Outdoor tiling

You can certainly get slip resistant tiles. Normal matt ones can still be very slippery when wet - we sometimes borrow a house in France and the kitchen floor is lethal with any spillage.

SteveW

Indeed. So is a plastic bath, and bathroom tiles, And I had three cracked ribs to prove it..

So are a bag of kids marbles, a banana skin, a pet cat.. so what?

I guess the thought is that going out on the patio when it has been/ is raining would be dangerous. At least with more traditional patio slabs, they absorb the water and water can seep between them (unless you completely seal the gaps). With tiles, since they are not porous, the water will sit on top and therefore make it more dangerous/ slippy even with the run off. I guess the question is, how much worse is it?

Use small matte tiles. A large smooth surface is more slippery than one which is broken up by grout lines.

I have seen this done very effectively with polished limestone tiles inside leading seamlessly to unsealed and unpolished limestone slabs of the same size outside. Interior floor was smooth and easy to clean exterior was rough and non-slip.

You can probably substitute something similar but cheaper than limestone if you so desire.

Andrew

if the tiles are meant for indoors use, it would be worth checking if they were frostproof (and the adhesive & grout, too). You might find that the continuous effect gets spoilt a bit if the outside tiles become dirty, with residue from rain or lichem starts growing on then. This is much more noticable with light coloured tiles.

By having the same ones inside (which I assume would remain clean) and outside (exposed to the elements), you may just be contrasting the amount of gunge that exists on all patios / tiled areas. Someone might be spending an awful lot of time trying to keep them at the same state of cleanliness!

In message , Lee Nowell writes

We laid some 30x45 porcelain floor tiles from Wickes on our kitchen floor a couple of months ago and they are definitely non-slip, even when a significant spillage occurs. It was a non-negotiable requirement when the tiles were chosen - we took a sample tile home and tipped water on it to check it. We also left blobs of cooking oil, red wine, vinegar, and other stuff that I cannot recall on the sample for 12 hours to check for potential staining before deciding that it was a sensible buy.

Exterior adhesive and grout is easy to come by - I use Mapei which is ok for swimming pools so it should be fine for a patio.

I am planning on tiling our terrace area next year. The only problem with porcelain floor tiles is that they are slow to cut using a tile bench saw.

thanks Robert - seems like some thorough testing...... Which tiles did you get from Wickes? I'll pop down to our local store so I can compare the "roughness" to the ones we were looking at.

thanks

Lee.

You can get grooved blades which cut a deal faster - but don't give as clean an edge. Which probably wouldn't notice outside.

- we chose the paler one.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

I started using a relatively cheap blade from Wickes and quickly moved to a Marcrist Pro blade from Toolstation which was definitely worth the

How do you slip on a pet cat? Surely it's a tripping hazard.

Depends on how heavy you are...;-)

The blood's slippery.