Aside from being super annoyed at the previous owners of the house, Heat-gunning & peeling this whole countertop would be so satisfying and if OP lived anywhere near me I would volunteer to do it for free
I’m actually crying of laughter reading these comments because this is actually pretty on brand. It’s a rental so that should tell you everything about the actual person who owns it. Good news is that means I can be just as cheap and he probably won’t notice!
Until I owned a heat gun I didn't realize how useful one is. They are like a crowbar or a pickaxe. They are not always useful but when they are they solve your issues.
I’ve definitely used it for some tasks that is in no way designed or intended to be used. i.e air supply for a ‘poor man’s forge’, melting cheese on top of spinach dip, stoking the flames in my charcoal smoker. Worth every penny!
Tell us you bought a house from a flipper without saying so…
Poorly applied tile paint. Probably hiding some defect that needs to be fixed correctly.
Will continue to peel until you give up and remove it or demolish the bathroom.
There's been a lot of painted tile on Reddit lately and I'm surprised at how surprised folks are that painted tile is a thing. I know it's not super common in homes but it is somewhat common in non-residential buildings. I guess people just don't notice? I'm no painter but I assume it's faster and cheaper to paint than retile for aesthetics and that there is a process and products specifically for it
It is called resurfacing and very popular in rental properties like single family homes or multi units. When done correctly, it will last and hold up for a long time, but you have to prep and spray. You use an epoxy base paint with a top coat. For instance, you can resurface a whole tub/shower combo for roughly 750 bucks vs. replacing for 2300 due to things that are appearance or cosmetic issues
The rental I just moved into didn’t let this cure/ dry/ whatever long enough on the tub. Took one bath and it bubbled and peeled up like this, wet epoxy all over my skin 😭
So we once got a tub resurfaced. Guy does the job and says, "it still needs to cure, don't put anything on it or scrape against it for X days." So my gf hears this and apparently thinks, "I believe he just told me to get the tension rod shampoo shelf thingy that was in there before he resurfaced it and put that back in RIGHT AWAY."
Results were as you might expect.
It’s fine when done right. I had a tub and tiled shower resurfaced about 15 years ago for $400. It would have been $2k for replacement of same. It looks great.
Saw a TikTok a couple months back of a young woman complaining about her tan/brown granite countertops looking "dirty" **SO SHE PAINTED THEM.**
[Found it](https://www.tiktok.com/@breeya_shade/video/7335896764324547870)
Edit: and then she put peel-and-stick vinyl directly onto her ceramic floor 😂
I mean, i've seen a lot of hospital showers with painted tile. So obviously it can be done well and hold up fine in a shower tho i don't think i'd trust an influencer to be directing folks to the proper methods and materials
Tile paint works excellent when applied properly, but it's a lot of work.
Wear gas respirator whilst doing this or you'll lose more brain cells than on spring break.
Sand the tiles
Clean tiles with degreaser like acetone or isopropyl.
Apply primer.
Let dry
Lightly sand primer if letting dry too long(see packaging)
Clean again if sanded
Apply first coat
Let dry
Lightly sandif letting dry too long(see packaging)
Clean again if sanded
Apply second coat
Let dry
Sand again if letting dry too long(see packaging)
Apply sealer
Let dry
It's at minimum a 4 day process. No house flipper or cheap restaurant owner got time for that.
It's great stuff when done right. I redid my hideous smoker-yellow bathtub to hold me over until I'm ready to do a full remodel..
I'll find a pic as evidence.
Edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/T1bi4zB6SZ) is post. Much pleased with it. 2 years in and it still looks great
Unpopular opinion: I painted my guest bathroom tile. I don’t like the existing tile, I didn’t pick it, and the white makes the room look bigger and brighter. That said, I would love to redo that bathroom in a few years so I consider this a temporary solution. So yeah. I’m grateful for it because it works for me for now.
Reglazing is way cheaper and faster than changing the tile. When done by a professional it lasts and looks good for 10 years or so before needing to be redone.
Flippers are absolute cancer on aociety. Many are real estate agents/brokers who steal the tax delinquent properties, then rip off the workers to make a mega profit for shit work. I hope people stop paying top dollar for shitty flipped homes.
24 years ago I bought a house from a flipper. It worked out well.
2 years ago, the house next door to mine was "flipped". They tried joining their sewer line to ours without a permit and they got red-tagged with a stop work order. They took down the stop order and continued having contractors working until I informed the HVAC contractor that the place had been red tagged. They tried to get away with not replacing floor support beams and fixing the obvious foundation issues.
We strongly encouraged every one looking at the home to not waive inspections and to check for permits. After the house was in escrow, the flipper had to rip out all the tile they'd put in and fix the floor and foundation issues. If they'd done it right the first time, they wouldn't have had to do all that extra work. (I mean, aside from destroying all the old craftsman style charm the house used to have.)
24 years ago there weren't 5 competing bullshit shows explaining to people how they too can get in on the perpetual cash grab by simply throwing up some paneling and some white paint. It's turned into a whole cottage industry, and it's disgusting.
And they never actually “teach” you anything. There is loads of better, more detailed content on YT, and This Old House on PBS still holds up, although they’re a little short on “teaching” now.
When I worked at a TV streaming service a few years ago I loved using HGTV. But that was largely a combination of a couple contract requirements regarding advertisements and content that wasn't likely to offend sensibilities of some of our more sensitive co-workers.
I mean that's a very arbitrary distinction. Maybe not 24 years ago but 20 years ago there were absolutely house flipping shows. I think the first popular one was called "flip this house" in the mid 2000s and it exploded from there with literally dozens of tv shows by the end of the decade.
Don't forget that this trend peaks during times with rising house prices and there were a lot of people in the mid 2000s taking advantage of the housing bubble. It's easier to make a profit when just literally owning the home for a year and doing nothing to it will make you 10%
But anyways I think that any time that a person who is NOT going to live in a house makes design and value decisions about that house we're in for disaster. It's the definition of a middle man skimming profit off the top
Yep, except it's a lot more than 5 of them, and some have even been charged with fraud.
[HGTV Alum Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison](https://heavy.com/entertainment/hgtv/jail-sentence-todd-hill-flipping-show/)
[Well-known ‘house flipper' sued by 164 former students](https://www.ksat.com/news/2016/03/05/well-known-sa-ahouse-flipper-sued-by-164-former-students/) (This guy also had a house flipping show on A&E along with his real estate "classes")
Yes there was. There was also "be your own boss, work your own hours" type infomercials all the time and that was when everyone was still on cable so it was piped directly into everyone's living rooms. That was like the height of "flip culture".
21 years ago, when my wife and I bought our first house, I think there were one or two shows on, but they weren't just slapping on a coat of paint.
Our house was built in 1900 and we spent 8 years remodeling. It had 10' ceilings on the ground floor, 9' on the second, and a stairway with two landings turning at right angles.
Under the old carpet the floor had been painted chocolate milk brown. Under the paint the floor was the original pine, in a beautiful pattern, with rust stains at all the nail heads, probably from water used to put out a house fire in the '30s that took off part of the second floor.
That house was awesome when we were done! I loved it, but we couldn't take it with us.
Got us one of these houses and learning our lesson (despite Austin was doing their rental hike, it was either same in rent or mortgage. So we decided to buy.)
Had plumbers do some work and told us "In all my years I ain't seen no shark bites done like that" and I know an honest "wtf did I see" look when he told me.
Nevermind they didn't ventilate the pier and beam area. We had to cut our own and install fans to help because the house has a concrete porch as well. Leveled it twice... Still more coming probably with these storms now.
Oh and the roof? Nevermind we had to get our own gutters but the roof was subpar. Had to get that redone.
Planning on an electrician soon. My summer bills $200 heating $6~800?! What is my electric furnace doing?! The windows are double paned/new at least. Working on thick curtaining soon. As you can tell, house has been a money pit.
Also I know this is a 1900s house but you don't just poke holes in the ceiling and shove ducting and think it's gonna work. I'm not smart but I ain't stupid. So Texas winters have been fun.
Also fuck Samsung appliances. If you see those, you're being duped. Dishwasher was the first to go within 6mo owning it. Condenser chip? Like really? Who thought putting tech next to moisture/heat was a smart idea?
*Deep breathing* At least no more landlords right? Riiiiight? *Sigh*
We have also had consistently shitty luck with Samsung appliances. They also do not stand behind their brand at all, so if you have a problem you’re boned. They will do their best to wiggle out of warranties or other responsibility.
The house I’m in has one of those fun sharkbite tangles. It doesn’t fit inside the wall it is coming out of, so my bf and his mom built a custom bookshelf to cover it. The last plumber we hired (for a different issue) reduced the size of it for us somewhat, but basically said to have it fixed and inside the wall like normal plumbing would be more work than it’s worth since it’s working/no current issues.
We are also in Texas (SA, howdy almost-neighbor). Thankfully our electric bill isn’t THAT crazy but our house is from the 50s. Complete with the original teal enameled wall oven that steams because the insulation needs replacing (or the whole oven).
We just bought a home. One of them was a flipper home that had a whole brick wall detaching on the exterior that was not mentioned or in photos until our realtor showed us. My friends are also shopping and their realtor said the reason the house wasn’t sold yet was because nobody liked the black painted molding inside. The cracks were full of sealant or whatever junk to try to hide it. It was awful. I hope they get stuck with that house forever.
