Refinishing Tile Is the Most Transformative Fix for a Dated Bathroom
Watch as your pink tub, sink, and tiles turn crisp, bright white…like magic. Refinishing Tile is Magic !!!
When you’re “blessed” with a colorfully tiled bathroom right out of the 1950s (peach? teal? faded yellow?), only two paths forward readily present themselves: Deal with it, or renovate. But a third option—reglazing tile, tubs, and sinks—has crept onto our radar, a fix that requires neither the time nor cost of a gut renovation yet can be nearly as transformative. Maybe you’ve heard of it by another name: Reglazing is also called resurfacing, refinishing, or even painting (though the last isn’t accurate), depending on whom you’re talking to. But the process is the same: A professional will come to your home and, after a deep cleaning of the bathroom in question, spray a very thin, opaque, gleaming coat of enamel across the tile, sink, tub, or all of the above—wholly transforming the room in a matter of hours.
Reglazing is definitely a cost-saving route to take, whether you’re using it as a stopgap or the final step. And a pretty simple process, too: If the tiles you’re reglazing are still glossy, the pros will first acid-etch them to remove the shine and then clean the surface with chemicals to remove every last bit of oil and grease, all in the name of making sure the enamel sticks. If you don’t clean and lightly sand your tiles, the paint will peel right off. Then, they’ll spray three or four coats of glossy enamel over the surfaces. Some people have started requesting a matte finish, but it cannot be done—your tiles, rendered absorbent, would dirty in just a few months!
You might have paused at the fact that the new liquid enamel coating is sprayed on, but that it’s the best way to get that perfectly smooth finish. So yes, they’re actually enameling over the grout as well as the tile (only a few millimeters thick, so the grooves won’t be filled in), meaning both grout and tile will end up one uniform color—if you want contrasting grout, you’re out of luck. It takes about a day to have a reglazing job done, and then you need to let it cure for 24 hours, 12 at minimum if it’s your only bathroom and you really need to pee. Then, poof!—your granny bath will be a thing of the past.
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