Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did extensive research on the various products available for refinishing sinks & tubs. 1. Products applied by professionals in your home. The results are perfect and you'll get some kind of warranty but you'll pay hundreds of dollars. 2. Professional products for the experienced do-it-yourselfers. These are spray-on products costing a couple hundred bucks but you need your own air compressor and a HPLV (high pressure low volume) spray gun. The kits are in the $100-$200 range but they contain top shelf two-part epoxy in any color and all the extra cleaner, primers, etc. Experience with spraying is essential. 3. Low cost all-in-one products for the home-owner. These are self-leveling products that typically cost less than $50. Clean & prep... then spray or brush and you're done. The Homax Tough-as-Tile One-part Spray-on Epoxy falls into this category. For me I had some criteria I needed to meet: 1. Inexpensive 2. Reversible Most of these products from professional on down require "destructive" preparation. This means that you either acid-etch or sand with 80 grit the entire sink. Sanding and acid etching does permanent destruction to the sink. If the product does not look good, you might as well trash the sink or tub... it's more ruined than when you started. More than half of my sink was still in good condition and I did not want to destroy what was left. I was also apprehensive about using these products as you hear about the complaints and horror stories. I wanted something I could remove at a later date. Perhaps this fails some day or a better product hits the market... this way I could get back to where I started. This Homax product only requires cleaning with a strong TSP solution and #000 steel wool. Neither of these things will do any damage to your existing shiny porcelain. Also, if you need to remove the epoxy at a later time, ordinary methylene chloride based paint strippers will easily do the trick. So based on the criteria of not wanting total destruction of my antique fixture, this Homax product is my leading inexpensive option. Despite the poor reviews this product has received, I ultimately achieved excellent results after a lot of work. Common complaints where I don't think Homax deserves a poor rating: 1. It's messy. - yes, it's spray paint. 2. It smells. - yes, it's epoxy... it contains solvent and there's nothing that can be done about that. 3. Surface is rough or pitted. - caused by incorrect application or prep. 4. Paint failed. - caused by incorrect preparation. 5. Paint stayed soft. - paint applied too thick so it requires more time to cure. 6. Takes three days to dry. - you want it hard & waterproof but the directions are clear about waiting three days. No two situations are the same so I can only relate mine. I have an antique white porcelain finish cast iron sink that's over 100 years old. Mine had porcelain worn down to metal in the bottom of the bowl and a large 3" x 4" area of porcelain chipped out down to metal. The back-splash was in perfect condition as was the apron. Most of the wear and damage was confined to the bowl area from years of use. Attempt #1 Homax has an 800 number for support. The people answering the phone seem knowledgeable but I recommend calling more than once and taking notes of who you spoke with. I seem to have obtained contradictory information from two different representatives. Another phone call and the right questions cleared that up. Also COMMON SENSE is essential when a situation is unique. My sink had two large areas of exposed metal. The Homax product will NOT adhere to metal and the customer service reps have no solution or suggestion. But asking the right question eventually leads to a solution. What surfaces will the Homax product adhere? Answer: Porcelain, Fiberglass, Ceramic. There is NO suitable primer for bare metal. Fine, then I'll cover the bare metal with Fiberglass body filler. One Homax rep did not like that idea but another thought it was great. Common sense tells me I have no choice. Since I'd only be out the cost of material and my sink would not be destroyed, I have nothing to lose by trying. Online research reveals that using Fiberglass body filler is common for these types of repairs. I cleaned the bare metal with Muriatic Acid (Hydrochloric Acid) easily obtained at any hardware store. I followed all safety precautions and was careful not to splash on myself or the good areas of the porcelain. The acid will dissolve the rust and slightly etch the porcelain around the damaged area. Rinsed with clean water and dried it using a heat gun in rapid motion. I used Bondo brand Fiberglass Body Filler. It's a two-part product that cures in 15 minutes depending on how you mix it. Mix it in tiny batches as you only have 5 minutes to work it. I applied about 6 thin coats sanding with 80 & 120 grit between each. When done, there is a very smooth patch that perfectly matches the surrounding area. If not for the dark color, it's impossible to feel the edge of the repair. Paint will not hide the defects so I took my time sanding and applying coats until perfect. The area where the porcelain is simply worn thin down to metal, I applied a skim coat of the Bondo and sanded it until it was just thick enough to cover the metal.. almost translucent. I love the Fiberglass Bondo... it's very sticky and you can sand the edges down to nothing, achieving an imperceivable edge. At this point making sure the sink is smooth and all defects repaired, I started washing. The Homax recommends Jasco brand no-rinse TSP so that's what I bought. It was $8 at Ace for a quart. Homax says to dump the entire quart into a gallon of warm water... sorry, not at $8 a shot. It's a 1 to 4 mixing ratio so I mixed 1 cup of Jasco to 4 cups of warm water making over a quart of solution. This was more than enough for this project. They say to use Nitrile gloves to keep your fingers from re-contaminating the surface. I could not find Nitrile so I used Vinyl gloves instead. I think the issue is that Latex gloves will not withstand