Painting Over Bathroom TIles

We have ghastly burgundy and pink square tiles in our walk in shower.  Has anyone had experience using the off the shelf paints on them.  We’d sand it for adhesion but can’t afford a full redo just now.  Thanks.

minasimon

in Bath & Kitchen 13 years and 10 months ago

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restorationcontractor | 13 years and 10 months ago

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If you were to remove the grout before painting, sand the tile using wet sandpaper, use a 2 part epoxy paint, then regrout there is no reason why this wont work. Still not going to look like or hold up like ceramic tile will. As Eastbound said tiling over the existing tile will work also.

studioist | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Ooooh, it’s the mayor of PLG!

I’d be really skeptical about doing an off-the-shelf paint on tile that will get wet frequently. It might work okay for tiles that are elsewhere in the bathroom but I think it would be a mess in an actual shower. If you do go this route, I’d definitely pick a marine paint and a bunch of poly to go over it. I would suggest getting an estimate from a tile refinisher before trying to DIY; I think it wouldn’t cost very much and would last much longer if you get quality work.

eastbound | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Ceramic tiles are easy to paint over, and the paint will hold. It’ll improve the look I’m sure (an improvement on “ghastly”) but it will still look like tiles with paint on them.
One other in-between option to consider, if you’d like, is to tile over the existing tile; it’s cheaper than a full-demo job, and you’d be surprised how many people actually do that. Only other factor to consider is that you’ll lose about 1″ off the wall (between tile and adhesive).
As a contractor, I wouldn’t necessarily *recommend* that option, but it does work.

BobMarvin | 13 years and 10 months ago

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When we bought our house the top ledge of our original 1899 bathroom tile was painted over (in Pepto Bismal pink). We had a hell of a time stripping it, so I’d say that paint can hold up well. Fortunately it hadn’t been sanded underneath (and looked fine once it was stripped) so I guess that’s unnecessary.