We just recently moved, and our bathtub is extremely slippery. I mean to the point where it feels like you’re floating when you’re just standing there.
We bought a mat with those sucker things at the bottom but the result is that that just keeps sliding around like a surfboard. I think our landlord might have had it “sanded” or something right before we moved in.
Any thoughts on how to make it more like a bathtub and less like a deathtrap?
There are rough-textured self adhesive stickers available to apply to the tub bottom. Ask at a local home improvement store, like Home Depot.
I’ve seen them in every large grocery, Walmart, and Ace.
Also bath departments in department stores.
Some are rough, but many are simply rubbery, which is traction enough.
Or, use a square rubber mat with suction cups below. Too soft for my liking but the Mrs. says it is less tiring than a hard tub.
Our problem is not that the tub is particularly slicker than the last one, but that it has no flat areas, it is slightly rounded over the entire surface, so you are always sliding toward the drain.
If they can make non-slip floor tiles, they should have something available for tubs.
Have you called a local refinisher to see if they can recommend something? Teh only name I can think of is “Bathtub King” but that’s in Canada. There must be someone locally that can help you out.
The rough ones are like sandpaper. When you move your foot the wrong way on one of those you may want to die.
The textured rubber adhesive mats are easier on the feet, but may not be as slip free as the sandy feeling ones.
The key to solving this issue isn’t really finding the right textured thingy to glue onto the tub surface. The key is figuring out how to prepare the tub surface properly, so that whatever you try to adhere to the tub STICKS forever.
Is this a new tub? Okay, sorry. Is this a home you now own? Is this a rental? That may impact on what you need to do. Now, if it’s a new tub, it may be Americast or some other synthetic surface and substrate. It it’s an older tub ( or, less expensive new tub ) then you probably lucked out and it’s just a very smooth porcelain layering on top. This F.A.Q. site is helpful in telling you what to use to completely clean the surface of your tub, depending on what it is.
Without a surface devoid of all particles of soil and soap scum, your treads will not ahdere properly. I agree with what Mudshark said. Do not buy these things out of a catalogue !!! You need to go to a store, and feel them with your hands and feet, to see what level of abrasiveness is tolerable. Besides, if you get enough “dots” or “lines” of the material stuck onto your tub, it won’t have to be overly coarse to give you a feeling of being safer in your bathtub.
Good luck. May the Schwartz be with you…always.
Cartooniverse
Thanks for the ideas, guys. As I said, we do have a rubber mat right now with suction cups on the bottom, but all that happens is that the mat slides around instead of our feet.
We do rent, so I don’t really want to make anything permanent, and we’re definitely going to bring it up with our landlord. But I just wanted to try to take care of it ourselves.
I have a feeling that he cleaned it with something right before we moved in that made it so slippery. Those sticky dots and strips are a good idea, but you’d have to cover the whole tub, and then they might damage it, etc…
I guess what I’m looking for is some kind of maybe, household product, or something that we could apply to the surface that would act as a rougher-upper and cut through the slippery surface.
Those little suction pads generally love smooth surfaces against which they can make an “good seal”. Which leaves us with a conumdrum – I wonder if there is not some cleaning (or other) residue that “slicks” the surface, in which case I would try some mild abrasive pad (be careful – even those nylon things will scratch great gouges in a plastic bath) and regular tub cleaner.
I trust that you are in mortal danger, else I’ve just contributed to the most mundane thread. Ever.
He may have used Brillianize, or some other surface cleaner that may leave a microfilm. Find out what that tub is made of, open some windows and turn on some fans, and really scrub that tub with the proper cleaning agent down to it’s real surface.
Don’t scuff it up or abrade it. You’ll owe the landlord damages. Just find a way to clean it down, and try those suction cuppy thingies !!!