I live in an old home and can't financially replace my countertops with Formica or the other normal ways. I found some peel and stick tiles at our local home improvement store. I asked the salesperson if I could use the spacers and grout it and he said he didn't see why not.
Can I do this to get the look of grouted tile? Right now there is old veneer on top and I put contact paper over that. I definitely need to change it and this is an inexpensive way out for me for now. Please help.
By Sandra
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I have some concerns with your idea. First, not all of the peel-and-stick tiles are made to take grout (the grout won't adhere to them) so you'd have to select a peel-and-stick brand that was made for grout.
Second is surface preparation. That will be the most important part in order to get the tiles to stick well. For that, I'd recommend cleaning the counter thoroughly with an amonia-based cleaner, lightly sanding it to make it a little bit rough, then rolling on a good quality adhesion primer (I like Sherwin Williams brand) before sticking the tiles down.
It may be more difficult than you think to get the tiles to stick well. Have you considered painting the countertop? If you don't cook much and don't have kids, it actually looks nice and lasts for a couple of years. I've done it a few times. The preparation is the same as with the tiles except that you roll paint over the adhesion primer instead of sticking tiles down. With paint, you MUST let the counter dry for at least a week before setting anything on it like a microwave.
Good luck!
Besides the concerns DaniLion mentions about the initial adhesion I would suggest not using grout but rather silicone caulking for the seams instead. I don't see any reason why the tiles wouldn't work other than how the tiles are glued on which might mean the need to rough up the contact paper/original veneer with rough sandpaper and wiping the sanding dust off well before tile application.
I would look in the clearance area of Lowes or Home Depot or a tile store, these tiles are marked down cheap. Less than a dollar a square foot and I think the linoleom tiles are $1 a piece. Tiles are cheap.
I wonder how flamable it would be? Being next to the stove.? I have thought of it too. I do not want to pull the aink to do ceramic tile.
She may need 100 tiles!!! Not cheap!
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