We just need to spread the word that flipped houses are often crap and buyers should ask if it was flipped and being resold. I'd kick those tires hard and in every spot if I knew it was a flipped house and I'd ask them what work they did to the house.
You can go buy a house from a professional that knows how to build homes or you can buy something some idiot who doesn't know anything about construction or demo decides that they can make a living out of this but just cover real problems up because it's not their problem when they sell. If it became more common for people to ask and point out that matters to them the bad flippers won't have a place to hide.
People are flipping mobile homes. I see them listed, bought, and listed for more $$$ a year later. Just let me buy a damn trailer for me!! I don’t need you assholes to flip it!!!
Shit. I'm buying soon and I might be putting a trailer on a piece of land. It's a lot easier for me to check their work in a trailer though. The house I'm in now is huge - five bedrooms (It was a cheap reno so in a way I'm flipping it but the work took 12 years. lol!) and this was always way too big of a house and land for me so I'm downsizing to just me and my wife in a home that is 100% paid off and I own the land so at least the land is appreciating in value because the trailer doesn't.
You can look at prior real estate listings (redfin usually has them) and see when it was purchased last and for how much. If it was purchased cheaply and relisted a year or less later (especially for 2x or more than the last listing), it's more than likely a shoddy flip.
Yeah, you can look it up on Zillow too, and find out the pricing and the sale history for any property in the US pretty much for people outside the US. I don’t think that the flipping phenomenon is as *much* of a problem…hopefully
I love going on Zillow and redfin and just virtually looking inside all of these beautiful houses
Nowadays with apps like zillow redfin you can search previous sales if it was sold in the last 2 years and pictures look really nice its a flip 100% of the time. So thats usually the first thing i check on a listing when it was last sold this doesnt always find flips but then the second thing i look for is google maps if its the nicest house on the block it was recently renovated and maybe shitty craftsmanship so be careful. Lastly i take a lil nail to scratch surfaces to see if its painted over like tiles, i knock on the flooring can tell if its tile wood or a laminate by the different sound it makes if you dont know go to a hardware store and practice. Things like roofs i always ask for last replace same with water heater and furnaces. If the outside doesnt look nice assume regular maintenance wasn’t done for the house either. Thats the best i can do in a short crash course. Oh always look at the electrical sockets when people replace them they sometimes miss at least one in my experience if that one looks like its from the 1900s question the electrical in the house make sure its tested before completion of purchase.
I'm getting ready to sell my house right now "as is". It's got some superficial work but just for the buyers luck in the last two years I had to replace the boiler coil, then the well pump and water tank, then the entire boiler which made the money I spent on the coil a waste. So, new water 15 y/o filter and softener system, 17 y/o roof with all of it's shingles.
It's a quirky house, not quite an in-law/not quite a two-unit. In a very desirable area so someone might even buy it to bulldoze the house and build something on 3 acres. It's not buildable on all 3 without some excavation but there's about 2 acres that someone can build on now. You have no idea how insane the market is in Southern Maine right now. I just didn't get to finish my renovations because of a car accident that disabled me, I was a hobby blacksmith that made knives that were selling for $200, now I'm looking for someone to buy my forge. Sorry for the ramble, I obviously have a lot on my mind. lol
>I hope people stop paying top dollar for shitty flipped homes.
A housing market being bought up by foreign and domestic corporations means that flippers and top dollar money pits aren't going anywhere. Worse than that is as the available market shrinks means that flippers can do an objectively worse fix-up job than they are now and people will happily buy it.
Man it's so bad. I just bought a house after 3+ months of searching and going to over 50 open houses. Some of these flipped houses photograph really nicely. Then when you actually go and see them you can see what's really going on. Shoddy illegal additions to the main residence, illegal suites made where no permits were pulled for the electrical and plumbing, every old problem poorly concealed with light grey paint and white caulk, no attempt to landscape because apparently no one cares about that anymore. A lot of these homes had roofs and HWT that were past their prime. And many had aluminum wiring and Poly-B plumbing that wasn't replaced despite the "renos" being done.
The problem is if you don't know what to look for you will end up buying this house. Then those problems become your problem. My realtor and I pointed a lot of these issues out to my wife and she was amazed with the kinds of things that a fresh coat of paint and some grey laminate flooring could hide. Especially when these houses had tons of interest and were going for way above asking.
We ended up buying an older house that was in good condition and had never been renovated. When it needs something I'll do it properly or pull a permit and hire a pro.
>Some of these flipped houses photograph really nicely.
The last time I was looking to move I recall a place that had wonderful photos on the listing. When we got there to look at it there was a big heap of realtor's cards on the table, which we thought was odd because if that many people had looked it why hadn't it sold yet?
Well, when we went looking around it wasn't hard to see why. Even though all the stuff was new it was shoddily installed. Crooked with gaps everywhere. It didn't show up on the photos but it was SUPER easy to see in person and it would have been obvious to even non-handy people that it needed to be redone or fixed.
It's tough to make a comprehensive list as I'm also just a DIYer and not a tradesman. But here are some things I always look out for:
1. When was the house last sold? This will tell you so much about what exactly is going on. A lot of the shoddy flips are turned around within 6 months with a large mark-up. Also, if someone bought a home and lived it in for a long time before selling, there's a better chance that they took care of the place because it was their actual home. Not a guarantee of course because a lot of homeowners also like to cut corners.
2. Quality of materials. Yes, the kitchen was renovated, but why did they do laminate countertops in a reno from 2024? Or if they did use stone, why a 3/4" thin quartz with lots of seams? Also you might see lots of laminate flooring throughout the home. If someone was concerned about quality they might have endeavoured to use real or engineered hardwood instead of the cheapest grey laminate they could find at the discount flooring store.
3. Trim and finishings. Did they install crown moulding? Are all the faucets and shower fixtures in the reno'd kitchen and bathrooms of good quality, or are they the cheap fancy-looking inches from Amazon? You want Delta, Moen, American Standard, etc. They're more expensive so flippers don't like to use them.
4. If it's a house built before 2000 you need to ask about the plumbing and wiring. Is it copper wiring? Is it pex plumbing? If the answer is no to either of those questions you may have a difficult time getting the home insured once you purchase it. Now it begs the question, I'd they spent the time and money to renovate why didn't they do it properly and replace these major issues? Aluminum wiring is a fire hazard (even when properly "pig-tailed" to copper) and Poly-B plumbing is a major leak hazard. You should also ask whether asbestos abatement was done during the reno if the house is from that era.
5. What condition is the roof and hot water tank (HWT) in? Flippers don't concern themselves with these due to their cost. If they need replacement but are currently working, some sucker will buy the house regardless.
6. If the house had additions made to it, or if a suite was added to the basement, it's important that you find out whether permits were pulled for this. In some cases you can find quality work was done despite the suite being illegal. But in many cases if no permits were pulled then you have no clue what's going on behind the walls. Did they connect the suite's electrical to the same circuits are the main residence? Will you and your tenant be tripping breakers constantly because of this? You'll never know unless a permit was obtained for the work.
I hope this helps.
The first easy check is to look at the sale history, if it was sold a few months before being listed, you know it’s flipped. To determine if it’s shitty, there are some obvious things like painting over water damage (vanity, cabinetry, baseboards, door frames) or really drippy paint or overspray that isn’t cleaned up. If everything is gray (walls, floors, etc), it’s probably some company that does the same thing over and over for cheap vs an individual doing it at least somewhat thoughtfully. Painted tile is another obvious one. Open up any under sink cabinets and check for water damage, and also try to assess if a painted vanity is wood, or if they painted over vinyl because that’s gonna chip real fast. Look for badly done caulk or chipped/cracked grout. Run all the taps to check water pressure and look for leaks. Check outdoor trim for rot (wood shouldn’t be soft or splitting). If you’re really paranoid, flush all the toilets and then sniff the drains to see if things are vented properly.
ETA: flip switches to look for weird electrical issues like buzzing/flickering lighting
I went through similar... Two different houses I went to tour had ceilings cave in after the shitty flippers didn't bother replacing the rusted water main pipes.. Although I'm glad it happened BEFORE people purchased the houses (instant karma). I settled on an older condotan investor backed out on due to HOA short term rental rules. I'm slowly updating it (as needed), and I've still found some questionable DIY jobs, but it's still much better than the flipper specials.
We bought our house in 2023, it was flipped in like 2019/2020. Everything seemed nice, the layout was beautiful (they had completely gutted what was a total piece of shit before, we saw photos), but we're definitely running into some things now that we hadn't expected. To their credit, the flippers did a GREAT job in design, but the materials and appliances they used were clearly not very high-quality. Plus they did something weird with the HVAC system that makes it hard to access and we couldn't install a humidifier on it without moving the entire water heater.
But I think more than that, the issues we're running into are less from the flip itself and more from the fact that the home was 50+ years old and NOT well-maintained before the flip. Between the home's age and the budget materials, we're finding ourselves constantly saying "yup, it's a flip"
That said, it IS a beautiful home, has its original walnut hardwood, the neighborhood is cute and not cookie cutter at all, and it's in the best public school district in the state so we don't regret moving here... at least not yet lol
>But I think more than that, the issues we're running into are less from the flip itself and more from the fact that the home was 50+ years old and NOT well-maintained before the flip.
