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porous tile cement

updated wed 20 jun 01

 

Martin Howard on fri 15 jun 01


I have the job of creating and laying some wall tiles in our Quaker Meeting
House on walls below ground beam which are old brick and slightly damp. For
Listed Building reasons, these strips of low wall need to be able to breathe
inwards towards the building.

So, I am making thick tiles of earthenware, which will breathe. But the
problem is likely to be the kind of cement to bed them in.
Most Portland Cement, the kind used for most brick laying jobs and concrete
is slightly porous, but I would like to make it rather more porous and
colour it to match the terra cotta of the tiles.

Has anyone any ideas? been faced with this sort of problem before? and
hopefully found a solution which works?

Or am I on my lonesome? :-)

Martin Howard
Webb's Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
England

martin@webbscottage.co.uk
http://www.webbscottage.co.uk

Karen Lookenott on sat 16 jun 01


Martin,

I'm not sure what to tell you about the cement itself; however, I do know
that you can tint the cement with acrylic paint. This is what is used to
tint grout.

Good luck,

Karen

Genice Wimsatt on sun 17 jun 01


Hi Martin,
You might try adding crushed pumice, to make "pumice-crete" if there is a
source for pumice near you. It is very strong and ought to breathe nicely.
Riva


>From: Martin Howard
>Reply-To: Ceramic Arts Discussion List
>To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>Subject: Porous tile cement
>Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 19:23:56 +0100
>
>I have the job of creating and laying some wall tiles in our Quaker Meeting
>House on walls below ground beam which are old brick and slightly damp. For
>Listed Building reasons, these strips of low wall need to be able to
>breathe
>inwards towards the building.
>
>So, I am making thick tiles of earthenware, which will breathe. But the
>problem is likely to be the kind of cement to bed them in.
>Most Portland Cement, the kind used for most brick laying jobs and concrete
>is slightly porous, but I would like to make it rather more porous and
>colour it to match the terra cotta of the tiles.
>
>Has anyone any ideas? been faced with this sort of problem before? and
>hopefully found a solution which works?
>
>Or am I on my lonesome? :-)
>
>Martin Howard
>Webb's Cottage Pottery
>Woolpits Road, Great Saling
>BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
>England
>
>martin@webbscottage.co.uk
>http://www.webbscottage.co.uk
>
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DeBorah Goletz on tue 19 jun 01


Martin - I would be dubious of trying to adhere tile to a damp substrate.
You might consider mounting the tile onto cement board which is then mounted
to the walls with mason screws. This should allow the walls to "breath"
behind the cement board.
Best,
DeBorah Goletz

Martin Howard wrote:

>(snip) I have the job of creating and laying some wall tiles in our Quaker
Meeting
> House on walls below ground beam which are old brick and slightly damp. For
> Listed Building reasons, these strips of low wall need to be able to breathe
> inwards towards the building.