How do you remove paint stains from tiles after building work?

Every published method fails for the same reason: it assumes a paint you don't actually have.

Three families cover almost every Moroccan site:

• Water-based paint — acrylic, vinyl, emulsion. The most common indoors. Binder dispersed in water, flexible film, stays sensitive to hot water long after it has dried.
• Solvent-based paint — alkyd gloss, lacquer. Used on joinery, ironwork and wet rooms. Hard, waterproof film, unaffected by water.
• Technical paint — epoxy, two-component polyurethane, bonding primer. Rare in housing, common in basements, garages and plant rooms. Once cured, it no longer dissolves.

Two special cases add to this list, which aren't paint but are mistaken for it: lime wash and cement protection slurry. These are mineral deposits, covered by the method described in treating grout residue.

On an isolated drop, somewhere inconspicuous, in this order:

1. Hot water on a cloth, two minutes. The film turns white, swells or becomes tacky: water-based. Nothing happens: move to the next step.
2. Methylated spirit on cotton wool, one minute. The film softens or comes off on the cotton: acrylic, confirmed. No reaction: solvent-based.
3. Fingernail or plastic-blade test. Dry acrylic lifts as a flexible film. Gloss paint breaks off in hard flakes. Epoxy doesn't move at all.
4. If nothing works: epoxy, polyurethane or primer. Removal becomes mechanical and the pricing changes.

This test comes before buying any product. It avoids the most common mistake: pouring a strong paint stripper onto a paint that would have come off with hot water, and damaging the grout in the process.

Still wet, under two hours old. It comes off with clean water and a sponge, no product needed. This is the only case where acting immediately saves time — on every other type of site residue, early intervention is usually a mistake.

Dry. The method that works, in order:

1. Soften: a cloth soaked in hot water laid on the stain for 5 to 10 minutes. The film absorbs water and loses its grip. On a thick stain, refresh the cloth rather than waiting longer: a cooled cloth does nothing more.
2. Lift with a plastic blade or a polymer scraper, at a shallow angle, in one direction only. No metal blade at this stage: it isn't needed.
3. Fine residue: methylated spirit or isopropyl alcohol on a cloth, rubbing in one direction only.
4. Degrease with a neutral detergent, rinse, dry.

This protocol applies to porcelain stoneware, glazed tiles, ceramic tiles and glass. On marble, travertine or limestone, swap the alcohol for a neutral product and rule out any blade — see what each stone floor can take.

Here, water is no use. A solvent is needed, and the choice depends as much on the surface as on the paint.

Gloss and alkyd lacquer: white spirit on a recent splash, gel paint stripper on an old, thick film. Gel has a decisive advantage on a floor: it doesn't run, so it doesn't migrate into the grout. Contact time as stated by the manufacturer, generally 10 to 30 minutes, covered with plastic film to stop it evaporating. Then lift with a scraper, neutralise and rinse.

Cured epoxy and polyurethane: no common solvent dissolves them. Removal is mechanical — scraping, or a pass with a rotary machine fitted with a suitable pad on a resistant floor. On a building site, this counts as thick residue, and some marks may remain depending on the surface.

The three non-negotiable precautions:

• Test on a discreet area, always, on the surface of one tile, in a corner. The wrong stripper can dull a polished glaze, attack an epoxy grout, dissolve an acrylic grout and eat into a PVC trim within minutes.
• Ventilation and protection for hands and eyes. Stripper fumes settle at floor level, exactly where the work is being done.
• Never use stripper on porous limestone: it soaks in and resurfaces as a ring weeks later.

This is the real issue, and the one consumer-facing methods avoid.

Cement grout is porous. Paint that falls on it doesn't stay on the surface: it penetrates, and removing the surface layer leaves a tinted patch. Three situations:

• Light-coloured cement grout, water-based paint: brushing with hot water and a soft nylon brush removes most of it. A residual tint may remain, more visible on white grout than on grey grout.
• Cement grout, solvent-based paint: gel stripper applied with a fine brush, grout line by grout line, with immediate thorough rinsing. The result is rarely perfect.
• Epoxy grout: waterproof, it doesn't stain — but it is also the most sensitive to aggressive strippers, which dull it.

When the tint doesn't come out, two honest options remain: partial regrouting, which is a tiler's job, or touch-up with a grout pen over a limited length. A contractor who promises a perfectly white grout line after a gloss-paint splash is promising something they won't deliver.

On a smooth, glossy tile, paint sits on the surface: it lifts off. On a textured surface, it anchors itself in the grain and a scraper passes over it without removing anything.

• Matt or satin porcelain stoneware: fine surface porosity. Longer contact time, a soft brush rather than a scraper, never an abrasive pad, which would leave a lighter patch than the rest.
• Textured and non-slip tiles — shower floors, terraces, professional kitchens: the texture is specifically there to grip. Short-bristle brush, or a rotary machine fitted with a brush rather than a solid pad, that follows the texture.
• Unglazed terracotta and bejmat: very absorbent. Paint penetrates it, and so does a stripper. Work in small areas, with thorough rinsing, accepting that a ghost mark may remain.
• Zellige (hand-cut, glazed terracotta tilework): fine, glassy glaze, often lime-jointed. No aggressive stripper, no blade, no abrasive — the manual protocol is described in treating traditional floors.

This is the case that completely changes the pricing, and it needs to be spotted early.

Paint sprayed without floor protection deposits thousands of microscopic droplets across the whole surface. Seen from above, the room simply looks dusty. Seen in raking light, it is speckled all over.

Treating it drop by drop is physically impossible: it would take several hours per square metre. The only answer is a treatment of the whole surface, using a rotary machine with a pad or brush suited to the material, in several passes, with rinsing and neutralising.

On polished stone, some loss of shine may follow, and re-polishing is a different trade from cleaning — see what each traditional floor can take.

This is why paint speckling falls under the highest post-construction surcharge, +40% for marks spread over almost every surface, and why it needs to be identified from photos rather than discovered on the day of the clean.

Take a 300 m² marble villa: 300 × 30 = 9,000 MAD, +40% = 3,600 MAD, making 12,600 MAD incl. VAT, confirmed after photos or a visit. The general sequence of a post-construction clean is described in the three-pass sequence, and the pricing in what a post-construction clean costs. To get the real condition assessed, send a photo taken in raking light.