The tiles on the wall in this bathroom have paint stains that have been difficult to take out, I'm mainly talking about the pink colour that can be seen in the pics below that is in between the tiles (in the cracks). The last picture shows the main problem with what I mean and the pics don't show the piant in the cracks that well.I have tried using turps, soap and water, Jiff and a few other things but it won’t come off. How can I get the paint off? I'm not sure what type of paint it is as it was from the previous residents. You can see it is the same red paint as in the second picture below.

Another idea I thought of was to get some of that paste that is used to put the tiles on the wall and what is holding them on and plaster some into the the cracks to hide the paint. Would this work?

Here are some pics:

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My Home Renovating Project

Looks like your grout had absorbed the paint , I once cleaned a marble table that a painter spilt oil based paint on using very fine grit wet dry sand paper, may work for you but you'd have to be careful not to touch your tiles.

If that doesn't work you may need to re-grout them.

Hi


try some sugar soap and using a good brush try scrubbing it as its gonna be pain to clean it off grout but if it was on the tile you can use a blade and water to get it off

I tried undiluted sugar soap and a hard brush but it never worked either.

So I guess I need to re-grout them, would this mean I would need to buy some grout and use a scraper to apply it over the tiles (after I have cleaned them down with sugar soap)?

I never worked with tiles before but I think this seems straight forward if this is what I need to do. So I'm bascally going to just put a thin coat of grout over the grout that is already there?

I hope I don't need to pull the tiles off etc?

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My Home Renovating Project

I don't think you'll be able to get away with a thin smear of grout over the surface - I've tried this, and the grout layer is too thin to successfully set (as opposed to dry), so it tends to crumble off at the first scrub.

You might need to cut the grout back a good few mm to make it workable.

Have you tried one of those grout pens???

P.S. That red paint on the walls is really badly done!!!

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Electrical info on domestic wiring and appliance repair to AS/NZS3000. Only for New Zealanders, as Australians aren't smart enough to do their own!

Yeah the red paint is pretty bad. I put a coat of undercoat on yesterday to cover it.

What I was thinking of was , how about painting it with white acrylic paint to cover the marks? I would use one of my art brushes that would paint the thin line.

If that is not possible then I can look at gouging the grout out but painting would be a lot easier.

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My Home Renovating Project

Use it as an excuse to buy one of these:

http://www.fein.de/schleifteller/au_campaign/

(or its cheaper Bosch work-alike)

You could give the paint a try - if it works, great, if not, no real $ wasted.

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Electrical info on domestic wiring and appliance repair to AS/NZS3000. Only for New Zealanders, as Australians aren't smart enough to do their own!

mask up the area and paint over with a suitable paint (depending on what is on there originally) You could even use a coloured silicone or for a more original finish remove that section of grout and lumpy paint with a grout removing tool (cheap at Bunnings) and regrout.

I actually purchased one of these Makita finishing sanders that look a bit like that although it doesn't have all the accessories. Finishing Sander BO4565/Makita Corporation

But it was the biggest waste of money I have ever spent on tools. It cost around $180, I used it once but the sandpaper is very expensive. It only lasts for a few minutes before the corners wear out and the whole paper needs to be replaced even though the rest of the paper is like new. It might be ok for lazy people, woman or people doing specialized antique restoration but for general everyday work it is very dysfunctional. I'm not saying that one you showed is like that and it probably does a lot more. I even tried to ask H&D and Makita to refund me but they wouldn't help since I had used it.

Yes I think I will give the painting a try and I can't lose much. I'm in the process of doing the whole bathroom this week so I will let you all know how I go, thanks.

Ok I will look into those ideas if the painting the grout doesn't work, cheers!

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My Home Renovating Project

It's the tungsten carbide grout removal blade that makes it good at grout removal, not the sanding pads...

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Electrical info on domestic wiring and appliance repair to AS/NZS3000. Only for New Zealanders, as Australians aren't smart enough to do their own!

ok thanks a lot for the idea anyway.

I decided to try using some bleach. The bleach was sprayed onto the tiles & grout with a small spray bottle. I then left it to sit for an hour or two. I then came back and I could see it was going to work. I then used white vinegar and a hard brush to clean the tiles while the bleach was still working. I then scrubbed the grout with a hard bristle toothbrush. I then washed them down with soapy water and rinsed.This seem to get them very clean and white with all the paint & mold gone from the grout.

Here are two pics of the tiles after cleaning:

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My Home Renovating Project

I must say I would never have expected bleach to work that well paint, especially on a well saturated colour like that red. Impressive!!

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Electrical info on domestic wiring and appliance repair to AS/NZS3000. Only for New Zealanders, as Australians aren't smart enough to do their own!

May sound strange but rust solvent (stinky stuff) is great to remove acrylic paints. a rag dipped in the can and rub!