Mexican Tile Installation

1. Mexican tile provides a beautiful, long lasting and almost maintenance free wall finishing. A part of interior home decor designs such as tabletops, floor accent inserts, baseboards, moldings and talavera tiles have also commercial application.
2. We carry all sizes available through standard production as 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 6x6, 2x4, 8x8, 12x12 as well as can develop easily custom tile shapes and sizes. Our talavera tile ceramics are lead free.

Preparing the Wall

1. Mexican tiles can be installed directly on drywall, plaster and durox. Green drywall has been specifically designed for use in bathrooms and talavera tiles are good choice for bath application.

Mexican Tile installation

1. Identify the wall center and use a carpenter's level to mark intersecting vertical and horizontal lines. Starting at the wall center above the vertical reference line apply adhesive avoiding covering the lines. Spread the adhesive with the notched side of trowel.
2. Begin laying mexican tiles from the wall center vertically towards the wall ends raw by raw. Preferably the last mexican tile at both ends of each row are of equal size.
3. Firmly press and at the same time giving it a slight twisting motion to assure adequate contact of the tile with the adhesive underneath. Since Mexican tiles are hand cut meaning each one of them might slightly differ in size. Don't use the spacers but instead lay talavera tiles about 1/4 inch apart to accommodate size differences.
4. If you need to cut then use water saw. Using a regular cutter might damage the tiles because most of them are not entirely flat.

Mexican Tile grouting

1. About 24 hours after talavera tiles have been installed you can begin grouting. Because of relatively wide spaces between mexican tiles it is recommended to use sanded grout which is much stronger than regular type.
2. For bathroom and kitchen applications use the grout including waterproofing agent or use liquid silicon afterworlds to seal it.
3. Apply grout on the surface at 45 degree angle in each direction. Press firmly assuring the grout fills up all spaces between each talavera tile deep by spreading the grout up and down. Clean the surface from any excess grout with a wet sponge and clear water and then let it dry.
4. After about 30 minute use dry cloth to remove any grout haze from talavera tile surface.

Finishing Mexican Tile installation

1. Let the grout dry for a day and again wipe away any grout haze left on any mexican tile after initial tile cleaning. For kitchen and bathroom walls use moisture resistant silicone caulking to seal all coroners, the same silicon should be used for sealing countertops and bathtubs.