The Best Floor Paint for Ceramic Tile – Proven to Last

I stumbled upon the BEST floor paint for painting ceramic tiles! It was hard to believe how easy it was, and how well it has lasted!

My son’s graduation party was quickly approaching, and I knew we needed to update our downstairs bathroom flooring. The best option seemed to be researching different types of paint and choosing one that could go over tile and would hold up to a lot of traffic.

I researched for hours on Pinterest to find the best floor paint for ceramic tiles. I ran out to buy what I needed with a huge list in hand.

When I got to the Benjamin Moore counter at ACE, I told her what my project was and what I wanted to buy. This sweet girl looked at me like I had grown two heads! She told me that whatever I had read on Pinterest, she would NOT recommend me buying that product.

She said she would directly contact her Benjamin Moore rep and find out what they thought was my best option. I’m SO glad I took her recommendation instead of blazing forward with a paint that might not hold up!

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Why would I paint a ceramic tile floor?

Money

I think the best reason to paint ceramic tiles is the budget friendliness of the option. It’s so crazy that for under $75, and in one day, you can have a completely different look! Changing the floor totally transforms a room. While you can find paint at a lower price, I don’t think you’ll beat this one!

Time

We had a few areas where we wanted to get rid of the dated floors. Unfortunately, we had so much going on that we didn’t have the time to renovate floors. The thought of pulling out toilets and renting a wet saw and learning a new skill was completely overwhelming when we had so many other things going on! We just didn’t have time to replace a floor!

Lacking skills

I love to try new projects and don’t mind failing my way forward. I know not everyone is like that, and so they would much rather hire someone to replace flooring for them. This can be expensive, and sometimes cost prohibitive. It also adds frustration because your room is out of use while that is being done! That leads to the last area…

Tide you over…

Oftentimes, I see people doing a quick job like this in order to tide them over until they can do what they really want to do. It seems that homeownership has no end of projects! Sometimes a floor is not in good condition, or it’s just outdated and needs a quick cover up. That gives the time to focus on the bigger projects and spruce it up until you can address it.

This was the bathroom floor that we wanted to paint. It was showing so much wear after being painted by the prior owner. No matter how much we washed it, it always looked dirty. This little hack has been a GREAT way to tide us over. Once we are ready to fully renovate that bathroom, we can figure something else out then.

What is the best floor paint for ceramic tiles?

Without a doubt, I say the best floor paint for ceramic tiles is Benjamin Moore Command FloorPaint. The Benjamin Moore rep let our salesperson know that they were just releasing their commercial floor paint to their residential line and this particular product would be perfect for what we were looking for. It even comes in a range of colors so I was able to choose what color worked best for us.

Because it was brand new, I had to special order it. Even though I had to wait for it to arrive, it worth the wait! This is the paint that Benjamin Moore uses in manufacturing facilities where the lines run 24 hours a day and they don’t have time to wait forever for floor paint to dry. Plus, they need it to be super durable for use in high-traffic areas – they even have forklifts running over it! It’s also a paint that is approved to use in harsh conditions and extreme temperatures – like down to 35 degrees!

Those things work perfectly in the home setting too, especially one with heavy foot traffic. Who can be without a bathroom for very long? And who wants to be repainting things because it’s all scratched up? It needs to be a durable finish with kiddos and dogs running around! While some people may choose an acrylic paint or latex paint and then just use a clear topcoat, I feel that this is the easiest, quickest option.

How to use the best floor paint for ceramic floor tiles:

1. Sweep and Wash the Floor to be painted

I always like to start with a fresh, clean surface. I start by sweeping the floor and washing it just to make sure that I get any gunk off the floor. Mine had old paint on it and I just swept and washed it and didn’t treat it any differently.

2. Lightly Sand Floor

In this case, I was going over previously painted tiles. However, ceramic tile or regular tile also need to be roughed up in order to accept the paint.

