Painting exterior floor tiles - doable?

[Lawry]

Hi, Anyone had any experience/ advice on painting exterior floor tiles?

These are terracotta (maybe glazed?) in a porch-way outside a front door, they are under some cover but still get hit by some rain, and also of course foot traffic.

Problem is the tiles are 15+ years old, some are cracked/ chipped and we cant find exact replacements, but we can source the same size/ thickness in a similar colour, so we had the idea of painting over them all once repaired. Plus we'd like to change the colour, and painting would be a fraction of the cost of ripping up the whole area and re-tiling..

I've found some stuff online that says its possible, but mixed results and durability of finish

What do you reckon, do-able? any recommended products/ brands of paint, advice on sealing, undercoats, topcoats?

thanks

 

[The Y-man]

Maybe paving paint?

http://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?q=paving paint

The Y-man

 

[fernfurn]

We have painted paving paint over concrete and it does wear off over time. Would you put a thin screedof concrete over them and retile, or would this bring the patio higher than the front step?

 

[Lawry]

thanks for that link. its the kind of paint i am considering using, just wondering if anyone has any experience/ advice before I buy/ try it out...

 

[Lawry]

I think if we were going to re-tile we'd pull them all off and sort out the base layer first, which we will probably do one day. this is just a possible interim cheapie approach..

 

[wylie]

One of the Selling Houses Australia episodes from last year sometime showed them spraying a coat over the back patio and pool area. The cost was not cheap (couple of thousand from memory) but much cheaper than retiling. If you google the show, you may find the episode and even the product used.

It looked a bit like the thin sprayed layer over driveways. This layer does wear off driveways over time, but on a pool/patio area without vehicles driving on it, perhaps it would stand up well enough. You would have to be careful dragging furniture on it though, I guess.

We have a similar problem to you... never sealed our tiles. We are undecided whether to tile over the top, timber over the top or do nothing (our choice so far ).