Question About Ceramic Tile?

Question

Does anyone know how to refinish or paint ceramic tile? Or a website showing me how? Please help! =)

Answer 1

Toffy's suggestion of the Tile Doctor is a good one. It's a great site for info about tile. Here's another reference that essentially lays out the process.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/651_Painting_Ceramic_Tile.shtml

Basically, you'll need to get the tile very clean, paint in several coats and then seal it with a good urethane. You need to be cautious about floors that will consistently get wet which would cause you problems with the paint and urethane. Also, if you paint and seal your floor I would treat it more like a wood floor as far as cleaning is concerned since you're now just going to be cleaning a urethane surface.

Lastly, can I offer some free advice? Once you start painting that floor there is no turning back. It would be almost impossible to remove the paint if you don't like the way it looks and you would probably just have to rip the flooor out or put another flooring over the top of it as Toffy mentioned. If I was thinking about doing this, I would get some similar tiles to what you have and just lay them on a piece of plywood in the garage and do a quick grout job. It doesn't have to be perfect. I would do some testing with paint and urethane to see how it looks and how well it will hold up to wear.

Answer 2

Hi, my brother installs ceramic tile for a living and has been doing it for about ten yrs or so, maybe less, maybe more, not sure, if you would like, I could find out for you, or have him contact you by phone or email.

Answer 3

My Husband says to check out www.tiledoctor.com for info on that one. We did that years ago....and it works for a while. It is not a permanent solution however.
I remember we had to clean it really good with TSP rinse, then sand it clean again with TSP rinse let dry, and then using I think an enamel paint to paint it. That takes awhile to dry too like a few days, and re-coat it. And let that dry for about 4 more days...It did work for a few months or longer as I remember....but we ultimately tore it out and re did the tile.