Take a rougher sandpaper – like 80-120 grit and just scuff it up. I didn’t use a palm sander or anything. I just had a piece of sandpaper in my hand and tried to scuff up the surface of all the tiles. If you have a high gloss tile, I’d be more aggressive with the sanding to make sure you get a good rough surface for the paint to adhere to.

If you have a very large area, you may want to use something like an orbital sander or even a floor sander like you can rent at Home Depot or other local stores. But, if it’s small like mine, you can just use a sanding block or a square of sandpaper in your hand. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to be able to get the entire floor scuffed up.

This step makes such a difference and will lead to a long-lasting result because it will allow your paint to adhere well. It’s worth it even if it takes a long time!

3. Wash Floor with TSP

Wash it with TSP after sanding. This is a cleaner that I use on most of my painting projects. It does a stellar job of removing some of the finish, in addition to making sure it’s completely degreased.

4. Rinse Floor with Water

You’ll need to rinse the floor once or twice just to make sure that all the TSP has been removed from the surface. I think I did this twice just because I’m paranoid and I don’t want to mess up a job just because I’m in a hurry!

5. Let Floor Dry

I tried to make sure my floor was absolutely dry before I put that first coat of paint on. You can even put a fan on the surface to get it to dry faster. I also kept the door closed on the room from this point on so that I didn’t get any dirt or dust particles and hair on the floor before I painted.

6. Cut in With Paint brush

It’s so exciting because with this paint, you don’t need any coats of primer before you start painting!!! So many floor coatings require a layer of primer first, so this cuts out that step.

*IMPORTANT* Make sure you are starting in a corner and working your way toward the door. The worst thing you can do is to paint yourself into a corner and then step over fresh paint to get out!

I cut in starting with the side of the room with a paint brush, using my Command Floor Paint. Then I used the paint brush to get all the lines between the tiles as well.

7. Paint Larger Areas with a Small Paint Roller

You can use a smaller paint roller to paint the tops of the ceramic tiles and to give a good roll over it all with the paint roller to make sure you don’t have any noticeable brush strokes if you’d like. I just used a brush since I had teeny tiny tiles and cutting in between them practically painted the whole floor!

Once you have this fresh coat of paint on, the next step is to let it dry!

8. Let the Freshly Painted Floor Dry for 1 Hour

I could not believe this part, but it was truly dry to the touch in less than a half hour and ready for a second coat an hour later! It’s a good idea to shut the door for this part as well, so no speck of dust or dog hair blows in on the freshly painted surface.

9. Complete 2nd Coat of Paint

The second coat is just like the first! I wore clean socks to make sure I didn’t track anything in on the floor as I got to work on the second coat.

10. Let Painted Floor Dry for 24 Hours

After the 2nd coat, I closed the door one more time and let it dry for 24 hours. Then it was ready to use! This was such a fast project because from start to finish, it took just over a day! I can’t believe I gave my floor a new life with less than $100 and one day!

The crazy thing is that it didn’t take much time and it didn’t need any clear coating in order to create a durable finish!

Resume Normal Use

I used the floors gingerly the first day because I was scared – but my kids were not. They just tramped on them like normal and they were perfect! The final result was just what I wanted. Inexpensive. Quick. Looks great.

I think this has been the best choice for our family. It has been the most durable paint we could have imagined! While it was my first time using it, I’m sure it won’t be my last time!

FAQs for the best floor paint

Can I use this on hardwood floors?

Looking online, it lists that it works well for wood, so I think this would work great on wooden floors that may be too damaged to refinish. Even if you’re looking to cover subfloor for a while until you put in the real floor on top, or if you just have a damaged wood floor where you’d like to keep the look of the small planks, or need to fill in big gouges with wood filler, this could be a really great option.

I had a friend once who had a damaged wood kitchen floor, so she painted a checkerboard pattern on it. This would be an amazing and durable option for wood floor paints! Just use a little green painter’s tape to mark off your squares and get painting!

I’m not sure if you have to take it down to bare wood, but I’m guessing you can just scratch up the surface like with painting the tile. If you try this as a wood floor paint, let me know!

Can I use the best floor paint on garage floors?

