paint or tile over existing bathroom tiles?

Painting works, but will always look like painted tiles. Tiling over can work well. Just abrade the glaze with a coarse glass paper first.

Hah!

I was in a similar situation to the OP, except I had one wall half-tiled. Removing those was a PITA and caused a lot of damage to the plaster and I didn't want to have to skim the whole bathroom (and wait however long you need to wait before you tile over new plaster).

So I decided to tile over the old ones... I knew it could be done, but to make sure, I read John Schmitt's Tiling FAQ...

Abrade... Yes, very good John :o)

I tried coarse glass paper by hand, but it was going to take forever. I tried a detail sander with coarse paper, but after 2 minutes on one 4" tile, all I had to show for my efforts was a slight dulling of the shine. I tried an electric drill with a sanding disk and ended up with a satin finish on said tile. I dug out some heavy-duty, really coarse, disks that last saw service removing aeons of accumulated rust from a Triumph Herald chassis..... and ended up with a tile as shiny as it had started, except it was now black....

Then I remembered the cheap angle-grinder I'd bought to cut slots for the shower pipework. It came with two free disks, one for metal, one for 'stone'.

:o)))))))

Proper Job!

Just make sure you wear a good mask. Seriously.

Probably fair to say at this point, some tiles are harder than others ;-)

IME tiles stick to each other very well, abraded or not

anything to avoid dust... painting seems like the best option for me to try.

after removing kitchen tiles i decided it would be a good idea to start chipping away at the plaster too with a wallpaper scraper (as i thought this would mean less work for the plasterer).

the amount of dust i created, very fine sandy sort of dust was surprising. later on there was a layer of it in all the other rooms. i cant stand the stuff. i didnt wear a mask either as i didnt think id be creating much dust, hope it isnt too dangerous?

anyway i will try first cleaning the tiles and using tile paint and see how it goes. i am starting to think that i should just do my day job and pay a professional to do the work. its just ive moved into my own place at last and wanted to get property developing. that sarah beeny makes it look too easy!

Done both: tiled over utility room, painted in cloakroom (Kryton or someting similar?).

Painting was a doddle - follow the instructions and get a surprisingly good finsih. For a while. Any nicks or abrasions (and anything but the lightest wipe down can cause these, or a heavy hand with a bath-toy, shower head, mop handle, etc etc) starts to allow the paint to peel away: once the surface is damaged, furtehr demage is unavoidable as the paint has o inhernet adhesion it seems except when in one large film. It degrades more quickly along beads of sealant, say).

Tiling - bit harder work, but a doddle and as robust as any tied surface. Didn't abrade aything and they've been stuck fast for 5 years or more. Just made sure the new tiles were 'offset' from the old ones so they were't directly on top - iow the adhesie could grab the grout lines of the iold tiles, not just the old tile faces.

Keep a few spare new tiles as you do risk cracks if you give a sharp knock to a new tile where there's an inadvertant 'void' of adhesive behind it.

If you're after a quic freshen up to sell the house: paint; if you're staying a while: tile.