In my Bathroom, I want to update the tile. It‘s the small rough octagon shape in white w/black speckles. Grout is also white. I hate it, stays dirty. Thought about sanding it and putting a dye and sealer on it, but I dont know if this can be done. 2nd choice is replacing the grout w/black but I am back with the white tile, does anyone know if the sanding and dyeing it would work? I thought I would try this first, it would be cheap, because I have a sander and I can do it myself.. and thought I could maybe use the dye you use to dye clothes (possible?) and then just a polyurthane to seal. If I do anything else like, remove ceramic tile, this may be costly..Any suggestions?
I'd just remove the tile. Yes, it is more expensive...but it also will increase the value of the home. Especially in a bathroom or kitchen. If you can manage it, I'd just bite the bullet and pay for the replacement. You could even do it yourself. Removing the tile isn't as difficult as it looks. Once you get one up the rest pop up pretty easy. The cheapest thing I can think of is just cover it up with a carpet piece or throw rugs and live with it. :) Good luck.
If you are dealing with ceramic tile and you sand it, you will see the red clay backing come through. Don't do this. You will wind up replacing the tile anyway. If it is just the grout color you want to change, there is a grout colorant that you can purchase to dye the grout to what ever color you want. If the tile is also dirty, you will probably want to replace the tile as well. You can pull up the old tile, or you could put down a new subfloor and tile over that. Check with your local stores, Lowe's, Home depot, etc. You should be able to find tile at a good price and knowledgable people to help you with the project.
I have never heard of any solution to dye dried concrete or grout. The only thing you can do if you dont want to replace it is to go buy a really good pool paint that they paint concrete pools with before putting the water in. You will want to sand the glaze on the tiles if you also want to paint the surface of the tiles. This will scarify the glazed surface to make the paint adhere to the surface better.
There are special cleaners for cleaning that type of tile and bringing it back up to white. The problem is that this type of tile is pourous and over the years its absorbed the dirt and water from use so it may not come clean and sanding it will not help as its gotten down into the stoneware. At that point, you will have no other choice but to rip it out and replace it all. If it does come up clean with a cleaner, you must seal it or it will dirty again quickly. Do not use polyurethane as it will yellow and look like poo.
This tile is hard to get up. It comes on a 12 x 12 paper mesh, so getting one up doesn't help with the next one. The good news is that if you could clean it up, it has a wonderful retro look. You can buy grout colorant and that would be the easiest soloution. (Dark charcoal would be best. Black grout is almost as hard to keep as white.) If you are really tired of looking at it and you can't be convinced to pull it up, you can put a thin layer of quik crete on top of it and start with another floor altogether, IF raising the lever nearly 1/2 won't interfere with the doors or cause people to trip as they come into the bath. The thinnest floor tile is about 1/4 thick, and these will be small tiles again, on the order of what you have. You can get 1 x 1's, 2 x 2's, and 3 x3's squares, in porcelain, in a variety of colors. (They are designed for shower floors.) The next thinnest, yet larger floor tiles are going to be about 3/8 thick. By the time you have quik crete and mastic, you are looking at a 1/2 rise in floor height. If you start going over 12 x 12 sizes, the tiles get thicker still. Whatever tiles you select, make sure they have some texture and are designed for floors. (You don't want to install a hazard, slipping the first time you have wet feet.) You should be able to find how-to books about tile demo and installation at big home stores like Lowe's and Home Depot.