I have no idea how durable this would be if you’re driving cars over it or having pebbles scrape along the garage floors. But, my gut would say that since this was make for an industrial setting, it probably was designed to have forklifts and things driving over it. It’s inexpensive enough that I think it would be worth it to see if this is a durable floor paint that could withstand the type of use in a garage setting.

My biggest concern is that it’s only rated to 35 degrees, so using this on concrete floors in a garage may get too cold if you live in extreme temperatures. However, if you don’t live in cold temps, it might end up being the best garage floor paint! If you do use it, please let me know!

Is this a good bare concrete paint for basement floors?

I think this would be a good option for concrete paint. When looking online at the description, it says it works well for concrete surfaces and masonry. You may need to do a little research to see if there’s anything special you need to do to paint concrete, especially if it’s new concrete, but I think it would be a good type of paint to use as a concrete floor paint. Maybe it isn’t just the best floor paint for tile…maybe it’s the best concrete paint too! Let me know!

Can I use this floor paint on laminate floors?

I see no reason why this wouldn’t work well on laminate floors just like it does on other smooth surfaces. I would suggest doing all the work of scuffing them up with sandpaper and washing with TSP so you get a good bond with the base coat of paint.

If it’s a bumpy surface, you may need a different kind of paint roller cover that has a longer nap to get into all the grooves. But this is such a high-quality paint that I think it might be a great option.

How will I know how much to buy?

I am not sure how to figure out how much you’ll need. What I would recommend would be to have the square feet of your space figured out and bring that in to ACE hardware store or whatever home improvement store you’re buying the paint from. They are SO good at figuring things like that out. Just make sure that you figure in the second coat so you don’t end up with only half of what you need!

Do I need to put a top coat on the best floor paint?

Nope! Some types of paint require a semi-gloss top coat for additional durability, but you don’t have to do it with this one! Because it’s a high quality floor acrylic urethane enamel, it will work with nothing else on top!

Can I use it over paint?

Yup! I had previous coatings of old paint on our ceramic tile and it worked really well!

What types of colors and sheens can I get in the best floor paint?

Online, it mentions that this floor enamel comes in 5 premixed colors. If you want different colors, you can order it in any of the Benjamin Moore colors. It comes in satin and gloss but they do not carry a matte finish or a high gloss finish.

*1 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

In a scurry of activity before my son’s graduation party June of 2021, we painted the floor in the half bath on the main floor. This bathroom gets SO much foot traffic!

Not only does our family of 5 use it all day long – we homeschool so most of us are home throughout the day – but we also entertain a ton! We host a high school Lifegroup on Tuesday nights and our house has a revolving door for teenagers visiting our kids. So, we have more than our fair share of foot traffic in that room.

The crazy thing is that it still looks AMAZING!!!! I cannot believe what good shape it is in a year later. I thought there was a good chance that I would have to repaint it every year until we could replace it because it receives a lot of wear. But it looks like that will not be happening.

At one point, I thought there was a big scratch in the floor, but it turns out that there was just something stuck to it. I am actually completely shocked! I know Benjamin Moore promised it was amazing, but I’ve heard that before and have been disappointed by the results. So this was a very pleasant surprise for the paint to do exactly what they said it would do.

It’s not a paid advertisement. I just really am so happy that for once, a product did what was promised!! It was such a good choice for us! It really is the best paint for ceramic tile floors!

*2 1/2 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

This really is the best floor paint! It’s 2024 and I still love it! Last night we had 27 people in our home for high school Lifegroup, and it reminded me how well this floor has done with a heavy traffic area. It’s great. No chips. No issues at all. I’m seriously shocked that it has provided the best results we could have asked for!!! I cannot believe what a long-lasting finish this has given us for the last couple years!

*4 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

We are coming up on 4 years and this paint is holding up great. While I did see our first chips in the paint in front of the toilet where the most traffic is, I still think this has been an excellent choice. I never meant for this to be a long term solution for us, but I firmly believe that this was the best way to buy us time until we decided to redo this bathroom!