (Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association) for its durability.

Our No-Peel Protocol

Because we know exactly why these jobs fail, we have built a protocol specifically for the Bay Area climate. Our process is designed to handle the specific stressors of our local environment.

First, we handle the grease. We use a proprietary three-step cleaning process that removes every trace of cooking oil and silicone. Second, we create the bond. For tubs, we use the acid etch followed by a silane adhesion promoter. Silane is a chemical bridge that creates a molecular bond between the old porcelain and the new primer. It acts like a double-sided glue on a microscopic level.

One of the biggest factors in the Bay Area is our weather. If you live in the Sunset District or near the Berkeley hills, the fog and humidity are constant factors. Standard house paint struggles to cure when the air is damp. It stays soft for too long, which leads to bubbling.

Our 2K coatings are different. Because they cure through a chemical reaction rather than just air-drying, they are much more resistant to the San Francisco fog. However, we still take precautions. We use high-powered ventilation and heat lamps to ensure the workspace stays above 62 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature control is vital. If a coating is applied when it is too cold or too damp, the chemical cross-linking will not complete, and the finish will be brittle.

Repairing vs. Redoing

If you currently have a peeling tub or cabinet, you might be wondering if you can just "patch" it. The honest answer is no. If the original coating is peeling in one spot, it means the bond has failed everywhere. If we just painted over the peel, the old paint underneath would eventually lift up, taking our new finish with it.

The only way to fix a peeling surface is to strip it completely. We use a specialized stripping agent to remove every flake of the old, failed "landlord special" finish. We take the tub back down to the original cast iron or steel. We take the cabinets back to the raw wood or original factory finish.

Yes, this process takes longer. It is more expensive than a quick respray. A professional bathtub reglazing in the Bay Area typically costs between $600 and $900 depending on the condition. Cabinet refinishing for a standard kitchen can range from $3,500 to $8,000. But when you consider that a "cheap" $300 job will peel in six months, the professional route is actually the only way to save money in the long run.

Related Reading

• The Science of Acid Etching: Why Reglazed Tubs Peel
• Latex vs. 2K Polyurethane: Why We Don't Use House Paint
• The 2-Week Tub Test: Checking Refinishing Quality
• The EPA Methylene Chloride Ban Explained
• Chip Repair vs. Full Refinish: When a Touch-Up Is Enough

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Published by RefinishQuote - connecting Bay Area homeowners with trusted refinishing professionals.