Bathtub Refinishing & Reglazing in San Mateo County

The north end of the Peninsula — Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Colma, Millbrae and Pacifica — was built out in the 1940s and 50s, much of it as large tracts of nearly identical homes. Their bathrooms are equally consistent: porcelain-on-steel tubs, 4×4 ceramic tile surrounds in the pastels of the period, and porcelain sinks that have been scrubbed for seventy years. Because these bathrooms are compact and the tile is usually sound, refinishing the tub and surround together — often with a change to white — is the fastest way to a modern bathroom without demolition.

The mid-Peninsula cities of Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City and Menlo Park mix 1920s–40s bungalows and Spanish Revivals with 1950s–60s ranch homes, including mid-century modern tracts whose original colored fixtures and laminate counters are part of their appeal. Cast-iron tubs, pedestal sinks and built-in tile in the older homes cannot be replaced like-for-like; refinishing keeps them and gives them a fresh, glossy surface.

Foster City was built on lagoons in the 1960s and 70s, and its homes and condos are heavy on cultured-marble vanities and tub surrounds that yellow and craze with age. Hillsborough, Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley add larger custom homes where original tile work and oversized soaking or jetted tubs are worth preserving. East Palo Alto and Half Moon Bay round out the county with postwar homes and coastal cottages where salt air makes rust at any enamel chip a recurring problem — one more reason to seal the surface early.

Peninsula remodeling is slow and expensive, and a bathroom remodel can take a family's only bathroom out of service for weeks. Refinishing takes one day, needs no permit, changes no plumbing and costs up to 75% less than replacing the fixture — which is why homeowners, landlords and sellers from Daly City to Menlo Park choose it. A tub and its tile surround are refinished together so the bathroom matches, and a pastel or almond fixture can be changed to white in the same visit.