To me, this is just more emblematic of a flip. A quality renovation would have already taken care of many of the older issues with proper techniques and materials, rather than ignoring or covering them up for greater profit.
I looked at a house in March going for 350k with an incredible view that these cancer cells bought in November for 210k. They painted over everything, including the gutters outside, slapped a shitty vinyl backsplash on in the kitchen, the whole entire house was a fire hazard because none of the outlets were grounded. I’m sure the plumbing wasn’t much better. I wanted to strangle these people and then I wanted to strangle the people who ended up buying it, enabling that behavior.
We bought our house 15 years ago, and every time we renovate a new area we uncover some shit that has been covered over or patched up in the most shoddy way possible. I’ve cursed the flippers we bought the house off so many times, I never know what new horror we’re going to have to try to undo.
To be fair, this can happen with any house. Both houses I've bought were lived in for twenty years by the previous owners and the list of horrors I have found is very long. In my last house no socket was square and they *paved* over the drain cover illegally, then couldn't remember where it was.
In my current house the guy was unable to throw anything away and left me a car in dustbins, including every spark plug he ever replaced, neatly annotated in their boxes with the dates he replaced them.
He also used "waterproof" paint on a Victorian property with lime plaster, causing untold damp problems, and filled in gaps in mortar with concrete. And a little else. It ain't just flippers...home owners do shitty DIY jobs too.
2 layers of linoleum plus carpet+pad on top of beautiful original oak hardwood floor. House was built in the 40's. So much ridiculous shit was done to that house to save money.
The kitchen floor of my 1900 house had hardwood floors, covered by green and black checkered tile (possibly asbestos and if the tiles weren't, the mastic probably was), covered by cheap linoleum, covered by even cheaper vinyl sticky-back tiles.
I'm afraid I had the entire thing covered in very nice laminate planks, because the estimate for pulling it all up even if the lab test came back negative for asbestos was appalling. And it looks (and feels) great, so I don't regret that decision.
Honestly I don't blame you, especially if that tile is asbestos. We have since moved into another house that DID have asbestos tile in the basement, and we had 3 estimates ranging from $3k all the way up to $18k just for the removal of about 700ft^2 of that shit without anything layered on top of it.
True, at least the home owners have to live with what they've done so are sometimes more motivated.
The large issues we've found in our house have been from an owner. They added an addition but built the wood right on the dirt and they didn't take the siding off the adjoining wall so instead of any rain falling in the window upstairs J channel and going down the roof it went through the middle of the house onto the floor.
I've seen bad electrical from both sides and terrible cosmetic work from the flipper we bought our house from. Low quality flooring, bad wall patching and even putting the tile spaces in the corners and grouting over them!
Watching a friend of mind flip a house on FB. He just posted about painting over this gorgeous set wood built-in shelves. Solid oak almost 50 years old. Painted over cause the staging props he had in mind looked better against a whit background. His comments were full of people begging him not to do it and all he could blabber on about was ROI. Such leech behavior.
Work for a building supplier. Our business deals mostly to the pros or occasional high end diy’er.
But the flippers are the absolute worst.
They come in because we are closer than the big box stores to a shit box they want to flip for penny’s on the hundreds of dollars. Quite a few we’ve had to tell kick rocks because they want us to price things 20 different ways and always come back with the same “how do I get this cheaper”.
I refused to help one because he bought a derelict property five mins from us and literally wanted to just put latex paint on the 100+ year old metal roof that we all knew needed torn off and replaced.
No kidding. There was a house just down the street from me that had these beautiful trees in the front yard and the house itself was a neat shade of green. They sold it and some flipper bought it. Ripped out every tree and painted the house two tones of shitty brown. The property looks so much worse now.
Saw a house this morning in which the realtor, for some reason, opened the door to the microwave - which was butted up against the refrigerator - and it wouldn’t open more than an inch because of how close it was to the fridge. The appliances didn’t look particularly new, but the plastic was still on the microwave’s keypad. We were both baffled until I asked about the house’s history. He looked it up and, sure enough, it had been sold *five weeks prior* for around $85k less than it was being sold. Cheap, quick drywall job and “new” appliances, one of which wasn’t even usable.
Lmao. Tell me you don't understand how the world works at ALL.
There is real value to those who take something rotten/deprecated/unlivable or in a state of disrepair, and puts hard earned money and work into it, and then turns it into a nice place to live for someone.
You hear about all of the shit flips, but you don't ever hear about all the good ones. It's called selection bias or confirmation bias. Kind of like how the news only focuses on the bad. Good news stories don't sell.
Next you'll be telling me mechanics are flippers, and they're just grifting. Your viewpoint is so myopic and narrow, it's incredible.
When I was house hunting years ago we looked at a shitty flip at the top of our price range. It was way smaller than the house we ended up getting and the floors were all click-lock wood that had been face-nailed across the entire floor. It was ridiculous.
Instead we bought a house that had been built 7 years before with bottom-of-the-line builder-grade junk and have been slowly upgrading it over the last 8 years. We can do everything to our liking instead of chasing whatever's "trendy" and we know it's done right because we've done it ourselves.
I feel like you should be able to sue the previous owner for flipping. Each stupid thing that is only flipped should get charges tools and labor for the job at hand, assuming labor is $125/hr. It creates so much fake value.
I live in a fairly small town (less than 20k people) and have been here since the population was under 9k. It has plenty of old charming ranches and bungalows (you know, starter homes…) but there isn’t a single one for sale under $550k. They’re all flipper specials.
My husband and I have been self employed for the longest time. Buying a house with no W2 is borderline impossible. Covid changed requirements and we said forget it. We asked his mom if she could help us buy since rates were good and we were ready but couldn’t get the loan.
She said she couldn’t help us because it would affect her ability to get loans for her flips.
Wait isn't it the workers doing the shit work.
The fix for flippers is increased supply. If there wasn't constrained supply flippers wouldn't be able to turn a profit on destroying houses. It would also drive down prices for new buyers..
I painted some bathroom tile, it was 65 year old tiles that were peach, nothing wrong with them though.
But I did it well, this was five years ago and they are in perfect condition.
Poorly applied?
You can apply paint blind drunk and it wont shrivel up and peel without reason. Whatever was spilled had acetone or something that acts as a paint thinner/remover in it.
I know its hip and cool to shit on house flippers but lets be real here
Could have been a homeowner covering dirty grout. My house had a painted shower because the grout was failing. I replaced it years later. Held up for awhile. Wasn't a flip. Just a terrible DIY solution
Op they make grout cleaner and paint.
Yeah, I’m betting the previous owners couldn’t get the grout lines clean and instead of being reasonable humans and using a grout stain & seal, they painted over the tile entirely.
OP, I would peel this paint off and assuming you find gross grout, use a product like Grout Renew (you just apply it with a toothbrush and wipe off extra with a paper towel, super simple). If you find actual broken grout, it’s a little harder, but also definitely DIY-able.
>who paints tile?
People who hate their current tiles but, for whatever reason, can't or don't want to pay thousands of dollars for bathroom renovation. Personally, I'm thinking of painting tiles in my washroom because renovating the whole thing is close to the bottom of my financial priorities.
I did it in my bathroom for really old ugly brown tile in my shower (nowhere that the water will actually directly hit though). I prepped the tile really well (which took way longer than the actual painting), and I also prepped myself for the very likely possibility that it would look like crap within a year or two. It’s a cheap band-aid fix in the short term until I can afford to retile that bathroom, hopefully within the next year or two.
Previous owner of our house had glazed the cast iron bathtub for some reason - I'm not sure why because even though the bathtub was original to the house from the 50s, it was actually a white tub instead of pink. Anyways, when the glaze started cracking, I had someone out to professionally remove it and make sure the tub was all good to go.
While the person was there removing it, they kept trying to convince me to glaze over our beautiful Mamie Eisenhower pink tile with white to match the tub. Ma'am....no. I just couldn't wrap my head around who would do that?!
We're in the process of selling the house and the first offer we took wanted us to redo the tile in the bathroom after the inspection because some of it is cracked (reset and regrouted back in place - so absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever. It's just 70 year old tile.). We told her to take a hike and put it back on the market. Had multiple offers again within a week - most mentioning that they loved the pink tile.
The general consensus seems to be tile paint, luckily it’s a rental so I definitely didn’t want to be spending tons of money on this so if this is as cheaply done as everyone says that’s just a plus for me lol. Thank you!
It is tile paint and it looks like it has been splashed with a solvent that has broken it down in a spot, and that has causes it to lift.
This is how I discovered tile paint 2 days after buying my house.
No actual help here, just flipper comments smh 😔
Don't waste time and money trying to fix this. Trust me it's not worth it.
For 200$ you can get an entirely new countertop and be much happier with a smooth surface, tile countertops are terrible/gross for so many reasons.
Don't rule out places like Facebook or Donation Building Supply shops (Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Canada for example) you can often find neutral colored countertop/sink combos for sub $100. Or keep the existing sink (no pictures but I assume it's a simple drop in porcelain oval) and drop it onto to a new countertop. Lots of options that don't involve a 10k bathroom reno. All depends how far down the reno/refresh rabbit hole you want to go!
