exterior ceramics?

[johnryan]

me again with another outside question. this sort of relates to the post i made earlier, but it's regarding using ceramics outside. my sister went to the tile shop to go ahead and buy some slate she wanted, and while she was there she saw some ceramic tiles that she wants me to put on another concreted area in her garden. this area is roughly 9m2 and 8" concrete laid 2 yrs ago. however, i didn't think you can lay ceramic floors outside, but thought i'd check here first, just in case. she's just spent a load on some slate, so she's not willing to go for anything expensive, as this area is behind a shed and used mostly for storage of garden furniture etc, and she's looking for a budget way to pretty it up a bit. any advice and/or suggestions would be appreciated. cheers.

john

[whitebeam]

If it's just going to be used as a storage area I'd be putting some cheap slabs down.

[whitebeam]

Double posted

[Del W]

sand,cement,slabs.

[johnryan]

yeah, i know what your saying, as i suggested york stone to her, but she's seen these tiles she'd like to put there, and they're much cheaper than stone slabs. she's looking for the Mediterranean look, and wanted ceramic there. she's just spent a load on slate for her main patio, and is looking at a cheaper way to make it look how she wants it. i'm not sure about the suitability of ceramic outside, so thought i'd ask here. i worked a lot in hot countries, and this issue would never arise there, and i've never been asked to do it here before.

[YourTiler]

Depending on the quality - how often does this come into play? - You might get away with a good quality floor grade tile but a wall grade quality I don't think would last especially when we get to winter

[tfs]

I would go for porc or stone for peice of mind and this is what I tend to reccomend to my customers if Im fitting them.

I have however seen various patios etc done with ceramices that have been down for years.

[johnryan]

Depending on the quality - how often does this come into play? - You might get away with a good quality floor grade tile but a wall grade quality I don't think would last especially when we get to winter

this is a patio that is further down the garden, and spends winter with chairs etc. stored on it. it would have light use in the summer,ie. a swinging chair with my sister reading a book on it. the porc or stone you mentioned tfs is what i'd have said, but she just wants something cheap to make it look pretty. they were floor tiles she has seen on special, but the main thing i was really worried about was the temp changes between seasons, extreme weather etc., and does this have a bad effect on ceramics outside.

[tfs]

Weather conditions can have an effect on ceramic tiles (some more than others) the bisque of the tiles can deteriate and fail under severe weather conditions. Other aspects to consider ofcourse is tile installation, you need to be sure that water will not be given the chance to get under tiles and expand when cold causing the tiles to debond from the substrate. To help eliminate this avoid using the usual notched or round trowel methods instead be sure to also butter the back of all tiles with a flat trowel and beat the tile into place when installting to reduce voids left from notched or rounded trowel. It can be better instal tile onto a wet screed which completly eliminates voids.

It will also help if the existing slab has a fall to allow water to drain away with ease.

These are the consideration I have when tiling outside. We dont live in the perfect world where wwe can do everything the way we want to but its best to do all that we can to prevent failure.

[IvegotsTILE]

I'd suggest a porcelain tile,more frost resistent.I wouldn't put ceramics outside we've our British weather.