How to fill holes in tiles without replacing the tile

What you need

• Small plastic scraper or an old bank card
• Needle-nose pliers to pull out the wall plug
• Craft knife
• 400-600 grit wet and dry sandpaper
• Fine touch-up brush
• Hairdryer
• Two-part epoxy putty stick (Pattex Repair Express, Ceys Reparador Epoxi Masilla, Loctite Power Epoxy)
• Ready-mixed tile and porcelain repair filler (Ceys Tapagrietas Azulejos, Nural 31)
• Tile touch-up enamel or porcelain enamel in the right colour (white, beige, grey; Ceys or Titan)
• Isopropyl alcohol and cloths
• Cover caps for tile holes (plastic or stainless steel caps, 8-14 mm, Leroy Merlin, Amazon)
• White or clear neutral silicone for the edges

Step by step

1. 1

   Pull out the wall plug and clean the hole

   Screw a screw a couple of turns into the plug and pull with the pliers. If it will not come, cut the plug flush with the craft knife and sink it 5 mm with a nail. Clean the hole with a cotton bud and alcohol and dry it with the hairdryer: filler will not bond in a damp hole.

2. 2

   Protect the tile around it

   Put masking tape around the hole leaving only the hole itself exposed. That way the excess filler does not mark the glaze and the finish comes out clean.

3. 3

   Choose the method by size

   Holes up to 8-10 mm: epoxy putty or repair filler. Holes of 10-14 mm or several close together: a steel or plastic cover cap. If you are going to hang something in the same place again, do not fill it: reuse the hole with a new wall plug.

4. 4

   Prepare the epoxy putty

   Cut a piece off the stick and knead the two parts together with your fingers (gloves on) until the colour is even. You have 5-10 minutes of working time. It is the filler that holds up best in a bathroom or kitchen because it does not shrink and resists water.

5. 5

   Fill and level

   Press the putty into the hole with your finger or the scraper, filling it completely. Level it by drawing the card flat across the tile. Wipe off the excess with a cloth barely damp with alcohol before it hardens. Remove the masking tape at that point.

6. 6

   Wet sand and touch up the colour

   The next day, if anything stands proud, sand with wet 400-600 grit paper until it is flush and glossy. With the fine brush, apply a coat of touch-up enamel in the colour of the tile. Two thin coats look better than one thick one.

7. 7

   Alternative: a cover cap

   For big holes or on patterned tiles you cannot match, a stainless steel or white plastic cover cap pushes in or is fixed with a dab of neutral silicone. It is visible but tidy, and in a bathroom nobody notices.

8. 8

   Alternative: reuse the hole

   If you are going to hang a new towel rail or accessory in the same area, fit the new one where the old holes are using new wall plugs of the right size. Many bathroom accessories (Roca, Tatay, the Leroy Merlin ranges) have similar hole spacings, and no-drill adhesive fittings cover the rest.

Which method to choose for each case

There is no perfect method. Epoxy putty with a colour touch-up is almost invisible on white or plain coloured tiles, but shows on patterned tiles or ones with a metallic sheen. Cover caps are visible, but they look tidy and last forever. Reusing the hole is free and, whenever you can, the best option.

Common mistakes when filling holes in tiles

• Using wall filler (Aguaplast) in a bathroom. It is not water resistant. It stains, yellows and falls out within weeks.
• Silicone to fill the hole. Silicone cannot be painted or sanded, it gets dirty and ends up as a shiny blob. It is only for sealing edges.
• Leaving the wall plug in and filling over it. The filler pops out with the first knock from the shower screen or a bucket.
• Painting the patch with wall paint. It does not grip on the ceramic glaze and peels. Use tile touch-up enamel or a synthetic enamel.
• Not masking with tape. Epoxy marks the glaze and, once cured, only comes off with a craft knife and a risk of scratching.
• Trying to remove a tile with a big chisel to replace it. It breaks the neighbours. You cut the grout, drill the centre and take it out in pieces from the inside outwards.

When to call a professional

If the tile is broken or chipped, if there are lots of holes on show on a kitchen wall, if you have spare tiles left from the build and want them changed properly, or if the bathroom is in a rental and has to be handed back without marks, it pays to have a builder do it. Replacing a tile without breaking the ones around it, with grout in the same colour and flush, takes technique.

At Manitas Costa replacing 1 to 5 tiles costs 60-120 euros (with your spare tiles or sourcing a compatible one), regrouting a whole bathroom 150-300 euros, and our builder by the hour is 30-40 euros an hour for filling holes, sealing and tidying up grout lines. Fixed price by WhatsApp from a photo, 6 months written guarantee, payment on completion with an invoice with IVA (VAT).

More information in small building works and repairs in Valencia and Alicante and in how much a builder charges per hour. If the hole is in a painted wall, the method is different: how to fill holes in a wall.

Bathrooms on the coast: damp, limescale and no-drill accessories

In bathrooms with no window, common in flats in Benidorm and Torrevieja, condensation means any patch that is not epoxy ends up with mould. If you are repairing, use epoxy, let it cure for 24 hours before showering and ventilate. The rust stains around old holes come from the iron screw: clean them with a limescale and rust remover before filling.

The water in the Valencia region is hard and limescale builds up on the edges of any patch. A flush finish, with nothing standing proud, stops the limescale getting a grip, and a monthly wipe with vinegar or a limescale remover keeps it clean.

To never have to fill holes again, good quality adhesive bathroom accessories (Tesa Power Kit, Command Bath, the adhesive ranges from Roca or Tatay) hold towel rails, soap dishes and toilet roll holders on smooth tiles without a single drill hole. For heavy items such as a mirror, see how to hang a heavy mirror, where we explain how to drill in the grout line and not in the tile.