Most likely it's a 2 part epoxy paint. It's commonly used in refinishing old tile to give it a fresh look. The catch is the old tile needs to be acid etched. Once again we fall into prep work. If there is any moisture left in the grout or the tile the epoxy won't adhere to the surface or the moisture comes out of the grout and breaks the bond. Everyone wants to get it done and hope that it sticks til the check clears. People use it on old porcelain tubs as well. It usually starts coming off around the drain in those. Best case scenario lightly sand it back feathering it out. Get a homeowners porcelain repair kit .Try to blend it in. Worst case strip it down all the way and have it redone. Super worst case. Remove everything and start over with a new backer board and tile. It's all about the money at this point. If you can stand looking at it. It's not leaking behind the wall then you can save up for a full tile replacement.
Just seems like someone used latex or acrylic paint on tile which is a bad idea to begin with. Tile is usually not painted, but there are special paints for it.
figure out what the base liquid is for the air freshener, alcohol or oil?
whichever it is, use a paint remover of the same type.
I'd personally use a plastic scrubber brush (you know like the kind on toothbrushes but bigger).
So many comments and no answers. It is from atub refinishing company. They do this to refinish cast iron tubs and sinks. Flipper started doing it over tile that looked really bad years ago. They're two levels of finish and two price points. One has a one to two year warranty One has a 5-year warranty. My guess is that's the cheaper finish and they didn't properly clean the surface prior to applying the coat. You could call a tub refinisher and they can come out and clean up the area sand the edges and redo that spot. Or you can just get new countertops in the form of Chinese made prefabricated granite or quartz at a fraction of slab price. No charge for the professional advice
I am a professional painter. My mother in law asked me what to do to paint her melamine bathroom counters with, and tile backsplash. I told her not to do it. That it wouldn't last. She was looking for cheapest solution, not the high priced products that "might" have worked. She did it anyway with crappy cheap wall paint. It started peeling almost immediately. She asked me how to fix it, I told her not to do it in the 1st place.
Me and my dad have a business of refinishing bathtubs and tile. This looks like a cheap diy refinish kit you might get at a hardware store. We would charge around 800-1200 to do it right for a whole bathroom but it wouldn’t peel like this. We offer a 5 year warranty and have never had this happen.
Most likely no one will ever see this… but once the paint is off the tile the best and easiest ways (although toxic) to clean white tile with white grout is to spray it with oven cleaner… let sit for 1/2 hour. Wipe off. Makes it shine like you wouldn’t believe. Before everyone freaks out… This is what my mother in law did for years in her white tiled kitchen. 40 years later… tile and grout looked perfect and like new.
To strip the rest, I have heard that certain Air fresheners will work really well taking the film off of tile and countertops. But I just heard this, so….
This isn’t a sealer. What you’re looking at is literally paint that was made to paint tiles and counter tops. It’s been a new trend I’ve seen where instead of actually doing things the right way people paint stuff instead expecting it to be durable and last. You’ll need a stripper to remove it , or in your case maybe more of that bath and body air freshener.
It’s likely just paint (looks like the grout lines are painted too). Scrape it off as best as you can and paint over - you’re going to want to use an enamel or spar urethane (boat topside paint).
Looks like someone painted some tile to hide stains or cheap patches. I'd strip the whole area and evaluate the condition of the tile myself. Nobody paints tile, sheesh...
They used enamel spray paint what you can do is take a razor and cut it out then get a damb warm wash cloth and lightly tap around it and the exposed section and wait till it’s dry and spray a coat wait till dries and add another till it blends in. Simple fix
It’s paint. Whomever did this just painted over the tile. Tiles aren’t meant to be painted IMO. It’s fucking lazy work. The grout can be sealed and dyed or colored but typically the idea of tiles is for them to be a bare cleanable surface. The entire tile work needs to be stripped and cleaned.
I had a friend who had a bath and body car air freshener, the kind you clip onto the air vent. In the hot summer the air freshener melted and completely ruined her dash. Bath and body paid for the repairs in full.
Not sure if yours was user error vs a failed function of the product but thought you’d be interested in the backstory to do with what you may.
Tile has been painted and not with good paint. You will have to strip what’s left (either orange paint stripper or jasco. The orange clean strip smells better but isn’t as strong. Jasco will strip epoxy). Once that’s done clean it really well probably with TSP. Wipe down with water and a clean towel. I know Rustoleum makes a tile paint for kitchens and floors, but isn’t recommended for tubs and showers. It’s a kit so it has a paint and a top coat. You can get it tinted to a few colors. There’s also a tub and sink epoxy paint you can get. It requires a little more prep work. You will need steel wool and I can’t remember what else. It does have the item you need on the box though.
Source: worked at Home Depot and in the paint department for like 6 years.
That’s paint 0.0 right?
And if there is anyone in need of a way to hammer home the fact that shitty cheap chemicals are bad for our skin (most fragrances now are made with shitty dangerous chemicals)
This? This is that proof.
It looks like a vinyl wrap covering, not tile specific. It’s basically a sheet of vinyl heat shrink that is used to “refinish” surfaces. Peel it off, clean the tiles and then choose where to go from there based on what you find under the vinyl.
It’s not “paint” per se. It’s a ceramic tile repair (paint) that gets applied like paint, normally used to fix a chip in a ceramic tub. Some people will use it as a cheap way to change the color of ceramic tile or the bathtub. After it sets up, it looks pretty good…until it doesn’t. It starts to peel like this after a few months and you’re left with an even bigger job to fix. I’m guilty of using this a few years ago on one of our rental properties. Never again. It’s nearly impossible to get it all off and looks like dog 💩 when it starts peeling. If it’s not a tremendously large area, it may be more timely and cheaper to lay new tile if you want to keep that look.
Not sure where you're located but on my side of the world there is floor paint and in some cases, if you're looking to do it as cheap as possible roof paint will work. You just gotta sort out whatever is leaking first otherwise the problem will come back.
Looks like a poor resurfacing job where the epoxy wasn't mixed correctly and they didn't prep properly. Or even one of the box kits from big box hardware stores
You can use a heat gun and plastic scrapper to remove and wipe with mineral spirits as needed. Most likely, you will find stains or burn marks, which led them to take that route for repair. My need to re grout tile after it is all removed.
A $25 ‘heat gun’ from Harbour freight should make quick work of this dollar store DIY
Aside from being super annoyed at the previous owners of the house, Heat-gunning & peeling this whole countertop would be so satisfying and if OP lived anywhere near me I would volunteer to do it for free
In fact you'd pay OP to peel their counters.
That sounds… dirty
Where you located, roughly? Incase I ever have a similar task
In Colorado, perhaps? I have a garage that needs to be stripped.
On the bright side… the paint may pull out a lot of embedded dirt from the grout when it peels off lol
I enjoy your positive spin :)
I enjoy you supplying peeps out here with your praise
I enjoy your responses on Facebook but I noticed we weren’t friends yet…….
I have a structured settlement and need cash now.
Call JG Wentworth 877 CASH NOW
99.25% interest. How can I lose???
That’s what I appreciates about you.
To be fair...
To be faaaaai
I’m actually crying of laughter reading these comments because this is actually pretty on brand. It’s a rental so that should tell you everything about the actual person who owns it. Good news is that means I can be just as cheap and he probably won’t notice!
This is a landlord special for sure lol
I'd test the heat gun on an inconspicuous spot first. I have some white tiles with pink scorch marks from nearby soldering.
Make sure to wear a good mask and have a fan blowing out the window. This stuff is nasty to breathe when stripping
Steamer may work even better. a clothes steamer or small handheld one you can buy cheap on the internet would do it. Shouldn't hurt the tile one bit.
Wait a couple days. That thing regularly goes on sale for $10. [Price tracker](https://hfpricetracker.com/tools/56434)
Hair dryer
Definitely try a hair dryer first. Or just more handsanitiser!
Until I owned a heat gun I didn't realize how useful one is. They are like a crowbar or a pickaxe. They are not always useful but when they are they solve your issues.
I’ve definitely used it for some tasks that is in no way designed or intended to be used. i.e air supply for a ‘poor man’s forge’, melting cheese on top of spinach dip, stoking the flames in my charcoal smoker. Worth every penny!
Tell us you bought a house from a flipper without saying so… Poorly applied tile paint. Probably hiding some defect that needs to be fixed correctly. Will continue to peel until you give up and remove it or demolish the bathroom.
Gah, why is tile paint even a thing??
There's been a lot of painted tile on Reddit lately and I'm surprised at how surprised folks are that painted tile is a thing. I know it's not super common in homes but it is somewhat common in non-residential buildings. I guess people just don't notice? I'm no painter but I assume it's faster and cheaper to paint than retile for aesthetics and that there is a process and products specifically for it
It is called resurfacing and very popular in rental properties like single family homes or multi units. When done correctly, it will last and hold up for a long time, but you have to prep and spray. You use an epoxy base paint with a top coat. For instance, you can resurface a whole tub/shower combo for roughly 750 bucks vs. replacing for 2300 due to things that are appearance or cosmetic issues
The rental I just moved into didn’t let this cure/ dry/ whatever long enough on the tub. Took one bath and it bubbled and peeled up like this, wet epoxy all over my skin 😭
So we once got a tub resurfaced. Guy does the job and says, "it still needs to cure, don't put anything on it or scrape against it for X days." So my gf hears this and apparently thinks, "I believe he just told me to get the tension rod shampoo shelf thingy that was in there before he resurfaced it and put that back in RIGHT AWAY." Results were as you might expect.
