When most people move into a new apartment they feel a mixture of excitement and exhaustion, but looking at my new bathroom just made me feel disgusted. After a month of searching for the perfect home in a new city (New York City to be exact), I settled on a cozy rental in Brooklyn, with my landlord’s promise of a clean apartment from top to bottom. After carrying the furniture and all the boxes up the seemingly endless stairs, my first instinct was to wash up in the shower.
So you can imagine my surprise at the dirty looking bathtub with water stains and mold covering the bottom. The light blue tub glaze had worn away across the surface of the tub, revealing an odd mix of gray patches of what I assumed was grout. Even the drain and plug had started to rust, though they could be more easily replaced. Against my better judgment, I showered that night, only to feel less clean than before I went inside.
Although the landlord had promised to restore the tub to working order when I signed the lease, the crew had yet to replace the old tub. The next day I called them to come replace the tub, but now it was a problem; they could come and re-glaze our bathroom surfaces, but we wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom for another 48 hours!
Later that day the team arrived and took over the entire bathroom, spending the rest of the afternoon cleaning and spraying polish over the tub. All surfaces needed to be hit or else the glazing would ruin the rest of our bathroom. I could barely stay inside my apartment with all the noxious fumes, even with all the windows open. Two days later I stepped into the shower for the first time, more concerned with ruining the new finish on the tub than enjoying the bath.
My friend recently told me about the same problems during his apartment search, so after hearing about our terrible experience, he wanted to find a better solution. Instead of asking the landlord to reglaze the tub, he sent them a link about acrylic tub liner, which can be custom-fitted to any tub. Because it took less time to install, the homeowner had no problem replacing the old fixtures with a new acrylic bathroom liner.
Replacing the bathtub with an acrylic bath would have been a much more affordable option and a better investment in the apartment for the owner. Especially now that the bathtub surface is starting to wear out again, I would like to ask the owner to just replace the bathtub with an acrylic shower surface this time. It might be a lot easier for the next tenant to move in, and next time I’ll know a lot better what to ask for in my apartment search.
