Cover tiles without removing them: paint, microcement and which to choose

Yes, you can cover tiles without taking them off. No hammer, no rubble, no skip outside your door. Today there are two routes, and the difference lies in what you want to change: just the colour, or the whole material.

Tile paint: the colour change. Smartcover Tiles grips on ceramic, porcelain stoneware and mosaic with no primer first: two coats, satin finish and eleven colours. A 2.5 L tin covers about 16 m² at 0.15 L/m² over two coats. You paint it in an afternoon and keep it dry for seven days. The relief of the grout line stays: the colour changes, the texture does not. It is the option when the tile is sound and what bothers you is how it looks. The steps, six ideas and real before-and-afters: painting bathroom tiles without building work.

Microcement: the material change. The tile disappears under a continuous 2-3 mm surface, with no grout lines, applied on top with the Smart Jointer grout filler and the Smart Primer PLUS primer, both included in the kits. The material comes to £26–50 per m², the project takes about three days and the result is waterproof after seven: it works for the shower and the sink, not just the walls. All the kits and the details of the system are in microcement for tiles; here you have the three most used over tiling: bathroom, kitchen and floors.

Which to choose. If you want people to see that the bathroom or the kitchen is a different one, and to get rid of the grout lines for good, microcement. If the problem is the colour and you want it sorted in a weekend on a small budget, paint. If in doubt, the guide to covering tiles without removing them compares these two options with vinyl and panels, with prices and real before-and-afters.

And soon, a third route. We are preparing marmorino, the lime plaster with a polished-stone effect, as a third solution for covering tiles without building work. When it is available, you will find it here.