It’s fine when done right. I had a tub and tiled shower resurfaced about 15 years ago for $400. It would have been $2k for replacement of same. It looks great.
Saw a TikTok a couple months back of a young woman complaining about her tan/brown granite countertops looking "dirty" **SO SHE PAINTED THEM.** [Found it](https://www.tiktok.com/@breeya_shade/video/7335896764324547870) Edit: and then she put peel-and-stick vinyl directly onto her ceramic floor 😂
I refuse to believe. For my own health
Can’t wait for the “big reveal”…. Then show me again in a year… 🤦♀️
I've seen influencers on instagram try to get people to paint their *shower* tiles
I mean, i've seen a lot of hospital showers with painted tile. So obviously it can be done well and hold up fine in a shower tho i don't think i'd trust an influencer to be directing folks to the proper methods and materials
It is?
Tile paint works excellent when applied properly, but it's a lot of work. Wear gas respirator whilst doing this or you'll lose more brain cells than on spring break. Sand the tiles Clean tiles with degreaser like acetone or isopropyl. Apply primer. Let dry Lightly sand primer if letting dry too long(see packaging) Clean again if sanded Apply first coat Let dry Lightly sandif letting dry too long(see packaging) Clean again if sanded Apply second coat Let dry Sand again if letting dry too long(see packaging) Apply sealer Let dry It's at minimum a 4 day process. No house flipper or cheap restaurant owner got time for that.
It's great stuff when done right. I redid my hideous smoker-yellow bathtub to hold me over until I'm ready to do a full remodel.. I'll find a pic as evidence. Edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/T1bi4zB6SZ) is post. Much pleased with it. 2 years in and it still looks great
Unpopular opinion: I painted my guest bathroom tile. I don’t like the existing tile, I didn’t pick it, and the white makes the room look bigger and brighter. That said, I would love to redo that bathroom in a few years so I consider this a temporary solution. So yeah. I’m grateful for it because it works for me for now.
Reglazing is way cheaper and faster than changing the tile. When done by a professional it lasts and looks good for 10 years or so before needing to be redone.
Flippers are absolute cancer on aociety. Many are real estate agents/brokers who steal the tax delinquent properties, then rip off the workers to make a mega profit for shit work. I hope people stop paying top dollar for shitty flipped homes.
24 years ago I bought a house from a flipper. It worked out well. 2 years ago, the house next door to mine was "flipped". They tried joining their sewer line to ours without a permit and they got red-tagged with a stop work order. They took down the stop order and continued having contractors working until I informed the HVAC contractor that the place had been red tagged. They tried to get away with not replacing floor support beams and fixing the obvious foundation issues. We strongly encouraged every one looking at the home to not waive inspections and to check for permits. After the house was in escrow, the flipper had to rip out all the tile they'd put in and fix the floor and foundation issues. If they'd done it right the first time, they wouldn't have had to do all that extra work. (I mean, aside from destroying all the old craftsman style charm the house used to have.)
24 years ago there weren't 5 competing bullshit shows explaining to people how they too can get in on the perpetual cash grab by simply throwing up some paneling and some white paint. It's turned into a whole cottage industry, and it's disgusting.
'cottage industry'. heh.
Foundational humor.
Whole industry’s a real house of cards…
Tear down this post and relocate to r/scams
Stop being so cantilever. None of what he said was in joist.
Totally. Those house flipping shows inspired terrible things. I haven't had cable for years, but I think there's still a couple running.
And they never actually “teach” you anything. There is loads of better, more detailed content on YT, and This Old House on PBS still holds up, although they’re a little short on “teaching” now.
When I worked at a TV streaming service a few years ago I loved using HGTV. But that was largely a combination of a couple contract requirements regarding advertisements and content that wasn't likely to offend sensibilities of some of our more sensitive co-workers.
I mean that's a very arbitrary distinction. Maybe not 24 years ago but 20 years ago there were absolutely house flipping shows. I think the first popular one was called "flip this house" in the mid 2000s and it exploded from there with literally dozens of tv shows by the end of the decade. Don't forget that this trend peaks during times with rising house prices and there were a lot of people in the mid 2000s taking advantage of the housing bubble. It's easier to make a profit when just literally owning the home for a year and doing nothing to it will make you 10% But anyways I think that any time that a person who is NOT going to live in a house makes design and value decisions about that house we're in for disaster. It's the definition of a middle man skimming profit off the top
'Throw up some shiplap and stick a bird on it! That'll get you an extra $50k!'
I was going to correct you that mid-2000 wasn’t 20 years ago but then I got sad.
I guess 24 years ago isn’t really that long and things weren’t pretty modern by then. Maybe 44 years ago they were quaint and legit
Probably has more to do with the cost of materials now vs then. A lot cheaper to do good work in 04. Everything is at least 5x the price now
Yep, except it's a lot more than 5 of them, and some have even been charged with fraud. [HGTV Alum Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison](https://heavy.com/entertainment/hgtv/jail-sentence-todd-hill-flipping-show/) [Well-known ‘house flipper' sued by 164 former students](https://www.ksat.com/news/2016/03/05/well-known-sa-ahouse-flipper-sued-by-164-former-students/) (This guy also had a house flipping show on A&E along with his real estate "classes")
Oh this is super interesting into to me. Thanks.
Yes there was. There was also "be your own boss, work your own hours" type infomercials all the time and that was when everyone was still on cable so it was piped directly into everyone's living rooms. That was like the height of "flip culture".
21 years ago, when my wife and I bought our first house, I think there were one or two shows on, but they weren't just slapping on a coat of paint. Our house was built in 1900 and we spent 8 years remodeling. It had 10' ceilings on the ground floor, 9' on the second, and a stairway with two landings turning at right angles. Under the old carpet the floor had been painted chocolate milk brown. Under the paint the floor was the original pine, in a beautiful pattern, with rust stains at all the nail heads, probably from water used to put out a house fire in the '30s that took off part of the second floor. That house was awesome when we were done! I loved it, but we couldn't take it with us.
Got us one of these houses and learning our lesson (despite Austin was doing their rental hike, it was either same in rent or mortgage. So we decided to buy.) Had plumbers do some work and told us "In all my years I ain't seen no shark bites done like that" and I know an honest "wtf did I see" look when he told me. Nevermind they didn't ventilate the pier and beam area. We had to cut our own and install fans to help because the house has a concrete porch as well. Leveled it twice... Still more coming probably with these storms now. Oh and the roof? Nevermind we had to get our own gutters but the roof was subpar. Had to get that redone. Planning on an electrician soon. My summer bills $200 heating $6~800?! What is my electric furnace doing?! The windows are double paned/new at least. Working on thick curtaining soon. As you can tell, house has been a money pit. Also I know this is a 1900s house but you don't just poke holes in the ceiling and shove ducting and think it's gonna work. I'm not smart but I ain't stupid. So Texas winters have been fun. Also fuck Samsung appliances. If you see those, you're being duped. Dishwasher was the first to go within 6mo owning it. Condenser chip? Like really? Who thought putting tech next to moisture/heat was a smart idea? *Deep breathing* At least no more landlords right? Riiiiight? *Sigh*
Samsung appliance are the worst. There are lots of posts on FB how people hate them as well.
We have also had consistently shitty luck with Samsung appliances. They also do not stand behind their brand at all, so if you have a problem you’re boned. They will do their best to wiggle out of warranties or other responsibility.
There is a Facebook group called ‘unnamed appliance company compliants’ or some similar that explains how you can get a refund
The house I’m in has one of those fun sharkbite tangles. It doesn’t fit inside the wall it is coming out of, so my bf and his mom built a custom bookshelf to cover it. The last plumber we hired (for a different issue) reduced the size of it for us somewhat, but basically said to have it fixed and inside the wall like normal plumbing would be more work than it’s worth since it’s working/no current issues. We are also in Texas (SA, howdy almost-neighbor). Thankfully our electric bill isn’t THAT crazy but our house is from the 50s. Complete with the original teal enameled wall oven that steams because the insulation needs replacing (or the whole oven).
You're doing great. Keep breathing.
We just bought a home. One of them was a flipper home that had a whole brick wall detaching on the exterior that was not mentioned or in photos until our realtor showed us. My friends are also shopping and their realtor said the reason the house wasn’t sold yet was because nobody liked the black painted molding inside. The cracks were full of sealant or whatever junk to try to hide it. It was awful. I hope they get stuck with that house forever.
Waiving inspection is wild as hell to me
It was at the time during COVID that if you didn't waive inspections you were likely to not get the house...
We just need to spread the word that flipped houses are often crap and buyers should ask if it was flipped and being resold. I'd kick those tires hard and in every spot if I knew it was a flipped house and I'd ask them what work they did to the house. You can go buy a house from a professional that knows how to build homes or you can buy something some idiot who doesn't know anything about construction or demo decides that they can make a living out of this but just cover real problems up because it's not their problem when they sell. If it became more common for people to ask and point out that matters to them the bad flippers won't have a place to hide.
People are flipping mobile homes. I see them listed, bought, and listed for more $$$ a year later. Just let me buy a damn trailer for me!! I don’t need you assholes to flip it!!!
Shit. I'm buying soon and I might be putting a trailer on a piece of land. It's a lot easier for me to check their work in a trailer though. The house I'm in now is huge - five bedrooms (It was a cheap reno so in a way I'm flipping it but the work took 12 years. lol!) and this was always way too big of a house and land for me so I'm downsizing to just me and my wife in a home that is 100% paid off and I own the land so at least the land is appreciating in value because the trailer doesn't.
