LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Theresa in Virginia who wants to change the look of tile. How can we help?
THERESA: I have ceramic tile in my kitchen and great room and it shows up everything. And I was wondering if I could put some kind of stain on it to change the color.
TOM: No.
LESLIE: And this is a floor?
THERESA: Yes.
TOM: No, you can’t. Ceramic tile is not designed to be changed. You can change the grout color. You can dye the grout darker. But you can’t change the tile itself because it’s glazed and anything that you put on it is just going to fall off. So …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, especially on the floor.
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: If it were a backsplash or a wall that doesn’t get too wet, there are painting techniques you can do; they’re very time-consuming but I mean they do stick. It’s not as durable as you would want or hope it to be and you really have to pay attention to how you apply the paint to make it not look willy-nilly with brush marks. But a floor – just because the amount of wear and tear that a floor gets, I would never attempt.
Now, if you don’t want to deal with the stress or hassle of picking up and breaking up all that tile floor to get rid of it, you can put a laminate right on top of the tile.
TOM: Right.
LESLIE: Which will give you the look of anything; wood, stone.
THERESA: OK. Well, thank you so much.
TOM: You’re very welcome, Theresa. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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