Can you put microcement over existing tiles? (Yes — here's how)

Easily the most common question in a first-call: "can you go straight over my existing tiles?" Most of the time the answer is yes, and it is the single best decision you can make for the budget — no lifting, no skip, no week of dust and noise.

What needs to be true for tile overlay to work

• The tiles are sound. No drumming when tapped, no loose corners, no cracked grout lines wide enough to swallow a coin.
• The substrate behind them doesn't move. Concrete and screed: perfect. Solid plasterboard on noggins: usually fine. Springy timber floors: needs reinforcement first.
• They are clean and degreased. Kitchen splashbacks need particular attention here.
• Grout lines are filled flush. Anything deeper than 2 mm grouts up first with a polymer-modified filler.

How we prepare them

1. Vacuum, degrease and key the glaze with a diamond pad.
2. Prime with a tile-specific resin primer (different chemistry to a screed primer).
3. Bed full fibreglass mesh into the first base coat across every tile and join.
4. Two further base coats and two finish coats, each hand-trowelled.
5. Two seal coats of 2K polyurethane.

When tile overlay is the wrong call

• Tiles are drumming or have failed grout — they will telegraph through the microcement within months.
• The room is being completely re-fitted anyway (new sanitaryware, new layout) — at that point the cost of lifting is marginal and the result is cleaner.
• The existing tile build-up has already eaten the door clearance.

What it saves you

A typical Cornish bathroom: £900 – £1,400 in tile removal, skip hire and substrate making-good. Two to three working days off the schedule. And a vastly less disruptive renovation for the household.

Send us photos of your tiles and we'll tell you honestly whether overlay is the right call. Drop us a line.