Kitchen/ Bath Floor Tile - Painting

[asphaltgambler]

Scenario: We have a 2000 sqft ranch home that was built in 1999. 2/3's of the house has dated carpet, the kitchen/ dining area, three baths and utility room floors are ceramic tiled in an off-white color.

Ideally, we would like to remove all of the flooring and install high quality LVP. The cost per sqft to remove / replace, materials and labor is pricey as you'd imagine. So we are considering all options- one of which is painting the floor tiles. It seems that there are several ways / products to get the job done. Problem is I'm very skeptical of any painted tile, especially on the floor in high traffic areas lasting at all

Does anyone have experience with this? Is it a good option or Internet snake oil?

[dad911]

Concrete slab or wood subfloor ?

[Alan A]

Bunch of Ecuadorians with those roof tile scrapers and a few sledges will have it all out in a day if it’s on wood.

Make sure you have a big enough dumpster.

[Salty Springs]

Don't half ass it, you'll just have to do it again in the near future. Rip it all out. Myself and my two sons just did the same in our houses. I ripped out the second wood floor in mine,never again on a slab. One glue down (moisture problems) the other termite problems. I put carpet in my two extra bedrooms. There are some beautiful vinyl plank floorings now available. You can't even tell them from wood. Pretty much indestructable. There are also companies (we are in Florida) that pull up the tile with a dustless machine. Well worth it! It's also a good time to redo your baseboards with a wider style (if you have the very common narrow ranch style) This also eliminates shoe mold. Have fun!

Dave

[asphaltgambler]

Wood sub floor over a craw space

[cabmandone]

I don't see paint on floor tile ending well. You got your use out of it. Tear it up and put down what you want.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Wood sub floor over a craw space

Not that bad to remove on a raised floor. There will be some kind of barrier, likely asphalt paper under the tile. Get under one edge and lift a whole section up breaking only at the point where it's too big to move.

I can't believe what I'm seeing when people remove concrete patio slabs, tile and similar. Generally they beat it into rubble and then deal with all of pebbles. If not using a tractor to lift up the corner and take better than 4 foot sections out at a time, at least get the biggest bar you can find and lever up a corner, pick it up with a hoist of some sort and put it in the dumpster or truck.

I've removed entire tile countertops in just about one piece only breaking at peninsulas or the sink. It's how it's done.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Not that bad to remove on a raised floor. There will be some kind of barrier, likely asphalt paper under the tile. Get under one edge and lift a whole section up breaking only at the point where it's too big to move.

I can't believe what I'm seeing when people remove concrete patio slabs, tile and similar. Generally they beat it into rubble and then deal with all of pebbles. If not using a tractor to lift up the corner and take better than 4 foot sections out at a time, at least get the biggest bar you can find and lever up a corner, pick it up with a hoist of some sort and put it in the dumpster or truck.

I've removed entire tile countertops in just about one piece only breaking at peninsulas or the sink. It's how it's done.

Funny you mention that. Most people watch too much DIY TV. They take a sledge hammer and go to town blowing small holes in everything causing a mess. crowbar is your friend here.

[look 171]

Why not lay vinyl tile on top of the tile? They are just a thin floating floor.

I removed a lot of tile when I started doing this in my early 20s. Take an air hammer and a chisel and pound away. GEt under the tile and get the chisel under the tile and lift. Comes right off in less them one seconds. Now, we use a small electric chipping hammer or a roofing spatula and a bit of muscle. Still the air hammer or chipping hammer win out all day long. Too much noise for the air hammer. BTW, no paint. Don't do it.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by look 171

Why not lay vinyl tile on top of the tile? They are just a thin floating floor.

I removed a lot of tile when I started doing this in my early 20s. Take an air hammer and a chisel and pound away. GEt under the tile and get the chisel under the tile and lift. Comes right off in less them one seconds. Now, we use a small electric chipping hammer or a roofing spatula and a bit of muscle. Still the air hammer or chipping hammer win out all day long. Too much noise for the air hammer. BTW, no paint. Don't do it.

