Fixing Ceramic Tile Chips for $5

For all of you out there that have lived with builder grade ceramic tile floors…this tip is for you. We built our first home and waiting for a year and half for it to be finished. We selected all the materials and upgraded many things but our tile floor was not one of them. After we sold that house and moved into our current house, I concluded the previous owners who built this house, did the exact same thing.

We have basic creamy colored ceramic throughout our kitchen and mud room. Unfortunately, in our situation, builder grade materials meant cheap ceramic was used. We are pretty careful and do try to avoid dropping things on the ceramic (obviously no one wants to drop anything on ceramic floor!) but we have noticed over time little chips have been appearing. You might ask how we noticed these chips...well they look like dirt spots. Since my floors tend to be dirty on most occasions, these spots were very noticeable.

Since I am in no position to tear out all the flooring, let alone the damaged tiles, I needed to find a solution to combat my ever growing ceramic tile chip population. What did I come up with? Porcelain chip repair paint!!! In Canada we have a product called Porc-A-Fix. 

I am not sure if you all have it in the US, but I know Rustoleum makes a very similar product. What is it is a really small bottle of paint (similar to nail polish) that is used to touch up appliances, sinks and bathtubs. It comes in a variety of colors, so chance are you can find the one that is pretty close to your floor color. At under $5 per bottle, it was worth it for me to give it a try.

My floor color varies between cream, taupe, beige so I was went with the bone color. I tested the color on a spare tile I had in the garage that the builder left behind and since my floor has a variance in color, I really was able to hide the repaired chips very well.

It was very easy to do since the paint comes with a little mini brush in the bottle. Simply paint it over the chip and let it dry. This paint tends to have a gloss to it, so I applied it a bit at a time to avoid a really shiny spot. I also ran a fine grit sandpaper over the painted spot when the paint dried to scuff it a bit to cut down the sheen.

Here is my after:

To be honest I don’t even see them anymore when I am standing. If I get down on the floor or look very closely I can see the spots. Keep in mind that you might not get an absolute perfect match, but in my opinion, if you get pretty close to your floor color, it is far better than a light tile with large black spot on it.

Here is the before and after again. Before:

After:

Much better! The best part is this is permanent and will withstand my infrequent washings :)

Do any of you have chipped ceramic tile? How have you addressed this problem?