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jlcastner

Apr 20, 2006, 5:03 AM

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Questions about tiles

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Hello Everyone,

I am soon to be in the midst of building a house in Florida. I want it to have a Mexican-Spanish look. I have tentatively selected using Saltillo tile on all the floors. In researching the installation of such tile, I was told that it has to be 'sealed' three times! Once before it is laid down, once after it is down but before it is grouted, and once after it is grouted. Seems like a lot of work. Has anyone installed this type of ceramic floor tile in your houses in Mexico? Did you have to go through this process of sealing it? Can Saltillo tiles be purchased already sealed and then just installed like any other floor tile?

I am also looking to use colorful decorative tiles on the risers of the steps and stairways both on the inside and the outside of my house. Where is the best place, either in Mexico or the US, to find such tiles. I don't insist that they be individually hand-painted. I'd be happy to send jpeg files of exactly what I am talking about.

Thanks very much for any input. Your help is appreciated during this time of planning.

Best wishes,

Jim Castner
Gainesville, Florida

kittythegm

Apr 20, 2006, 7:33 AM

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Re: [jlcastner] Questions about tiles

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You might check both Home Depot and Lowes. Here in New Mexico they offer three flavors of Saltillo tile: 1)Standard unsealed. 2) Pre-sealed. 3) Special weather resistant exterior that can stand up to freezing temps (would not be a factor in FL). While I have no experience with actual installation problems, I do know that our house has the original unsealed type. They are a pain in the you know what as they have to be re-sealed frequently. I would never have them again!

(This post was edited by kittythegm on Apr 20, 2006, 11:25 AM)

sfmacaws

Apr 20, 2006, 2:03 PM

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Re: [jlcastner] Questions about tiles

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I installed saltillo tiles throughout a cottage and on 2 outside decks at our old house in San Anselmo, Calif. I did seal them 3 times and it is a bit of work. Basically you paint them all with sealer before installing, let them dry. Set them in the floor with a good sized grout space, once they are set, you paint them all again including the empty grout space. Then you grout it, let it dry and paint the whole floor. I actually did that last step twice. The inside sealer held up pretty well for around 5 years and then I resealed them. The outside decks were looking like bare tiles within 2 years and I resealed them with something different which I can't remember now but which worked a lot better but had a shinier surface than I preferred. The shine wore off in a year or two and they stayed waterproof for another 6 or 7 years, I hadn't resealed them again when I sold the house and they looked fine.

Realize that saltillo tiles are not level and they are not even. There are problems getting furniture level on them, lots of shimming to be done. Also, anything that hits the floor will break. I had them in the kitchen and had exploded mayonnaise jars and jam jars and other goodies to clean up several times. The tiles rode out our earthquakes pretty well, no big cracks in the grout - that's one reason I used large grout spaces. However, anything that fell during a rattler was done for.

You can get regular flat floor tiles with a "saltillo look" at any Home Depot type store in the US. I don't like the way they look but they are level and uniform in shape and size, something real saltillos are not.

Oh, forgot to mention I actually added one more step in prepping the tiles, I whitewashed them with diluted water based paint before sealing them. It is a great look and you can do a lot of nice things to the color if you start with unsealed tiles. I've seen some with a brown wash that also looked nice, it ended up a reddish brown color. A dark red wash and you get the oxblood look. You can't do any of these treatments on sealed tiles.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán