We have renovated most of our house, the only major thing left is the bathroom. The bathroom is completely tiled, floor, ceiling, walls – no surface is left un-tiled except the window and door. This wouldn’t be so bad, except it was done in circa 1968 brown tile with white swirl. I like to call it cafe latte tile. And by the way, the tub is brown, the sink is brown, the toilet is even brown. The tile work isn’t poor quality, but the color is hideous. They have this epoxy paint at HD that is supposed to stick to tile. According to the claims, you are supposed to be able to paint right over existing tile. I am suspicious that it
a) won’t stick
b) will look bad when it’s done
Anyone have any suggestions, or recommendations?
The other alternative would be to rip out the tiles (and probably the sheetrock or plaster behind them that would inevitably come off with the tiles) and start from scratch. How much hassle would it be to tear all this out? I don’t think I would consider re-tiling due to cost, labor time, etc.
Thanks!
Replies
I can't answer about the paint, but demoing the room probably isnt to bad other then the mess its going to create.
Are you planning on replacing the vanity, toilet, tub etc or are you just trying to get rid of the brown tile?
To give you an idea, I get an average size bathroom down to the studs and cleaned up in about a day. Providing there is a roll off or other dumpster close by.
Edited 3/27/2003 12:39:26 AM ET by CAG
We would replace the brown tub, sink, and crapper. What's the best tool for getting tile off? some sort of wrecking bar?
alec
Alecs,
Take this with a grain of salt cuz I am a DIY'er. When I replace the tiled shower in my master bath, my contractor buddy told me that to get the tile and mortar shower base out, take your sledge hammer and beat it into small pieces and then scoop it into a 5 gal bucket and tote it out. When you're done with that, locate the studs in the tiled wall and take that same hammer and punch a couple of holes in the wall between the studs. Reach and and grab the exposed edges and start pulling. Comes off in nice big chunks. Take it out to the truck/trash and throw it away!
Took me all of 3 hours to get down to the subfloor and studs and have the place cleaned up and ready to start installing the new shower. Don't forget your eye protection and heavy gloves. That tile is sharp! Good luck!Frank
Didnt read franks post before I posted, what he said is basically below
Any flat bar will pry it loose in pieces off the wall. Going to make an assumption you have drywall in back of the tile?
If you do and its already coming off in pieces anyway, get a little 3 lb. sledge, a big scoop shovel and a trash can. The sledge would work on cement board also, but likely wouldnt punch through as easily as it will on drywall.
Punch holes about 4 ft up the wall clear across the wall with the sledge, 1 row of tile. Then yank on the lower part and see if you can pull it out in bigger pieces instead of a zillion little pieces. Sometimes it works, others you end up with a fist full of tile and drywall.
View ImageGo Jayhawks
Edited 3/27/2003 2:14:55 PM ET by CAG
You can resurface tile, but i wouldn't do it with the Home Depot stuff. I do alot of apt complex work and they always do things the cheap fast way. (My job is to fix the cheap fast mistakes at a premium price) However the have a company which sprays the tub and tile with a porcilin paint with a HVLP gun. Alot of prep work too. I'd look in the yellow pages for resurfacer before I tried it myself.
Can't I go 1 day without spilling my coffee?
I saw an episode of "Painted House" where they painted over the tile and it seemed to work fine... perhaps check the Painted House website for technique / material recommendations?
alecs, i do bathrooms and kitchens all day every day, and the simplest solution is to just rip out to bare studs. at that point its easy to replace that brown tub and redrywall/cement board. if the house is drywall ie less than 30 yrs old the drywall will come off fairly easily.
also you can easily put in new electrical stuff, update the plumbing etc etc
a diy can do that easily in a day with a helper to carry the trash
with bare studs the tub will be easy to replace to and an ordinary steel tub is not expensive($170 cdn here)
painting? can see it staying on for long regardless of type of paint and on smooth tiles, a good finish will be very difficult to achieve
I would recommend pulling off a couple tiles first and see what your getting into. I don't know about the paint , but the demo could be tougher than you think.
I did a bath remodel last summer- tile walls and floor, tiled vanity, cast iron tub, every thing pink and black. I estimated a half day tearout down to studs. It took a day and a half. All the tiles were set in a mortar bed reinforced with a wire mesh similar to chicken wire but heavier. This was the worst demo I've ever done, door closed, 95deg., no vent fan, tiny window. We used sledges, chisels, sawzall, whatever seemed to make sense at the time.
After we were done with demo and ready to haul off scrap, we noticed that we had actually bent the axle on my little trailer. That crap was heavy! All the tile and mortar were stuck together with that wire and came out either in big chunks, or broke off in tiny pieces. The mesh had to pulled off the wall staple by staple. You couldn't just grap and pull it, and there was no way we could just scrape the tiles off. It was all or nothing.
Not trying to scare you, just make sure of what you've got. This house was built in the 60's I think.
alecs
I "just" demo'd two bathroom. Tools that are very important. Crow bar, flat bar, big hammers, contractor garbage bags, dust masks and a case of beer....go to town!!!!
Be a rip out artist
Namaste
andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
o hand one other thing to answer your original question.
Yes, there are paints that work very well over tile but I'd be suspicous of HD. Go to your local paint store. Benny Moore use to have a fantastic product that worked on anything shiny.
It could be interesting. Try it before demo.whatcha got to loose. Its easy enough.
PS....you can tile over tile also you know if you have the room.
Be creative
Namaste
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I noticed no recip saw in your list of crucial tools, oversight, or do you just not use them. and you will need at least an adjustable wrench to disconnect plumbing lines from the fixtures. And I like to have a putty knife to get the wax of the toilet flange, because stepping in it later is a nasty propostion. Oh and a cordless to un-screw any screws.... and a little flat head if you plan to keep the towel bars etc so you can take them off.
Be Complete :-)
NeilView ImageGo Jayhawks
CAG.....please add to my list...it was early AM and I was head fogged.....saw zall is a definate.
Be fogged
Namaste
andy
"Understanding yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth"
Alan Watts
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
My lovely 1960's era bathroom had the brown on white swirl tiles. The tiles and bathroom were in good shape - and i needed a fast fix for that nasty look. I don't know what decorating show I saw it on, but ... high adhesive primer and then two coats of good kitchen/bath paint was the answer ... the results still look good seven years later. The textured pattern of the tile under the paint gives it that currently trendy white on white look (though it's actually palest lilac on palest lilac).
A friend used the same technique on her 1940's hot pink tiled bathroom - her top coat was a very high gloss melamine. It also worked well. Good luck!
If you cleaned everything really well first, say with TSP...
Couldn't you just use automotive primer and paint ?
Quittin' Time