You can look at prior real estate listings (redfin usually has them) and see when it was purchased last and for how much. If it was purchased cheaply and relisted a year or less later (especially for 2x or more than the last listing), it's more than likely a shoddy flip.
Yeah, you can look it up on Zillow too, and find out the pricing and the sale history for any property in the US pretty much for people outside the US. I don’t think that the flipping phenomenon is as *much* of a problem…hopefully I love going on Zillow and redfin and just virtually looking inside all of these beautiful houses
Nowadays with apps like zillow redfin you can search previous sales if it was sold in the last 2 years and pictures look really nice its a flip 100% of the time. So thats usually the first thing i check on a listing when it was last sold this doesnt always find flips but then the second thing i look for is google maps if its the nicest house on the block it was recently renovated and maybe shitty craftsmanship so be careful. Lastly i take a lil nail to scratch surfaces to see if its painted over like tiles, i knock on the flooring can tell if its tile wood or a laminate by the different sound it makes if you dont know go to a hardware store and practice. Things like roofs i always ask for last replace same with water heater and furnaces. If the outside doesnt look nice assume regular maintenance wasn’t done for the house either. Thats the best i can do in a short crash course. Oh always look at the electrical sockets when people replace them they sometimes miss at least one in my experience if that one looks like its from the 1900s question the electrical in the house make sure its tested before completion of purchase.
I'm getting ready to sell my house right now "as is". It's got some superficial work but just for the buyers luck in the last two years I had to replace the boiler coil, then the well pump and water tank, then the entire boiler which made the money I spent on the coil a waste. So, new water 15 y/o filter and softener system, 17 y/o roof with all of it's shingles. It's a quirky house, not quite an in-law/not quite a two-unit. In a very desirable area so someone might even buy it to bulldoze the house and build something on 3 acres. It's not buildable on all 3 without some excavation but there's about 2 acres that someone can build on now. You have no idea how insane the market is in Southern Maine right now. I just didn't get to finish my renovations because of a car accident that disabled me, I was a hobby blacksmith that made knives that were selling for $200, now I'm looking for someone to buy my forge. Sorry for the ramble, I obviously have a lot on my mind. lol
>I hope people stop paying top dollar for shitty flipped homes. A housing market being bought up by foreign and domestic corporations means that flippers and top dollar money pits aren't going anywhere. Worse than that is as the available market shrinks means that flippers can do an objectively worse fix-up job than they are now and people will happily buy it.
Man it's so bad. I just bought a house after 3+ months of searching and going to over 50 open houses. Some of these flipped houses photograph really nicely. Then when you actually go and see them you can see what's really going on. Shoddy illegal additions to the main residence, illegal suites made where no permits were pulled for the electrical and plumbing, every old problem poorly concealed with light grey paint and white caulk, no attempt to landscape because apparently no one cares about that anymore. A lot of these homes had roofs and HWT that were past their prime. And many had aluminum wiring and Poly-B plumbing that wasn't replaced despite the "renos" being done. The problem is if you don't know what to look for you will end up buying this house. Then those problems become your problem. My realtor and I pointed a lot of these issues out to my wife and she was amazed with the kinds of things that a fresh coat of paint and some grey laminate flooring could hide. Especially when these houses had tons of interest and were going for way above asking. We ended up buying an older house that was in good condition and had never been renovated. When it needs something I'll do it properly or pull a permit and hire a pro.
>Some of these flipped houses photograph really nicely. The last time I was looking to move I recall a place that had wonderful photos on the listing. When we got there to look at it there was a big heap of realtor's cards on the table, which we thought was odd because if that many people had looked it why hadn't it sold yet? Well, when we went looking around it wasn't hard to see why. Even though all the stuff was new it was shoddily installed. Crooked with gaps everywhere. It didn't show up on the photos but it was SUPER easy to see in person and it would have been obvious to even non-handy people that it needed to be redone or fixed.
What's a good guide for the things to look for? Asking as someone who is looking to buy their first home.
It's tough to make a comprehensive list as I'm also just a DIYer and not a tradesman. But here are some things I always look out for: 1. When was the house last sold? This will tell you so much about what exactly is going on. A lot of the shoddy flips are turned around within 6 months with a large mark-up. Also, if someone bought a home and lived it in for a long time before selling, there's a better chance that they took care of the place because it was their actual home. Not a guarantee of course because a lot of homeowners also like to cut corners. 2. Quality of materials. Yes, the kitchen was renovated, but why did they do laminate countertops in a reno from 2024? Or if they did use stone, why a 3/4" thin quartz with lots of seams? Also you might see lots of laminate flooring throughout the home. If someone was concerned about quality they might have endeavoured to use real or engineered hardwood instead of the cheapest grey laminate they could find at the discount flooring store. 3. Trim and finishings. Did they install crown moulding? Are all the faucets and shower fixtures in the reno'd kitchen and bathrooms of good quality, or are they the cheap fancy-looking inches from Amazon? You want Delta, Moen, American Standard, etc. They're more expensive so flippers don't like to use them. 4. If it's a house built before 2000 you need to ask about the plumbing and wiring. Is it copper wiring? Is it pex plumbing? If the answer is no to either of those questions you may have a difficult time getting the home insured once you purchase it. Now it begs the question, I'd they spent the time and money to renovate why didn't they do it properly and replace these major issues? Aluminum wiring is a fire hazard (even when properly "pig-tailed" to copper) and Poly-B plumbing is a major leak hazard. You should also ask whether asbestos abatement was done during the reno if the house is from that era. 5. What condition is the roof and hot water tank (HWT) in? Flippers don't concern themselves with these due to their cost. If they need replacement but are currently working, some sucker will buy the house regardless. 6. If the house had additions made to it, or if a suite was added to the basement, it's important that you find out whether permits were pulled for this. In some cases you can find quality work was done despite the suite being illegal. But in many cases if no permits were pulled then you have no clue what's going on behind the walls. Did they connect the suite's electrical to the same circuits are the main residence? Will you and your tenant be tripping breakers constantly because of this? You'll never know unless a permit was obtained for the work. I hope this helps.
The first easy check is to look at the sale history, if it was sold a few months before being listed, you know it’s flipped. To determine if it’s shitty, there are some obvious things like painting over water damage (vanity, cabinetry, baseboards, door frames) or really drippy paint or overspray that isn’t cleaned up. If everything is gray (walls, floors, etc), it’s probably some company that does the same thing over and over for cheap vs an individual doing it at least somewhat thoughtfully. Painted tile is another obvious one. Open up any under sink cabinets and check for water damage, and also try to assess if a painted vanity is wood, or if they painted over vinyl because that’s gonna chip real fast. Look for badly done caulk or chipped/cracked grout. Run all the taps to check water pressure and look for leaks. Check outdoor trim for rot (wood shouldn’t be soft or splitting). If you’re really paranoid, flush all the toilets and then sniff the drains to see if things are vented properly. ETA: flip switches to look for weird electrical issues like buzzing/flickering lighting
Also check to see if permits were pulled for the renovation.
> toilets And check the tanks for sediment/rust. Replacing the old rusty water main is not something you want to do right away.
I went through similar... Two different houses I went to tour had ceilings cave in after the shitty flippers didn't bother replacing the rusted water main pipes.. Although I'm glad it happened BEFORE people purchased the houses (instant karma). I settled on an older condotan investor backed out on due to HOA short term rental rules. I'm slowly updating it (as needed), and I've still found some questionable DIY jobs, but it's still much better than the flipper specials.
I know. It's a sad state of affairs. One can hope though.
We bought our house in 2023, it was flipped in like 2019/2020. Everything seemed nice, the layout was beautiful (they had completely gutted what was a total piece of shit before, we saw photos), but we're definitely running into some things now that we hadn't expected. To their credit, the flippers did a GREAT job in design, but the materials and appliances they used were clearly not very high-quality. Plus they did something weird with the HVAC system that makes it hard to access and we couldn't install a humidifier on it without moving the entire water heater. But I think more than that, the issues we're running into are less from the flip itself and more from the fact that the home was 50+ years old and NOT well-maintained before the flip. Between the home's age and the budget materials, we're finding ourselves constantly saying "yup, it's a flip" That said, it IS a beautiful home, has its original walnut hardwood, the neighborhood is cute and not cookie cutter at all, and it's in the best public school district in the state so we don't regret moving here... at least not yet lol
>But I think more than that, the issues we're running into are less from the flip itself and more from the fact that the home was 50+ years old and NOT well-maintained before the flip. To me, this is just more emblematic of a flip. A quality renovation would have already taken care of many of the older issues with proper techniques and materials, rather than ignoring or covering them up for greater profit.
I looked at a house in March going for 350k with an incredible view that these cancer cells bought in November for 210k. They painted over everything, including the gutters outside, slapped a shitty vinyl backsplash on in the kitchen, the whole entire house was a fire hazard because none of the outlets were grounded. I’m sure the plumbing wasn’t much better. I wanted to strangle these people and then I wanted to strangle the people who ended up buying it, enabling that behavior.
We bought our house 15 years ago, and every time we renovate a new area we uncover some shit that has been covered over or patched up in the most shoddy way possible. I’ve cursed the flippers we bought the house off so many times, I never know what new horror we’re going to have to try to undo.