the solvents in the Epoxy so NO latex. Homax says to wash with TSP, rinse with water, dry and scrub with #000 steel wool and repeat the process two more times. I washed the sink about a dozen times with the TSP. I scrubbed with steel wool both wet & dry. It's clean! The idea is that you're removing many years worth of soap scum too small to feel or see. Without proper cleaning the Epoxy will peel. Homax says you need to spray the product at 72 degrees or warmer and let the product cure for 3 days at 72 degrees or warmer. Calling Homax led to more discussion about "what would happen" never getting to a straight answer. Bottom line is that you need to be between 72 and 90 degrees for 3 days. It's November in Chicago... I can't spray in the garage or basement... too cold. And I don't typically keep my house at 72 degrees. I used a small room in renovation. I put down drop-clothes and set the sink on a scaffold. I closed the door and used a space heater to achieve a 75 degree temperature in the room. I started spraying. Follow the tips on the directions. Spray one light coat and then a second heavier coat within 30 minutes of the first. Careful not to spray so heavy to cause runs. The directions say you want a "2 mil thick surface". Of all the useless information I've ever read... how on Earth is anyone going to measure the thickness of their application? They recommend you keep the nozzle 8 to 10 inches from the surface at all times. This is difficult... more than 8-10 inches and you'll get the orange-peel effect. Less than 8-10 inches and it's too heavy risking runs. Overall, it looks good. Within the first couple hours, it's truly self-leveling. Areas where it dripped melded into the surface and you could no longer see it. Problems: 1. Small pinholes. At first I blamed the product but later I'll find out that these are corresponding pinholes in the surface of the porcelain and Bondo. Without knowing the cause, the Homax recommended correction is to wait 3 days, sand with 220 grit and spray again. 2. Rough surfaces. Some horizontal surfaces had a rough feel. This was caused by over-spray in the air settling in the wet surface. The Homax recommended solution is to open the door and use a fan to keep the dust down. Not easy if you want to keep wet epoxy dust from settling on your furniture. I tried to recover from these issues by the following... I waited 3 days for the cure to complete. Then I decided that instead of just sanding & re-spraying, I'd fill in the pinholes and defects. I used the Bondo Spot Putty. It's lacquer based and takes about 25 minutes to dry. Unfortunately the lacquer in the putty softened the Epoxy. When I tried sanding the putty smooth, the Epoxy was so soft that it started pulling up. There was no recovery from this mistake. Nothing left to do but get out the paint stripper and start over. Attempt #2 After stripping the Epoxy, I was back to where I started. The stripper also softened the Fiberglass Bondo so that needed to be wire brushed down to the hardened material. I applied more Fiberglass Bondo and sanded smooth. This time I used the Bondo spot putty to fill in as many pinholes as I could find. Like I said before, the Epoxy will not hide the defects. Now is your best chance to get it right. I cleaned the sink with the Jasco TSP as before. I dried it thoroughly with the heat gun and started spraying again. This time I used a fan and left the door open to minimize the rough surface caused by over-spray. At one point, I accidently hit the wet surface with the bottom of the spray can. Don't panic. I used the side of a toothpick to smooth it out and spray over it again. It's self-leveling so this mistake quickly disappeared. Looks good. I left it alone for three days to dry. Despite the fan, I still had lots of rough spots from the over-spray. This is unavoidable when you use any lacquer based spray paint. It's the same reason you can't spray paint a car without buffing it afterwards. It took a lot more discussion to get the Homax rep to agree that buffing is an option. She said "you can try". So I wet-sanded it starting with 400 grit. Then 800 grit. Then 1500 grit. Then used a Rubbing Compound. Then Polishing Compound. And finally rubbing with a product called Gel-Gloss. Unless you have heavy drips, runs or orange peel, skip the 400 grit. In fact, most of the over-spray can be removed with the 1500 grit. I started with 400 & 800 grit to lessen the orange peel effect. This worked most excellent... the entire surface is baby smooth. I stopped at a semi-gloss because my sink is antique but a little more rubbing would have resulted in high gloss. Completion I still had two annoying pinholes. I sprayed some product into a cup and applied the Epoxy with a toothpick point into the pinhole. The new paint softens the old and melds in. Waited three days and lightly sanded & buffed as above. Reinstallation of the fixtures. I called Homax to find out what's recommended. Unfortunately I think they greatly lack in knowledge here. Plumbers Putty is solvent based and all solvents except for isopropyl alcohol will soften this Epoxy surface. Homax says Plumbers Putty is ok as long as you don't let it dry. What? Plumbers Putty stays soft for years so I asked if she meant it will stain. "No" she said. "It won't stain but it's hard to remove if it dries." Again I told her it never dries so it must ruin the surface and stain... again she said "no, it will not stain but it's hard to remove after it dries"... we went in this circle three times without resolution! Since Plumbers Putty is solvent based and yellow in color, I decided not to take a chance and used white silicone instead. Bottom Line. Everything that went wrong was my fault. However, I don't see how you could achieve a smooth surface with a spray-on product without wet-sanding & buffing, so in that regard, I'll take credit for everything that went correctly. I just cannot knock Homax for this product. It's simply white, durable, water-resistant Epoxy paint packaged in a spray can... it's up to the end user to make it work for their application.