I have an original bathtub in a rental mobile home that has a hairline crack in the bottom under where the bath mat lies.
The tub is not fiberglass but seems to be plastic or acrylic and is not supported well underneath which has probably caused it to fail.
Can this be patched with resin and glass cloth like on a boat?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
George Bush
FOUR MORE YEARS
Replies
probably yes , if it's acrylic, but if it is a PVC or vinyl,the odds of success are less
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Mobile homes are evil.. An endless row of repair dominoes... ah well, at least you're never far off the ground or running into knob &tube.
Patchability of that tub is a definite maybe.
If that tub is supported like the one I mentioned in a previous thread (by 1x2's), you will want to bolster the supports. In my case the tub was metal, so hadn't cracked (although it WAS a very attractive avacado). You might also keep an eye open for trailers getting hauled off or torn down. Often they have the same crappy fixtures/tubs, and you can rip a tub out for $5 or $10 (or a well placed case of beer).
Sorry I can't give you a better answer on the patch.
A friend of mine had a similar problem of a cracked bathtub and I loaned him a few bottles of CA glue (super glue) in various viscosities as well as the accelerator. He claimed it worked great and even borrowed my rockler catalog to buy some so he would always have it on hand.
If I were in a similar bind I would probably use the thinnest viscosity if it were a hairline crack, if the crack were to big for the thin glue I would try the flexible glue.
CA glue is amazing stuff if your expectations of it are realistic.
Good luck
karl
I have had the misfortune of having to make this repair.
I used a piece of scrap aluminum, soft and about 1/16" thick, cut oversized with well rounded corners, about a 1" radius, to prevent stress concentrations. Once bent to the approximate shape I glued into place under the tub with a thick bed of epoxy after cleaning the spot with lacquer thinner to remove any mold release compound and roughening the area with sand paper.
I taped it in place with duct tape until it hardened. A bit of the epoxy, I used JBWeld, squished up through the crack. I removed this with a rag and some more lacquer thinner. 24 hours later it seemed quite strong. As far as I know it is still in place and not leaking after ten years.
A smaller crack, way up at the back edge, where I couldn't get to the back I flowed over with "Goop" to seal it. This was a relative low stress area and it too held up well I think.
The things I do for poor folks.
i put an 18" crack on my old bath. and a s atemporary repair cos at some point i was going to move the bathroom i patched it with some EPDM roofing and contact adhesive.
stuck really well and was still going strong 18 months later when i took the bath out.
not pretty though
Yep, my inlaws bought a used travel trailer while they were building their lake home. It had the same problem. I looked at it but decided it wasn't a 2-hour project.
The thing was acrylic or possibly some other plastic -- not fiberglass. An attempt at a glass/epoxy patch had been made some time in the past but it was half-assed. Things were further compounded by the blocks of foam that had been inserted by the manufacturer to supposedly support the bottom of the tub -- they mostly just got in the way of any repair work and would have to be cut out for repairs from below.
I think what I'd probably have done, given the time, is install a solvent-based patch from above (easier, smoother surface, etc), ugly though that may be, then inject foam below to properly support the corners (where the foam blocks had failed to provide support). One should be sure to drill out the corners of the cracks before patching.
For some of the more difficult plastics a plastic bumper repair kit might be the ticket.