Renovating Your Tiling Tips
Do You Really Need to Tile?

Do you really need to completely re-tile? Find useful renovating your tiling... Ideas for how to clean, repair or cover your broken or ugly tiles. See if you can save money and time...

Tiling might not be the nightmare you fear, but tiling certainly is quite a job, even with all these useful tiling techniques…

If you want a quick and easy makeover, you may not actually need to go down the whole DIY tiling route… Check out these Renovating Your Tiling tips, to see if you can do anything to avoid all the hassle…

So what can you do to avoid tiling your walls?

Renovating Your Tiling Tips

Is Your Tiling Old, Discolored or Damaged?

Clean the Tiles
Renew the Grouting
Cracked Tiles
Broken Cork Tiles

Just Hate the Tiles?

Painting the Tiles
Covering the Tiles

Is Your Tiling Old, Discolored or Damaged?

Sometimes, you might still love your tiles, but they might be looking a bit tired and tatty…

Before you spend your hard-earned time and money on completely re-tiling your bathroom or kitchen, why not see if some of these renovating tiling tips can bring your tiles back to life, so that they look like new….

• This might sound obvious, but a really thorough clean can make a great deal of difference to how your tiles look…
• Try washing the tiles with sugar soap, as this will help to remove any stubborn grease from kitchen tiles, or soap scum, from bathroom tiles.
• To clean grout, try dipping an old toothbrush in bleach, and scrubbing along the grout lines – yes, a painstaking job, but it does work.

Renovating the Grout

• Many times, it is the state of the grout that is making your whole wall of tiles look shabby… If so, don’t worry, as there are a couple of things you can try, (that’s in addition to cleaning the grout and tiles, above)…
• Grout Pen
  • This reminds me of tip-pex correction fluid, which you, quite literally, draw along the grout lines. How good this looks will depend, in part, on how steady your hand is!
  • I tried this in our bathroom at our last house. I found it gave a nice, clean look, but it can peel off quite easily.
• Grout
  • You can also apply:
    • a new thin layer of grout, over the top of existing grout – I have also tried this, again in our last bathroom. I used it when the grout pen was not so satisfactory for me.
    • brand new grout, after scraping out the old grout from between the joins (this option tends to end up as being quite a big job)

Cracked Tiles

• If your tiles are mostly good, but you just have the odd cracked or broken tile:
  • scrape out the grout around the broken tile (use a special grout removing tool)
  • chip out the tile with a chisel, being very careful not to break any of the surrounding tiles
  • scrape away any old bits of adhesive
  • cover the back of a new, replacement tile in tile adhesive, and push into place
  • allow to set, and renew the grout

Damaged Cork Tiles

• If a single cork tile is broken or damaged, try to remove to by chiselling it out (from the center, not the edges!). You may need to heat up the adhesive gently (with a hot air gun, or an ordinary iron).
• Clean out any old adhesive and renew with fresh adhesive.
• Gently lower the new tile in position, and press into place with a heavy weight.

Do you Hate Your Tiles?

If you really hate your tiles, and want to change them, you still may not need to undertake a massive DIY tiling project… There are a few renovating tiling tips that you can try, to quickly and easily change the look of your tiles, first…

Painting Your Tiles

• You can quite easily paint your tiles, and cover over any hideous colors and patterns, and give your room a whole new look…
• Don’t just use any old paint. Use:
  • a specialist tile paint (some are one coat, and very easily applied)
  • a specialist tile primer, with any gloss paint over the top
• We have tried both options in the bathroom and kitchen of our previous house – either is good, but you get a better choice of colors by going for the second option.
• A mini gloss roller gives the best effect, and doesn’t leave any brush marks. You can use a normal paintbrush too, but it is more difficult to get a neat, smooth finish with a brush.
• You can use a grout pen, if you wish, to draw the grout lines in, to make it look more effective.

Covering the Tiles

• You could also try covering the tiles you hate with some tile sheeting. You can get plastic tile sheeting or MDF tile sheets. These can both be fitted over existing tiles.
• Some plastic tile sheets are quite small, around 4 or 9 tiles. We found a very large, plastic moulded tile sheet, ideal for tiling a shower, and fixed it to out over-bath shower. It has worn very well, and hasn’t scratched at all, but we only see it as a temporary solution, and have just fitted ‘proper’ tiles for a more permanent (and luxurious looking) solution.
Our plastic sheets of tiling.
• You can also get MDF sheets. These need to be primed, and then finished with gloss paint, to make sure they are waterproof. Again, you can use a grout pen to get that authentic grouted look.

If you have decided that these quick-fix tiling tips won’t do after all, start your DIY tiling with a look at:

Essential Preparations for DIY Tiling

Basic Techniques for Tiling Bathrooms and Kitchens

Now you’ve sorted your tiling, take a look at…

• kitchen decorating tips
• decorating bathrooms tips

Return to the main DIY Tiling Guide page.

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