Practical experience with encaustic/cement tiles in bathrooms and kitchens

[LeeMiller]

I've been drooling over encaustic/cement tiles (Emery et Cie, Mosaic del Sur, Impremar) for the floor of our (smallish) bathroom, and possibly to incorporate into the kitchen (backsplash?) too.

I LOVE how these tiles look but what puts me off is all the warnings about using bleach/cleaning products. They make them sound incredibly delicate and like cleaning the bathroom would be a nightmare. At the same time, we live in Italy and I have seen lots of old houses with this type of tiles which still look great after 200 years... I like patina and the irregular look is part of their charm, but I wouldn't want to totally destroy them.

Some of them (Emery and Cie, Impremar) are hand made rather than hydraulic pressed which perhaps makes them even more fragile?
So does anyone have any experience of having these tiles in their bathrooms (especially the floor) or kitchen (backsplash). How do they hold up? Is cleaning the bathroom and kitchen a pain? Does it make a difference if you have dark/light colours?

More lovely tiles...

I have them in the bathrooms. Cleaning is fine. Just buy a special cleaner to pour into your mop bucket and use it instead of normal floor cleaner. Lots of places sell them. No need to buff them up with a cha in the light of the virgin moon etc. And they need sealing every year. We wanted something 'no maintenance' rather than low maintenance, but made the sacrifice, and it's worth it.

You do get a marked patina, they don't 'gleam' - but I like that look.

Thank you, that is very encouraging to hear. I totally agree that the patina is part of the look. Can I be nosy and ask who supplied your tiles? Was installation a big faff?

Swedish company called Contemporary Tiles. Installation was problem free, but our builders had prior experience of installing them. they were pretty rubbish with the rest of the bathroom though, leaky showers etc

The tiles are very thick so technically quite difficult to use on walls although it can be done.

P.s. 'Cha' was supposed to say 'chamois leather' in post above!

Contemporary tiles have some gorgeous things, lucky you! The dandelion ones have been on my Pinterest board for ages (a bit over budget though :-( ) .

Did you have these tiles in the end? Trying to decide if we should go for them as well.

Sorry silversixpence I only just saw this. No, we haven't made a decision yet. I was pretty much convinced but DH thinks it sounds like too much hassle to lay/clean them. Did you go for them?

In my experience to achieve a great look that is also practical, I would suggest you use a porcelain encaustic look and avoid other natural type tiles. Porcelain is easy to clean and non-porous. I used this Spanish company Pissano Ceramica, they have a shop online.