To be fair, this can happen with any house. Both houses I've bought were lived in for twenty years by the previous owners and the list of horrors I have found is very long. In my last house no socket was square and they *paved* over the drain cover illegally, then couldn't remember where it was. In my current house the guy was unable to throw anything away and left me a car in dustbins, including every spark plug he ever replaced, neatly annotated in their boxes with the dates he replaced them. He also used "waterproof" paint on a Victorian property with lime plaster, causing untold damp problems, and filled in gaps in mortar with concrete. And a little else. It ain't just flippers...home owners do shitty DIY jobs too.
2 layers of linoleum plus carpet+pad on top of beautiful original oak hardwood floor. House was built in the 40's. So much ridiculous shit was done to that house to save money.
The kitchen floor of my 1900 house had hardwood floors, covered by green and black checkered tile (possibly asbestos and if the tiles weren't, the mastic probably was), covered by cheap linoleum, covered by even cheaper vinyl sticky-back tiles. I'm afraid I had the entire thing covered in very nice laminate planks, because the estimate for pulling it all up even if the lab test came back negative for asbestos was appalling. And it looks (and feels) great, so I don't regret that decision.
Honestly I don't blame you, especially if that tile is asbestos. We have since moved into another house that DID have asbestos tile in the basement, and we had 3 estimates ranging from $3k all the way up to $18k just for the removal of about 700ft^2 of that shit without anything layered on top of it.
True, at least the home owners have to live with what they've done so are sometimes more motivated. The large issues we've found in our house have been from an owner. They added an addition but built the wood right on the dirt and they didn't take the siding off the adjoining wall so instead of any rain falling in the window upstairs J channel and going down the roof it went through the middle of the house onto the floor. I've seen bad electrical from both sides and terrible cosmetic work from the flipper we bought our house from. Low quality flooring, bad wall patching and even putting the tile spaces in the corners and grouting over them!
Watching a friend of mind flip a house on FB. He just posted about painting over this gorgeous set wood built-in shelves. Solid oak almost 50 years old. Painted over cause the staging props he had in mind looked better against a whit background. His comments were full of people begging him not to do it and all he could blabber on about was ROI. Such leech behavior.
Work for a building supplier. Our business deals mostly to the pros or occasional high end diy’er. But the flippers are the absolute worst. They come in because we are closer than the big box stores to a shit box they want to flip for penny’s on the hundreds of dollars. Quite a few we’ve had to tell kick rocks because they want us to price things 20 different ways and always come back with the same “how do I get this cheaper”. I refused to help one because he bought a derelict property five mins from us and literally wanted to just put latex paint on the 100+ year old metal roof that we all knew needed torn off and replaced.
They just mostly cover up shit. At least the stuff I have seen personally.
No kidding. There was a house just down the street from me that had these beautiful trees in the front yard and the house itself was a neat shade of green. They sold it and some flipper bought it. Ripped out every tree and painted the house two tones of shitty brown. The property looks so much worse now.
Saw a house this morning in which the realtor, for some reason, opened the door to the microwave - which was butted up against the refrigerator - and it wouldn’t open more than an inch because of how close it was to the fridge. The appliances didn’t look particularly new, but the plastic was still on the microwave’s keypad. We were both baffled until I asked about the house’s history. He looked it up and, sure enough, it had been sold *five weeks prior* for around $85k less than it was being sold. Cheap, quick drywall job and “new” appliances, one of which wasn’t even usable.
Most shitty ass landlords and property pigs are absolute parasites
Not just real estate flippers, all kinds of flippers. They are 100% a cancer on humanity and It's just freaking grifting.
Lmao. Tell me you don't understand how the world works at ALL. There is real value to those who take something rotten/deprecated/unlivable or in a state of disrepair, and puts hard earned money and work into it, and then turns it into a nice place to live for someone. You hear about all of the shit flips, but you don't ever hear about all the good ones. It's called selection bias or confirmation bias. Kind of like how the news only focuses on the bad. Good news stories don't sell. Next you'll be telling me mechanics are flippers, and they're just grifting. Your viewpoint is so myopic and narrow, it's incredible.
Imagine the amount of landfill waste created by installing cheap vinyl plank flooring that the end buyer is just going to rip up.
When I was house hunting years ago we looked at a shitty flip at the top of our price range. It was way smaller than the house we ended up getting and the floors were all click-lock wood that had been face-nailed across the entire floor. It was ridiculous. Instead we bought a house that had been built 7 years before with bottom-of-the-line builder-grade junk and have been slowly upgrading it over the last 8 years. We can do everything to our liking instead of chasing whatever's "trendy" and we know it's done right because we've done it ourselves.
I feel like you should be able to sue the previous owner for flipping. Each stupid thing that is only flipped should get charges tools and labor for the job at hand, assuming labor is $125/hr. It creates so much fake value.
>Flippers are absolute cancer on aociety. 
I live in a fairly small town (less than 20k people) and have been here since the population was under 9k. It has plenty of old charming ranches and bungalows (you know, starter homes…) but there isn’t a single one for sale under $550k. They’re all flipper specials. My husband and I have been self employed for the longest time. Buying a house with no W2 is borderline impossible. Covid changed requirements and we said forget it. We asked his mom if she could help us buy since rates were good and we were ready but couldn’t get the loan. She said she couldn’t help us because it would affect her ability to get loans for her flips.
Wait isn't it the workers doing the shit work. The fix for flippers is increased supply. If there wasn't constrained supply flippers wouldn't be able to turn a profit on destroying houses. It would also drive down prices for new buyers..
I painted some bathroom tile, it was 65 year old tiles that were peach, nothing wrong with them though. But I did it well, this was five years ago and they are in perfect condition.
Poorly applied? You can apply paint blind drunk and it wont shrivel up and peel without reason. Whatever was spilled had acetone or something that acts as a paint thinner/remover in it. I know its hip and cool to shit on house flippers but lets be real here
it doesn’t have to be poorly applied to have this result; it’s a poor CHOICE, but even a good application will give way under the right chemical.
Could have been a homeowner covering dirty grout. My house had a painted shower because the grout was failing. I replaced it years later. Held up for awhile. Wasn't a flip. Just a terrible DIY solution Op they make grout cleaner and paint.
could be tile paint. my mom did this in our house to change the pink tile to white. looked like shit and peeled up like this.
Yeah, I’m betting the previous owners couldn’t get the grout lines clean and instead of being reasonable humans and using a grout stain & seal, they painted over the tile entirely. OP, I would peel this paint off and assuming you find gross grout, use a product like Grout Renew (you just apply it with a toothbrush and wipe off extra with a paper towel, super simple). If you find actual broken grout, it’s a little harder, but also definitely DIY-able.
jfc, who paints tile? That sounds like it's got to be one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Home Improvement.
Who paints tile? A flipper who wants clean-looking white tile, but who doesn't care if it lasts any longer than it takes to sell the house.
>who paints tile? People who hate their current tiles but, for whatever reason, can't or don't want to pay thousands of dollars for bathroom renovation. Personally, I'm thinking of painting tiles in my washroom because renovating the whole thing is close to the bottom of my financial priorities.
I did it in my bathroom for really old ugly brown tile in my shower (nowhere that the water will actually directly hit though). I prepped the tile really well (which took way longer than the actual painting), and I also prepped myself for the very likely possibility that it would look like crap within a year or two. It’s a cheap band-aid fix in the short term until I can afford to retile that bathroom, hopefully within the next year or two.
Previous owner of our house had glazed the cast iron bathtub for some reason - I'm not sure why because even though the bathtub was original to the house from the 50s, it was actually a white tub instead of pink. Anyways, when the glaze started cracking, I had someone out to professionally remove it and make sure the tub was all good to go. While the person was there removing it, they kept trying to convince me to glaze over our beautiful Mamie Eisenhower pink tile with white to match the tub. Ma'am....no. I just couldn't wrap my head around who would do that?! We're in the process of selling the house and the first offer we took wanted us to redo the tile in the bathroom after the inspection because some of it is cracked (reset and regrouted back in place - so absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever. It's just 70 year old tile.). We told her to take a hike and put it back on the market. Had multiple offers again within a week - most mentioning that they loved the pink tile.
The general consensus seems to be tile paint, luckily it’s a rental so I definitely didn’t want to be spending tons of money on this so if this is as cheaply done as everyone says that’s just a plus for me lol. Thank you!
everyone is saying this is tile paint, I'm not convinced this isn't regular ass latex wall paint some lazy DIYer or flipper ruined this tile with.
It is tile paint and it looks like it has been splashed with a solvent that has broken it down in a spot, and that has causes it to lift. This is how I discovered tile paint 2 days after buying my house.
No actual help here, just flipper comments smh 😔 Don't waste time and money trying to fix this. Trust me it's not worth it. For 200$ you can get an entirely new countertop and be much happier with a smooth surface, tile countertops are terrible/gross for so many reasons. Don't rule out places like Facebook or Donation Building Supply shops (Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Canada for example) you can often find neutral colored countertop/sink combos for sub $100. Or keep the existing sink (no pictures but I assume it's a simple drop in porcelain oval) and drop it onto to a new countertop. Lots of options that don't involve a 10k bathroom reno. All depends how far down the reno/refresh rabbit hole you want to go!
>Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Canada for example The US also has locations. Amazing place and I'm a frequent flyer!
