A resin bathroom over your existing tiles. No strip-out.

Spazio Resina, from the Litokol SpazioContinuo system, made in Rubiera, Italy. We supply it and we apply it — one accountable team.

The manufacturer’s own words

“Also designed for direct overlaying on existing ceramic, porcelain stoneware, mosaic, natural stone, agglomerate, and wood floors.”

Litokol · SpazioCemento & SpazioResina installation manual, Rev 1, p.2

The floor test, in numbers: a rigid finish needs deflection no worse than span ÷ 360, and span ÷ 720 under stone.

Also CE to EN 13813 and EN 15824, UV tested to EN ISO 11341, HACCP food-grade and Sanitized® antimicrobial. Codes quoted as the manufacturer publishes them.

• Underfloor heating. Over a heated screed, with a decoupling layer.
• Kitchens. Worktops, islands and splashbacks in one piece; food-contact certified.
• Stairs and steps. A reinforcing corner profile in the nosings, carried through in one material.
• Office fit-out. Counters, tea points and floors that take trolley traffic.

Sheen: Hydrolux EVO in matt, satin or glossy. Skirting: BattiSpazio in painted wood, 3, 5 or 7 cm tall — or none, where the finish runs wall to floor.

SpazioChiaroscuro, SpazioMateria and SpazioMetallo — the trowel sets the movement, the topcoat sets the sheen. Manufacturer photography, used under supplier licence; not 2VP projects.

Yes, where the tiles are sound and well bonded and the floor is stiff enough to carry a rigid finish. The system is built up in coats at 2–3 mm, so door heights and thresholds do not change, and the demolition, the skip and most of the dust go away. The two things that rule it out are drummy tiles and a floor that flexes, and neither can be corrected by anything applied on top — which is why both are tested before anyone quotes.

It depends entirely on the system, and this is the single most common misunderstanding in the trade. The manufacturer of the resin system we fit states that separate waterproofing is not necessary because the system performs that function itself when it is correctly applied — which in a wet area means three coats of topcoat rather than two, and a sealant at every pipe penetration. Cement-based microcement and macrocement are water-resistant surfaces rather than waterproofing systems, so in a shower or wet room they need separate tanking underneath. One thing we will not do either way is lay over an existing ceramic shower tray. Ask any supplier the same question directly, and get the answer in writing.

No. Microcement, macrocement and resin get used interchangeably and they behave differently — most obviously in how they handle movement and water. We fit a resin system for bathrooms for that reason. The comparison is worth two minutes of your time before you commit to any of them, and the film on this page walks through it.

When the layout is wrong, when sanitaryware or drainage has to move, when you have reason to suspect what is behind the tiles, or when the substrate fails either test. Overlay when the room already works and the surfaces are sound. Both are honest answers to different situations — the mistake is choosing between them without running the tests first, and if yours is a strip-out we will tell you so at survey.

Ours are priced on the measured surface — every wall that carries tile, plus the floor — not on floor area, because the material is bought and applied by the m² of surface covered. On the one bathroom we have quoted for this offer, 4.37 m² of floor measured 25.80 m² of surface, which is why floor area tells you so little. Our published sizes run from £11,160 including VAT for a cloakroom-sized room to £18,840 for a large bathroom or wet room, and those are advertised model costs rather than your price. The calculator on this page prices your own room and your own scope in about two minutes, line by line, off the same rate card we quote from — and the £550 measured survey replaces that with a price against a scope we have walked, credited in full against your contract.

Only with the right system and the right build-up, and the distinction matters more here than anywhere else in the room. Cement-based microcement and macrocement are water-resistant surfaces rather than waterproofing systems, so in a shower they need separate tanking underneath. The resin system we fit is stated by its manufacturer to perform that function itself when it is correctly applied — which in a wet area means three coats of topcoat rather than two, and a sealant at every pipe penetration. One thing we will not do either way is lay over an existing ceramic shower tray: the manufacturer does not permit it, so the tray is replaced. Ask any supplier the same question and get the answer in writing.

We do not publish a number of years, and you should be careful with anyone who does. What we can tell you is what decides it: the substrate underneath, because a rigid finish over a floor that moves will crack whatever it is made of; the topcoat, which is the wearing layer and can be refreshed without touching what is under it; and how it is cleaned, since abrasive and strongly acidic cleaners dull any sealed surface. A room that passes both survey tests and gets cleaned sensibly is not a short-term finish. A room that fails the deflection test is, whatever anybody promises.

They are different trades solving different problems. Tiles are proven, repairable one tile at a time, and come with grout lines to clean — and getting new ones means removing the old ones. Microcement and macrocement are cement-based and lovely on floors and walls, but in a wet area they are a surface over a separate waterproofing layer rather than the waterproofing itself. Resin is the one we fit in bathrooms, because it handles movement and water better than the cement-based options and goes over sound existing tile at 2–3 mm. The honest comparison, including where each one goes wrong, is in the film and the article on this page.

On site, 1.5 to 2.5 weeks of working days depending on the size of the room, then about 3 days of curing with nobody there. On our own estimate for one small bathroom, a strip-out and re-tile came to about 7½ working days, and resin over the tiles to about 7 on site plus the curing — so an overlay does not finish sooner on the calendar. What it removes is the breaking-out: 2 days of noise and dust, the skip, and whatever is behind the old tiles. The completion date goes in your contract either way.

A 12-month workmanship warranty on second-fix fittings, backed by 2VP and signed by the trades. Optional 10-year HomePro insurance-backed cover is available on request, at 2.5% of the contract value paid direct to HomePro. Payment is staged against work already done, starting with 10% at contract signing.