I stand by Ecuadorians and roofing remover.
Beats you and an air hammer In every metric - those guys are good...

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Alan A

I stand by Ecuadorians and roofing remover.
Beats you and an air hammer In every metric - those guys are good...

yeah, but I do it with a glass of wine and a cig on the hand. At then end of the day, i will can go home and beat off with both hands without any soreness from my day job. Scraping with that damn thing requires some strength involved. Sore the next day. My demo guys are from Peru so same people. I tell them that all the time.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by look 171

yeah, but I do it with a glass of wine and a cig on the hand. At then end of the day, i will can go home and beat off with both hands with soreness. Scraping with that damn thing requires some strength involved. Sore the next day. My demo guys are from Peru so same people. I tell them that all the time.

I watched.
And called for more dumpsters.
Was quite amazed at what 8 motivated guys could pull out of 3600 sf in a day with hand tools.

But that’s not my full time job.

[asphaltgambler]

The tile is very thick, close to 7/16" believe it or not so I would either have to 'raise' the 2/3 rest by laying another layer of subflooring to bring it level to the tile, or remove the tile, or paint the tile.

[look 171]

Don't paint the tile, man. That's really bad.

The existing tile is 7/16? The vinyl floor is floating and its about 1/8 to 3/16 thick. Flooring is always the issue, with different thicknesses through the house. Sound like stripping the floor is the way to go to get it flat by shimming the entire floor with the correct thickness throughout. One room at a time with this lil' guy https://www.cpooutlets.com/factory-reconditioned-makita-hm0870c-r-11-lbs.-sds-max-demolition-hammer-with-case/mktrhm0870c-r.html?ref=pla&zmam=31282435&zmas=47&zmac=722&zmap=mktrhm0870c-r&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvb75BRD1ARIsAP6Lcqu-DRtQIiouLECrHbm9yLy9yeZL8iJO3Os0IrxmaigIYZYI9wab8c saArvjEALw_wcB

Save your arms, shoulders and upper body. No way around it, you have to do it on all 4s. Get something soft for your knee and get to it. It will take you a couple hours a day to do one room if you are a DIY. My guy will ding me about 2000 bucks to rid of all you described. They will get rid of it too. Sometimes, its not worth DIY. Maybe I am just getting lazy?

[asphaltgambler]

Ok - We're in the ' considering' stage at this point. Looking at all options.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Ok - We're in the ' considering' stage at this point. Looking at all options.

Listen to Jeff. Don't paint the tile. Iffen you did, how would you treat the grout? A monochrome finish over tiles and grout seams is awful looking. I've seen showers done that way and they are ruined. Only for low end rental properties.

[A930Rocket]

My friend took out his tile floors with an air chisel using his 25 gal compressor. It beat doing it by hand, but was work. Looks idea of an electric demo hammer with a wide bit will make for quick work. Even better if you can find someone to use it and haul it outside to a dumpster.

[asphaltgambler]

Thanks all!

[1990C4S]

I have pulled up tiles that were pretty much impossible to separate from the base, and I've pulled up tiles that pretty much fell off the subfloor on their own.

Maybe you will get lucky and it will be the latter.

[JavaBrewer]

Demo the floor is the only way to proceed here. BTDT several times however all my homes were on concrete slab. Tile on wood subfloor should have a concrete board screwed/nailed to wood and tile on top of that. When I was younger and foolish I thought I could remove first floor tile myself with a demo hammer and wide chisel...first couple tiles came up whole with first whack...winning I thought. The rest of the tile came up in quarter sized pieces. Terrible job and my hands & back paid for it. Broken tile & mortar is heavy, I was putting into a wheel barrel to cart into the back yard. Current house I hired floor demo crew who came in with air chisels, charged me something like $1.50/sq ft and they were done in 2 days and hauled away the mess (travertine). They also cleaned the floor and leveled for me to prep for hardwood and tile that I installed. Best money I have spent.