The previous owners of our house painted the bathroom a pink-ish color. The biggest problem is that they have painted over the grout around the shower/tub as well. What is the best way to clean this, or restore to a more normal color?
Well it kind of depends on what the tile/grout is 'painted' with. What I would do is get some good epoxy stripper (often paint stripper will say it strips most epoxies too, but be sure it does) and lay a thick coat of stripper on an inconspicuous spot, keeping it wet with stripper until all the pink paint is loose (don't scrape it off, you could damage the tile/grout) enough to wipe with a cloth. After that use some lacquer thinner on a cloth (be careful it's extremely flammable and the fumes are toxic) to clean off the stripper and what's left of the paint.
Let the area dry thoroughly and then take a scotchbrite pad and scrub the tile and grout. The color should return to something close to what it should be (or what it was prior to painting). At this point you can determine if you can achieve satisfactory results. If the grout is white or off white, you could try a little bleach to see if it lightens the grout. You can also color the grout darker with a dye made for that purpose.
If the tile is in REALLY good shape, it may be worth saving. You may want to save yourself all that work and dealing with chemicals, etc., and tear up the old tile and retile if budget allows.
Jeff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
Paint over it with your desired color? Just an idea.
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