I just had a brick fireplace tiled with marble tiles.
Should I seal it with natural stone sealers? Is there a chance water would form behind the tiles and migrate into them from the back? The fireplace feels colder than room temperature during the winter -- the back side of the fireplace is the base of a chimney outside the house.
Three contractors came to bid on the job. None of them mention anything about sealing the tiles. Perhaps tiles on fireplace don't need to be sealed?
yes, if not simply for ease of cleaning soot off them.
Are yuou saying the wall lining of the firepit itself is marble tiles??
No, I'm sure he means that the front facade of the brick fireplace was tiled with marble to make it look nicer.
We know from Roman historians that near the end of the Roman Empire, Roman citizens tore the marble off the walls of the Colloseum and burned it in fires to make lime for making cement. So, marble simply can't take the heat of a flame directly on it's surface without breaking down into calcium oxide and I expect any tile setter working on fireplaces would know that.
That's what I was thinking, but the OP description was rather lacking in specitivity.
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