Bathtub has a hole in it?

[hey_jay]

I have a ceramic bathtub. It has tile around it so it's not like just a single tub.

I recently found a hole right where the tub drains. It is a upstairs bathroom and it was leaking to the downstairs. I think the rust corroded it and then made a hole.

Are there any kind of patches that will fix a ceramic tub?

Or should I just get a new tub? This will suck because then I will have to pay the big bucks to get the tub out and tiled up.

[jadnashua]

I'm guessing you have a cast iron tub. If it is rusted out around the drain, the only good fix is to replace it. You might get some more service life out of it with some epoxy, but it wouldn't look great. See what the pros have to say... If it is just surface rust, you might be able to clean it off, then apply some paint after rust conversion, then reset the drain. You'd likely require acceess from either one end, side or beneath to get to it.

[hey_jay]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check into some epoxy for now to see if that works. The bathtub is like 30 years old, so I'll probably just replace it.

[hj]

ONLY an enameled steel tub would suddenly, or even slowly, get a hole in it. And when it does it is usually just the tip of the iceberg and the tub really needs replacement.