With the advent of this revolutionary material comes a whole world of possibilities, not just within bathrooms but also kitchen, floors and anywhere that you might enjoy a decorative finish in your home!
Usually, you’d be governed by only a handful of options when it comes to bathroom areas and wet rooms, with tiled finishes tending to be the most popular here in the UK, but we often get asked, ‘can we micro cement over tiles?’
When it comes around to renovating the space, your choices may have been floor to ceiling to half tiled finish.
Not anymore! Now there are many options available just within micro cement itself with a wide range of colours and installation styles that can be used to make your space truly unique ad special to you.
This ultra-modern, minimalistic and contemporary surface coating, which is micro cement, can bring about a complete transformation to your space for a similar price point to tiling; it is a quality product that leans towards the upper end of the budget typically.
It is not usually something you’d want to ‘have a go at yourself’ as the margin for error mean you could set yourself up for a surface that looks like you’ve attempted to ice a cake with no experience and the wrong tools.
Rumours may have whispered to you, hinting that it could, in theory, go over tiles, which is accurate; however, there are a few serious considerations that you must take on board.
Is the property a keeper? Or are you just quickly sprucing it up to rent or sell?
Would you instead do things correctly now or face more costly repairs at a later date?
Background– are you trying to hide the hideous floral patterned and embossed avocado green tiles that match the bath or looking to lighten the place up a little from the dreary dark blue look that someone once thought was a good idea?
The old tile background must be sound enough to go over with micro cement in either case. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for problems!
Loose tiles, missing sections, damp trapped behind can all rear their problematic heads later should they not be dealt with sufficiently at the start of the project.
This you can try to sort out yourself but will usually be best left to your installer; they may advise that the walls/ floor be stripped and prepped beforehand.
To ensure the best possible result, fill in grout lines and areas of missing tiles with the correct base to smooth it off as best you can and give the substrate the same consistent amount of suction across the whole area.
It must also be considered what lays underneath in more detail; when removing old bathroom suites in preparation for new ones, quite often, we’ve come across rotten flooring and areas in need of attention.
Should you have chosen to leave this down, the problem sits quietly undiscovered for the next person who decides to do work or change something.
Movement in the floor and the bounciness can create issues with your installation further down the line as cracks can appear if there’s flex in the substrates; taking the time to screw down bouncy boards will be well spent here.
The final consideration on this point is running services and changing the suite; if you have removed shower trays, baths and toilets with a plan to renew them, services that feed these may need to be adapted.
Which can lead to lifting floors, cutting holes and so forth, giving you more areas to patch up, secure, make good and bring up to the same level
From experience, it’s often easier just to strip the space entirely and start afresh, but we understand time and budget may dictate otherwise.
As a company, we will not install over tiles in most cases and would only do so if our assessment of the space meets the standards we know will allow us to achieve a good finish.
Raised tiles present their own set of challenges; as you’ll be layering up several coats of the micro cement-based product, it is best to go over a flat and smooth surface.
In this instance, you’ll need to assess whether the extra costs and labour to go over the varied depths is more cost-effective than removing them to begin with.
Scenarios can result in a smooth, quick and relatively hassle-free installation of micro cement over tiles.
Kitchen splashback provided it’s cleaned thoroughly, and no grease or harsh cleaning products are left on the area as they could create issues with adherence or show through the base coats.
Single walls or shower enclosures, if no fixtures, fittings or suites are being changed and it’s purely a quick aesthetical update, will be one of the faster and easier jobs to take care of.
Providing the substrates is sound and meets the criteria laid out above; if not, it’s time to rethink what to do.
If you need professional advice or have questions about micro cement installations at your project, simply pop your predicaments over to us here.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
The Signature Walls Team.
