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Bullseye Casting Glass

There have been countless numbers of unhappy people who have tried to paint bathroom tile, or have had it painted by professionals, only to have the paint chip and peel. So the question arises, is painting bathroom tiles a possibility – can it be successfully done?

Maybe you’ve had the same color tile in your bathroom for twenty years, and you can’t tolerate another week of that awful color. Financing issues prevent you from tearing out the whole bathroom and starting over. You hope that painting over tile will work for you, so you can get rid of that boring color.

The good news is that it can be done if you follow these four easy steps to make sure that it is done correctly:

1. Before painting ceramic tile, you must clean it thoroughly with a kitchen scourer and sugar soap. Then it should be rinsed thoroughly and allowed to dry thoroughly. Sugar soap can be purchased at a hardware or paint store. You could also use a solution of 50% household ammonia in water to remove any soap build up.
2. Then you need to apply a primer paint. Look for glass or tile primer, or problem-solving primer. It’s best to use a high-quality adhesion-promoting primer, like Zinsser’s latex-based Bulls Eye 1-2-3.
3. The primer is to be applied in an even coat. It provides an “anchor” for the topcoat so it cannot be ruined by paint chips, scratches, etc. After application, you need to let the paint dry for 24 hours. Then you sand down the surface, and clean it off again.
4. After priming, you should be able to use just about any paint for a top coat. A high quality finish paint works the best. In moisture-prone areas, oil base paints are preferred, as they will provide a harder finish.
5. Apply the topcoat in two thin, even layers. Allow at least five or six hours before application of the second coat. Between layers, rub down lightly with sandpaper.
6. Once the two coats of paint have been applied, allow the surface to thoroughly dry, for about two weeks, before letting it get wet. In other words. if the tiles are in the shower, don’t use the shower!

Here’s hoping that painting bathroom tiles will give the room a new look without costing a lot. For more useful information about painting tile, see the authors website, shown in the paragraph below. Good Luck.

Ezra is the owner and webmaster of bathroom-paint.net. For more stuff about painting over tile, visit the painting-bathroom-tiles.php webpage.

MARY JANE BAILEY, Artist Dichroic Glass MJ BAILEY DESIGNS