go are the days when your lone choice for refreshing dirty, dated, or plain-Jane toilet tile was to rip it out and replace it. Today, commercial paints formulated for function on tile make it possible to restore the look of your tile floors, walls, and early bathroom surfaces—or lend them a new one altogether—with little more than a can ! Simple as it sounds, painting bathroom tile shouldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate start without beginning evaluating key project considerations and constraints. Below, we ’ ve outlined the six things to know before you even pick out a paint color .
Painting bathroom tile is much cheaper than retiling.
You ’ ve hear it before : paint is an economical material. Unsurprisingly, then, it ’ s the most budget-friendly way to refresh bathroom tile that isn ’ thymine cracked, crumbling, or differently structurally compromised. economical do-it-yourselfers can spend a small as $ 100 to paint 100 feather feet. meanwhile, depending on the tile material, a DIY retiling can cost anywhere from $ 100 to $ 1,500 for a distinctive bathroom floor measuring 35 to 100 square feet. Retiling a tub environment or walls of a shower stall between 9 and 13 public square feet, excessively ? That ’ vitamin d be another $ 400 to $ 1,300, according to the on-line planning joyride, CostHelper.com. solid-colored tile in bargain materials like ceramic falls at the lower end of these price ranges, while patterned tile in premium materials like marble falls at the higher end—as much as 15 times the price ! Patterns in painted tile floors, on the other hand, would only cost you bivalent or triple the expenses for materials ( depending on how many colors ) and time .
It affords endless looks.
popular toilet tile materials—ceramic, porcelain ( a subset of ceramic tile ), natural stone ( marble, travertine, slate, granite, or limestone ), and quarry tile—are sold in a number of solid colors or patterns. silent, those preset styles might not suit the design of your bathroom, go out of fashion after you ’ ve installed them, or, be just besides cost-prohibitive to install. With key, you can lighten, darken, or apply a model of your own blueprint to your tile to fit any bathroom aesthetic, from a ex post facto checkerboard model to a aplomb and contemporary geometric design. And, should your style variety in three years, you can easily repaint. ad
Keep in mind that bright paint colors are a better choice for space-limited bathrooms ; colored paint absorb light and can have the effect of making a belittled bath spirit more constricted. RELATED: The Best Painted Floors on the Internet
It’s not practical to paint tile on all bathroom surfaces.
With the exception of glass prey tile ( which doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate bond well with paint ), you can apply paint to most popular types of tile : ceramic, porcelain, natural rock, or even un-glazed quarry tile. But your key job will last the longest on tile toilet surfaces that receive moo to moderate exposure to moisture—think toilet floors ( outside the immediate vicinity of the tub ), walls, and backsplashes. Tiled countertops, tub surrounds, or shower surfaces, while paintable, aren ’ thymine as practical surfaces for this treatment in the long-run because the key is more probable to prematurely fade, peel, or blister with regular exposure to water. That said, if you are on board for frequent touch-ups or re-application until your budget allows for a wax toilet remodel, this pay back might be merely the tag ! Do n’t want to do it yourself ? Get release, no-commitment estimates from professional painters near you.
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It’s crucial to pick a paint that’s right for the tile material and bathroom surface.
Ceramic, porcelain, and unglazed quarry tile can take either latex paint or epoxy rouge in one-part ( pre-mixed ) or bipartite ( ready-to-mix ) varieties formulated for home consumption. Latex paint ( $ 10 to $ 30 per gallon ) is generally less fetid and toxic. Unless you choose a pricier mildew-proof kind, though, it readily weathers with heavy moisture exposure and consequently should be saved for toilet floors or walls. For the “ splash zones ” of backsplashes, countertops, bathtub surrounds, and shower surfaces, epoxy paint ( $ 20 to $ 35 per gallon ) does the whoremaster. This type of paint cures into a harder, more durable coat that boasts more resistance to moisture, heat, and casual wear-and-tear than its latex counterpart. You might look for a well-reviewed bipartite epoxy specifically designed for specifically for tubs and tiles, like this Rust-Oleum refinishing kit —available on Amazon and elsewhere—that ’ south been reviewed about 2,000 times. Natural stone tiles, on the other hand, need an acrylic latex paint formulated for interior freemasonry or stucco ( $ 20 to $ 35 per gallon ). All of these paints come in a full spectrum of sheens ranging from flat to high-gloss. The glossy the finish, the more slippery the painted tile will be. Flat and felt sheens afford the most grip underfoot, while semi-gloss and high-gloss sheens offer the least, a disadvantage on already slip-prone surfaces like shower floors. RELATED: Solved! How to Choose the Best Paint for Bathrooms
It can put your bathroom out of commission for a weekend or longer.
The task of painting bathroom tile can be divided into five stages : surface preparation, prime, paint, radiation pattern application, and sealing. sum time spent on the project will depend on the dry meter of the primers, paints, and sealers you ’ rhenium using ; the complexity of the pattern you ’ re apply ; and the extent of the project, be it a few stress tiles on the backsplash or the whole wall. here ’ s what you can expect :
- Surface preparation entails sanding, vacuuming, and then scrubbing the tile and grout lines to remove dirt and grime.
- Priming the tile is essential to making the tile more receptive to paint. Use epoxy or urethane primer for ceramic or porcelain tile (view example on Amazon), masonry primer for natural stone or unglazed quarry tile (view example on The Home Depot). Read and adhere to the primer’s instructions for dry time—you won’t want to cover something that’s sticky.
- Painting the bathroom tile can involve either rolling color onto large swaths of tile at a time or brushing individual tiles by first “cutting in” around the edges. The latter method would rely on an angled brush and a steady, precise hand in order to avoid sullying grout lines or neighboring tiles, and that can drag out the process. If you’re doing more than a few accent tiles this way, plan accordingly. Then, while the paint dries over the next two or more days, you’ll need to avoid touching or walking on it.
- Applying pattern to the fully-cured tiles typically entails taping a store-bought or homemade stencil to the tiles you want to pattern, then rolling over the stencil with a roller cover saturated in the same paint you used for the tile. Again, wait out the full dry time.
- Finally, sealing the painted bathroom tile protects your project from grime, scuff marks, and scratches. Your clear sealer (urethane sealer for ceramic or porcelain, or masonry sealer for natural stone or quarry tile) also has a dry time you’ll want to factor into your planning. Only after you’ve waited the full time should you begin to use the bathroom.
All in all, you could be looking at a project that puts the bathroom out of order anywhere from two days to several days. And, when you’re thinking about putting fresh paint on floors, you can’t even get away with walking into the bathroom to grab whatever facewash you unintentionally left behind, so be sure to take all the essentials out with you before you start!
It needs minimal maintenance.
It doesn ’ t take much but regular sweep, vacuum, and mopping the sealed painted tile with a boughten or homemade tile clean that ’ s tailored to your tile in order to retain its discolor and fend off abrasive dirt. however, laying mats in high-traffic areas and floor pads below furnishings on the tile can prevent scuff marks or impressions from marring the rouge job. If blemishes do appear in the paint job, merely use an artist ’ s paintbrush and your leftover paint to make touch-ups, then allow it to dry wholly before re-sealing that helping.
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Do n’t want to do it yourself ? Get dislodge, no-commitment estimates from pro painters near you .Find local painters +
