Painting bathroom tiles

PH01

I wan to paint the bathroom and the tiles around the bath as well. Does anyone have any tips? What paint should I use?

Victor

Tiles (like stainless steel) are designed to stop things sticking to them, by using a glazed finish. It will look manky - bit of paint will flake off and you will have a dual colour wall. Also paint is much less washable than tile. There may be bomding agents out there, but I haven't heard of one for tile.

If you sand blast / acid etch the tiles it will remove the glaze and you could then paint. However your wall will not be waterproof and you will get mould, etc. that will be impossible to remove.

You can remove the tiles (hammer one and pop the rest off with a long wide screwdriver) and either add new tiles (€50/m2) / plastic sheeting (€50/m2) / stone (€300/m2).

Or, use an heavy duty cleaner to remove built up grime with a scrubbing brush, scrape out the joints and grout them up again. This will not get rid of dodgy 1970s colours.

PH01

Cheers Victor. That's pretty good info - how do you know so much?

I just though it would be possible to paint tiles. Seen it on TV in one of those programmes where the seller paints the bathroom to make the house more presentable.

And does it really cost €50 per m2 for new tiles?

Borzoi

The alternative is to use an etch primer on the tiles, available in most good paint stores, to prepare the surface of the tiles for painting.

Then use a standard undercoat and finishing coat as required.


I think Victor may be using the Spons guide prices there - which include for having the tiles put up professionally.

Victor

Originally posted by PH01
Cheers Victor. That's pretty good info - how do you know so much?

I'm a know-it-all spammer (I'm a quantity surveyor).

Originally posted by PH01
And does it really cost €50 per m2 for new tiles?

By the time you buy tiles, borders, adhesive, grout ... and spend 3 weekends doing the bathroom, it adds up. While doing it DIY is on the face of it cheaper than getting a tiler in, you will spend a lot more time at it than they will, so it's down to how much time / money you have on your hands. I am counting in the time=money factor in the €50.

Originally posted by Borzoi
I think Victor may be using the Spons guide prices there -

Perish the thought

Victor

I saw a product on TV from Albany DIY called ESP than can be used.