What do we need to do to prepare this tile? The floor is that 3" or so hexagon 60's vintage floor tile with a flat finish and the wall tile is just plain 4x4 wall tile with a shiny finish.
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We are remodeling a bathroom in my dad's early 1960's home. It had a very small ceramic tile shower with a leaky pan. The pan was going to have to be replaced anyway and since there was enough room, be decided to put a tub in instead. The tile was installed the old fashioned way with wire mesh and concrete on floor and walls. We have already torn out a similar bathroom in our how and have decided that if we can we would prefer to tile over instead of tearing it out and starting fresh. The floor is structurally in really good shape, but the grout and some of the floor time are stained to the point that I could not clean it, even after hours of scrubbing. The walls seem to be pretty solid, though the shower walls seemed to come down easier than the other job we did.
sorry for the delay in answering your question my tile installer has been on vacation (hunting) and i wanted to go over this with him before i posted an answer... here is our combined answer,it would be a bad idea to install tile over tile. (1) if the first bath went bad because of the pan,can the second one be far behind,homes of that age would have a copper pan and 40 yrs is a long life. (2) tile on tile does not allow for the moisture to pass out of the thin set,so it may not dry and just slide off the wall... our advise is to do the same as you did with the first bath......good luck
One thing to point out. The stand-up shower with the leaky pan is gone. It has been replace by a remodel tub unit. The tile we would be tiling over in on the floor and walls, but not around the tub. The tub has a surrond. I don't know if this changes your answer any.
I would like to rip out all of the tile and then tile only the floor and add a tile baseboard, but my husband is bound and determined to NOT rip out any more of the old tile. In that case, what is your opinion on these tile refinishers who come in and spray on an acrylic finish to existing tile and fixtures?
[This message has been edited by casa (edited December 15, 2003).]
[This message has been edited by casa (edited December 15, 2003).]
Not only does tiling over tile not give the thinset a chance to "breathe" (cure), the thinset does not adhere well enough to the glossy, finished surface of tile. Get a sledgehammer, have some fun, release some aggression, and remove the first layer. It will be the most fun part of the project if you look at it in the right way.
Before you do that, try different solvents on the stains. Stains should be able to come out given the right solvent. So long as the tile is not scuffed or the surface not dulled, and you like the color, it is worth the effort if stains are the only obstacle to keeping it.
Ooooo... Hate the color and would never be able to match it to fill in, but even if I could, the manufacturer of the hexagon shaped floor tile went out of business about 20 years ago according to a local tile place.
What we did was remove a stand up shower and closet in my dad's basement and replace them with a remodel type tub unit. We now have an 8" x room length trough where we will need to fill in tile. That includes down one wall, across the floor, and up the other wall. I'd love to draw you a picture, but can't see any way to attach an image on this bb.
Also, because the ceiling is so low, I want them to ceramic tile the ceiling above the tub. Right now they have those white, staple up ceiling tiles which they plan to paint with DryLoc or something similar.
I got an estimate on the tile refinishing and my dad and husband are balking at the price.
I don't know how they did bathrooms in your area in the 60's but here, for the walls, they took this metal mesh stuff and slathered it with cement and kept doing that until they had a smooth surface about an inch thick. Then they poured about an inch and a half of concrete on the floor and smoothed that out as well. THEN they layed the tile on that surface.
We've already torn out one bathroom at our house about 7 years ago and the shower and closet wall in this house. I don't know how you think that is fun. We ended up with lots of small cuts and really sore muscles and dust everywhere.
They don't want to tear all that out. I suggested that maybe I could get a chisel and pop the tiles off and then they could go from there, but they nixed that idea. I just want it done right where it doesn't look bad and they're looking for the fastest, cheapest, easiest way out. BTW, they is my dad and husband.
