Slippery when wet - any ideas?

[JennerOSity]

I live in a house where the previous owner was a DIY disaster zone with no sense of his own limitations - oh the comedy we have found as we attempt to get the house how we like. It has spawned a phrase for botching in our house - to do a Hardy!

Anyway, the porch was cleverly laid with tiles which look quite nice but are not floor tiles! So at the slightest hint of wet they become a death trap - think ice-like slippy.

We do have a couple of mats but with small children they don't always step on the mat. The porch is a bit damp so I can't completely carpet or rug as the damp would make them rotten and smelly in no time. We can't afford to re-tile.

is there a product you can apply to tiles to give them a grippy surface?

I have looked in the usual places (B&Q) and online but possibly don't know what I'm looking for.

TIA

How big is the porch? Could you afford to buy an offcut of vinyl and put that down over the tiles?

Sorry, can't help with a product which will add nonslip surface to tiles.

Hmmm vinyl offcut could work, hadn't thought of that. Certainly space-wise. Wouldn't look as smart as the tiles but at least no fragile old ladies would be breaking a hip to visit.

To make the tiles less slippy would still be the preferred though, but at the end of the day, if I can't I'll take some vinyl. Does vinyl cope with the underside exposed to damp? I know the topside does.

Thanks for replying Fresh - providing fresh ideas that's you! :)

I can remember seeing something like this being used for your purpose.

www.alibaba.com/product-gs/437583648/Z_Mesh_PVC_Mat.html

I'm not recommending this product specifically just that this sort of mesh cut to size over your tiles might work and be easy to lift for cleaning etc

Awlgrip paint? Used on yacht decks for grip.

I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem...it's not permeable so it won't soak up damp. And presumably the damp isn't coming up through the tiles, so just covering them should be ok....not a damp expert tho.

Hesitate to ask but...do you know where the damp is coming from? It might be easily solved.

Thank you Nemno and Fishybits what fab suggestions - I knew mners would not fail me.

The damp is because the porch is a 'Hardy Special' and was DIY built with no damp proof course/membrane, was not given proper foundations and is a single skin brick, so the walls just soak up rain and ooze almost all year. I would love to rebuild, but again time and money prevent, it is still useful for wellies etc so long as you don't go too near the walls and nothing damp-damageable goes in it. Which is frustrating as it would be a good place for my pram otherwise and that takes up valuable space elsewhere because the porch is so shoddy. Ho Hum.

You could try painting the outside walls with a BREATHABLE water protector i.e. NOT THOMPSONS WATERSEAL (which my builder refers to as 'the work of the devil'!). It won't help the damp coming up from the ground, but it might help with water penetration through the brick. Of course, you will need a dry day to do it....

dry day ... will look into that though.

Vinyl gets another vote. Certainly had thought of it, so asking has definitely given me more options. :)