Tile over existing tile?

[Rileyesi]

We are looking at buying a house that has the most ugly color tile on the kitchen counter tops. Rather than ripping it out, is it possible to tile over the existing tile??

Thanks.

[ameijers]

Probably, but you probably won't like the results. The edge pieces, corners, etc, are all designed for 90 degree corners and may not fit well. Odds are if you put a straightedge along counter, it also isn't perfectly flat, which is hard to tile over. And you don't really save much labor, because sink has to come out anyway, along with any electrical outlet in tile field. You can try it as DIY, but if you were going to hire it out, a good tile guy will refuse, due to more likely callbacks and bad word-of-mouth from a job that looks funny. Demo work for a counter would only be a couple hours at most- maybe a little longer if they used mastic over wood, and you need to overlay with backer board or something. Odds are once you get a corner started most will pop right off. (in my experience, at least.)

aem sends...

[Helen Page]

I keep reading that you should tile over the old tile rather than pulling them off. I'm guessing edging tiles or bead along the edge to finish off. When I retiled a kitchen leaving the old ones on would no doubt have made it easier to get them even. Though I'm not sure what happens when you have 2 layers of tiles and fancy a change...

Of course the other option, which I would probably choose now, is to use tile paint on the old tiles. You can also get tile primer which allows you to use "normal" paint on tiles too - probably the best option to get a better match/choice of colours.

Although, re-reading your post, it sounds like these tiles actually make up the working surface of your countertops, which I don't have experience of and I'm not sure if tile paint is suitable for that. But I'll send this post anyway, might help someone intending to work on splashback-type tiles.