tile paint any good?

A question about : tile paint any good?

I am re-doing my bathroom
The tiles in there are awful. I have painted the bathroom white as there are no windows so needs to be as bright as possible
i would like to paint over the old tiles with tile paint but asking people at work it does not seems a good idea.
has anyone ever used tile paint or tile transfers??

thanks

Best answers:

• ive never used tile paint but the ones ive seen were not very good.
  tile transfers are ok.
  why not just retile? white tiles esp are very cheap these days.
• I have used tile paint and transfers and to be honest I would probably just retile over the existing ones instead. Even if you are careful the tiles will always look painted.
  I got tile transfers from agros (silver squares). they weren't bad i suppose- certainly in terms of doing them they were easy to apply and they never peeled off. At best they could be described as ok to look at, certainly didn't add any 'wow' factor!
• Tile paint looks bad. My H did it once years ago to try and cover and avacado job and it's just terrible.
  I viewed a house last week and they'd done it. It looked awful and was even peeling off. The tiles underneath were far less offensive than what they had done! :confused:
• Have to disagree - I painted over pale pink/grey tiles about 6 years ago (as a temporary measure really) and they looked great for about 5 of those years. I did 3 sides of an average sized bathroom - floor to ceiling.
  I bought a good brand and I was VERY careful. You have to be SCRUPULOUS about cleaning the tiles before you even start - that's where a lot of people go wrong! It was also a smelly job and you need good ventilation, so pick a nice day to do it & throw open the windows.
  I used white tile paint and then bought some blue transfers which went around the tiles in a single row. I used a very small paint roller (about 1" wide) and friends thought I was very good at re-tiling!! In the last year it started flaking and peeling but all in all a job well done!
• I'd agree with pennylane - ok, they might not look like new white tiles, but if you're on a budget and can't tile (or even if you can but your budget's really tight) they can look ok.
  Prepare the surface (scrub it, clean it, scrub it, clean it etc etc)
  Use tile primer
  Use a small gloss roller
  we went over some horrid 70s mushroom brown tiles with white and it looked a damn sight better!
• Real1314 - it's also the TIME that tiling takes and there is NOTHING that looks worse than poor tiling.
  The temporary measure I spoke about was because my DH kept saying he would re-tile our bathroom! I had already waited several YEARS for him to do it and could wait no longer so I figured if I did something about it and it wasn't up to his v.high quality control standards then he might get a professional to do it.
  It looked TOO darned good and, like I say, until this last year, was great. He's now been saying for months "I will re-tile that now" and I have finally convinced him that he his never gonna find the time and we are having a professional guy coming later this week to give us a price.
• I am concerned that some of the posts on here would put some people off using tile paint. We had gray tiles covering 100% of the walls. If we had retiled, we would have had to have replaced the entire bathroom and we couldn't justify that. White tile paint made it look so much better. Have done this twice, once helping a friend.
  The key is preparation:
• Wipe all the tiles with sugar soap (removes grease etc.) - critical you do this. The first time I didn't and the paint soon blistered - didn't stick long-term, presumably because of grease/oil etc. on the tiles.
• Apply a primer. The first time I used a primer that looks like white paint, and which you paint/roller on like an undercoat. It was poor. The next time I used a clear liquid primer which you put on with a cloth - did it in ten minutes rather than a few hours, and it was far better - provides a good, tacky (as in 'sticky', not as in 'poor quality') surface for the tile paint to bond to, so it'll last longer.
• Use a roller (small gloss one). The people on this site who said you can see the paintbrush marks afterwards - it won't happen if you use a paintbrush.
• 'Keep a wet edge' - google that phrase. If you have to stop painting, stop at a natural break e.g. complete one wall. Otherwise you'll get a visible line.

On a separate matter, the chances are that you will also be painting a wall or the ceiling with emulsion. If so, use a 'kitchen & bathroom' paint. Firstly, they have anti-mould properties. Secondly, they are more water resistant. If you use an ordinary emulsion, even if you add an anti-mould additive, the paint is likely to crack and peel owing to water penetration.
Good luck.

• I have bathroom tiles which were painted with tile paint over 3 years ago which is now peeling and looks awful. We can't afford to retile; does any one what prep do we have to do to repeat the paint job and hopefully do a better job? The room is three quarters tiled so a big surface.
• Mrs Scuddy,
  Get yourself an electric sander and sand as much as you can. Then give them a good wash with sugar soap. Then (if you can be bothered) resand (when dry). Wash again and then give the place a bit of a clean to get rid of as much dust as possible. Use a roller to apply the paint. Don't go for any other colour than white as its pretty impossible to get the grout looking right.
  The more effort you put into the prep, the better they will look.
  Good luck
• I used tile paint about 3 years ago, it was okay as a temporary measure but I found it peels at the bottom of the tiles and wasn't great. I also found it a pain to put on.
  If you can, I would save the pennies, check out how to tile and retile yourself. The OH and me intended to do this soon!!:rolleyes: Should be interesting!
  I also found that I had terrible problems getting the sealant to 'fix'properly to it leading to lots of problems with leaks!! It may just be a problem for me but the money i have spent on trying to sort out the sealant would have probably bought me a couple of boxes of tiles!!
• Tile paint looks excellent - better than re tiling in a lot of cases. Go for it - sheer class.
• Hi.
  I apinted my bathroom tiles and yes you can tell its painted but its a damn site better than the horrid ones that were there before!
  I want to do my kitchen ones now but couldnt find a sage colour i liked in tile paint and have bought normal gloss paint. I havent painted the tiles with it yet and am now wondering if this is going to be a disaster???!!!??
  Is non drip one coat gloss for wood and metal going to do the same job as proper tile paint if i clean the tiles etc properly before hand do you think it will stay on?
  HELP!!!
  Cheers
• I've just moved into a house that has white tiles but has a floral tile border and the odd floral tile, should i use tile paint to just paint over the floral ones or would transfers be better in this situation?
• I have recently stripped the old paint from the tiles in my bathroom using paint remover and a glass scraper.
  Step 2 will be to remove the old grout.
  Step 3 will be to sand down the tiles with some wet and dry sandpaper to allow the primer to adhere better.
  Step 4 will be to clean, clean and then clean again all of the tiles so that they are spotless. (no grease or soap scum)
  Step 5 will be to apply the primer and then the tile paint. (If I think it's necessary, perhaps I will give a slight sanding down of some tiles post-painting if there are any problem areas)
  Step 6 will be to re-grout.
  I will post updates as and when I carry these steps out so that others can avoid any of the pitfalls I fall into (hopefully there are none).
  I will also post pictures of the paint finish and any duff areas so you can make your own decision whether it's worth it.