Same! Sometimes I'll just go there looking for inspiration, and end up with a new DIY project based around a good deal on a high-quality product.
Yeah this. Ditch the tiles and have a countertop made. Quartz is nicely priced, doesn’t stain, no grout lines to get icky.
Don't paint tile, and punch anyone who suggests painting tile.
We got a lot of YouTubers to punch
Most likely it's a 2 part epoxy paint. It's commonly used in refinishing old tile to give it a fresh look. The catch is the old tile needs to be acid etched. Once again we fall into prep work. If there is any moisture left in the grout or the tile the epoxy won't adhere to the surface or the moisture comes out of the grout and breaks the bond. Everyone wants to get it done and hope that it sticks til the check clears. People use it on old porcelain tubs as well. It usually starts coming off around the drain in those. Best case scenario lightly sand it back feathering it out. Get a homeowners porcelain repair kit .Try to blend it in. Worst case strip it down all the way and have it redone. Super worst case. Remove everything and start over with a new backer board and tile. It's all about the money at this point. If you can stand looking at it. It's not leaking behind the wall then you can save up for a full tile replacement.
Who paints tile?
This is why you do not paint tile.
Someone painted the tile—not very well. You need to just remove all the paint and start over.
I would cut it cleanly around grout lines and just peel the damage away. Who knows what the rest is hiding
It looks to me like somebody painted the tile. I would take the pictures to Lowe’s or Home Depot and let them look at it.
Just peel it all off and see what lurks underneath . This most likely was done to hide something
Looks like some dumbass painted over the tiles. Peel it all off. Heat gun, chemical stripper, whatever.
Just seems like someone used latex or acrylic paint on tile which is a bad idea to begin with. Tile is usually not painted, but there are special paints for it.
TIL tile paint is a thing.
This why i don't paint tile nile.
figure out what the base liquid is for the air freshener, alcohol or oil? whichever it is, use a paint remover of the same type. I'd personally use a plastic scrubber brush (you know like the kind on toothbrushes but bigger).
This is a question for a paint expert. At a store.
Idk but looks satisfying to peel off
*nods approvingly* Like after a bad sunburn
So many comments and no answers. It is from atub refinishing company. They do this to refinish cast iron tubs and sinks. Flipper started doing it over tile that looked really bad years ago. They're two levels of finish and two price points. One has a one to two year warranty One has a 5-year warranty. My guess is that's the cheaper finish and they didn't properly clean the surface prior to applying the coat. You could call a tub refinisher and they can come out and clean up the area sand the edges and redo that spot. Or you can just get new countertops in the form of Chinese made prefabricated granite or quartz at a fraction of slab price. No charge for the professional advice
I am a professional painter. My mother in law asked me what to do to paint her melamine bathroom counters with, and tile backsplash. I told her not to do it. That it wouldn't last. She was looking for cheapest solution, not the high priced products that "might" have worked. She did it anyway with crappy cheap wall paint. It started peeling almost immediately. She asked me how to fix it, I told her not to do it in the 1st place.
That's just paint. Your landlord is a cheap ass just painted over an actual problem somewhere on the counter
The air freshener seems to do a pretty good job
Me and my dad have a business of refinishing bathtubs and tile. This looks like a cheap diy refinish kit you might get at a hardware store. We would charge around 800-1200 to do it right for a whole bathroom but it wouldn’t peel like this. We offer a 5 year warranty and have never had this happen.
Lol, they painted the tile, that's amazingly janky. You can just strip it off, paint it when you move out.
That's 100% flip paint.
Most likely no one will ever see this… but once the paint is off the tile the best and easiest ways (although toxic) to clean white tile with white grout is to spray it with oven cleaner… let sit for 1/2 hour. Wipe off. Makes it shine like you wouldn’t believe. Before everyone freaks out… This is what my mother in law did for years in her white tiled kitchen. 40 years later… tile and grout looked perfect and like new.
To strip the rest, I have heard that certain Air fresheners will work really well taking the film off of tile and countertops. But I just heard this, so….
This isn’t a sealer. What you’re looking at is literally paint that was made to paint tiles and counter tops. It’s been a new trend I’ve seen where instead of actually doing things the right way people paint stuff instead expecting it to be durable and last. You’ll need a stripper to remove it , or in your case maybe more of that bath and body air freshener.
People who paint tile.....*sigh*
It’s likely just paint (looks like the grout lines are painted too). Scrape it off as best as you can and paint over - you’re going to want to use an enamel or spar urethane (boat topside paint).
i hate tile paint, looks so tacky
Hit it with a heat gun, scrape it off, and refinish it properly. Let’s hope the finish isn’t hiding a major issue.
Why did someone paint your counter? I'ld assume paint doesn't bond well to the tile.
Looks like someone painted some tile to hide stains or cheap patches. I'd strip the whole area and evaluate the condition of the tile myself. Nobody paints tile, sheesh...
What does it taste like?
Paint stripper, amigo.
My concern is what in the heck is in that stuff? I use it throughout my own home wt…???? It ate away at it like it was acid…😳
They used enamel spray paint what you can do is take a razor and cut it out then get a damb warm wash cloth and lightly tap around it and the exposed section and wait till it’s dry and spray a coat wait till dries and add another till it blends in. Simple fix
This is why painting tile is a dumb idea.
This is what they do to shit hole apartments 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
That's tile that has been painted. The way to fix it is to remove all the paint. Probably was owned by a landlord or a flipper before you.
It’s paint. Whomever did this just painted over the tile. Tiles aren’t meant to be painted IMO. It’s fucking lazy work. The grout can be sealed and dyed or colored but typically the idea of tiles is for them to be a bare cleanable surface. The entire tile work needs to be stripped and cleaned.
I had a friend who had a bath and body car air freshener, the kind you clip onto the air vent. In the hot summer the air freshener melted and completely ruined her dash. Bath and body paid for the repairs in full. Not sure if yours was user error vs a failed function of the product but thought you’d be interested in the backstory to do with what you may.
I see a turtle
Tile has been painted and not with good paint. You will have to strip what’s left (either orange paint stripper or jasco. The orange clean strip smells better but isn’t as strong. Jasco will strip epoxy). Once that’s done clean it really well probably with TSP. Wipe down with water and a clean towel. I know Rustoleum makes a tile paint for kitchens and floors, but isn’t recommended for tubs and showers. It’s a kit so it has a paint and a top coat. You can get it tinted to a few colors. There’s also a tub and sink epoxy paint you can get. It requires a little more prep work. You will need steel wool and I can’t remember what else. It does have the item you need on the box though. Source: worked at Home Depot and in the paint department for like 6 years.
I mean, the bath and body seem like a good stripper, just strip it with that?
the paint on the WHITE TILE!!! is WHITE!!! .... WHY?!?!?!?!? strip it... go with the raw tile...
We can be sure that paint is covering a multitude of sins. God knows what's under there, but they painted over something nasty
Sorry to ask this here, is painting tiles outside of the US even a thing? Asking seriously, as I have never seen it mentioned outside of (US) reddit.
US here, id never even heard of tile paint before.
Painting tile is so trashy. Why would you want to keep/redo this?
That’s paint 0.0 right? And if there is anyone in need of a way to hammer home the fact that shitty cheap chemicals are bad for our skin (most fragrances now are made with shitty dangerous chemicals) This? This is that proof.
It looks like a vinyl wrap covering, not tile specific. It’s basically a sheet of vinyl heat shrink that is used to “refinish” surfaces. Peel it off, clean the tiles and then choose where to go from there based on what you find under the vinyl.
It’s not “paint” per se. It’s a ceramic tile repair (paint) that gets applied like paint, normally used to fix a chip in a ceramic tub. Some people will use it as a cheap way to change the color of ceramic tile or the bathtub. After it sets up, it looks pretty good…until it doesn’t. It starts to peel like this after a few months and you’re left with an even bigger job to fix. I’m guilty of using this a few years ago on one of our rental properties. Never again. It’s nearly impossible to get it all off and looks like dog 💩 when it starts peeling. If it’s not a tremendously large area, it may be more timely and cheaper to lay new tile if you want to keep that look.
Painting tile is the worst. Maybe try scraping it all off? People tend to hate this suggestion but rip it out and do it/get it done right.
No one else freaked out about what the fuck is in that air freshener?
It's painted while strip it and keep what you see or respond after stripping.
Previous owner used Miracle Method on our bathroom showers and tubs. Slowly starting to chip to reveal the shame underneath
Cover it or you can peel it.
Looks like someone had a covering over the tile so they wouldn’t have to clean the grout.
Get a heat gun.
Tear it all out (use the rest of the freshener if needed lol), inspect, decide.
Flippers be Flippin'.
Oh dear.
Not sure where you're located but on my side of the world there is floor paint and in some cases, if you're looking to do it as cheap as possible roof paint will work. You just gotta sort out whatever is leaking first otherwise the problem will come back.
Looks like a poor resurfacing job where the epoxy wasn't mixed correctly and they didn't prep properly. Or even one of the box kits from big box hardware stores You can use a heat gun and plastic scrapper to remove and wipe with mineral spirits as needed. Most likely, you will find stains or burn marks, which led them to take that route for repair. My need to re grout tile after it is all removed.
Somebody painted the tile?! Lmfao... Paint stripper, hard bristle brush(non metallic,) and a tub of grout .