Installing Reclaimed Saltillo Tile

[@rigovaldez2469]

I’ve never had to soak Saltillo and never seen this done at any job lol and there’s tiles in Mexican haciendas that have been there 100+ years and I’m sure they didn’t waste water on soaking it it’s all about knowing what your doing and how to do it and mixing the thin set to the right consistency

[@mollyculver7201]

Seriously, great tips for working with this type of tile!! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[@robervar1097]

Fun-tastic! Nobody saw the 1 slither being of .old franchise had all those on floor. nice

[@nickmoore9843]

I cut a ton of these tiles in half to use capstones on a retaining wall (looks awesome!). Corded circular saw and a diamond blade. All dry cuts, blech dusty hell.

[@fvhellcat1060]

You can pour in the grout, makes less of a mess and much easier.

[@daCubanaqt]

Saltillo tile is beautiful! Those spaces between the tile look wider than normal though.

[@granworks]

Yeah, I’ve never seen grout joints that wide, either. It’s a look. When adding new ones, it’s a case of “when in Rome”…

[@O.D.J.tile865]

Thanks for the video man .good job. Hi from California

[@peterlansdale1793]

1/2" square notch trowel is recommended. Also, you can see that that's how they were installed the previous time.

[@kimanthony4907]

Great video (love the curious cat)! I will use this as guidance for my front porch saltillo tile installation.

[@granworks]

Awesome! Glad I could help. And yeah, Harry (the cat) shows up in a few of my videos as he's always nosing around, wondering what I'm doing.

[@athenaperez3136]

great video, thank you! exactly the info i was looking for for my own saltillo project 🙌

[@VARocketry]

It was so funny that at the same moment you were explaining the need to back-butter the tiles and the grabbed two dry tiles and pushed them down into the thinset. HAHA.

[@feliziagraye2812]

Super well done 👍👍👍

[@rigovaldez2469]

You need to let the grout dry and sort of cure then use a hard bristle brush to remove excess grout makes it easier to clean when it’s slightly dry and no the Saltillo doesn’t stain

[@TreetoBeam]

Thanks for posting!

[@makisushi3720]

You're hilarious! I love this! Thanks!🙏🏽

[@joaodasilva8008]

Well done, nice work

[@adiophil915]

You mentioned you reclaimed your tiles from another area of your house. What method did you use to reclaim the tile with out it breaking up? Seems this tile is pretty easy to break up during removal.

[@granworks]

Mostly luck, probably. I used a masonry chisel essentially flush with the concrete slab and just tapped it against the mortar/thinset adhering the tile to the slab. Do enough gentle tapping and the entire tile plus mortar would either pop up in perfect shape or the entire thing would shatter. I was able to save maybe a third or a half of the tiles I attempted to reclaim -- most shattered. I think the main factor was how tightly the thinset was adhering to the slab.

[@Hinesfarmasmr]

if you sealed it after you laid the tile and it sat 24hrs, would you have needed to still be as meticulous with getting the grout off?

[@granworks]

Good question! I haven't experimented with doing it in that order but since that would definitely make the job go a lot faster, it might be worth figuring out. I suspect that it wouldn't work since the tile is so incredibly porous and the sealer will just go so far... but yeah, I don't know that for sure.

[@manwithllama]

This is exactly what I did. Works like a charm. Lay saltillo. Seal #1. *Then* grout. Seal #2. Done. (It's still a lot of work, but less than going nuts on cleaning the grout off.)

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

2 seals aint going to do it need to seal it at least 5x @@manwithllama

[@manwithllama]

Joeys Cleaning Lady You’re totally right. I underestimated the amount!

[@MrMercenary20]

The gray dried lighter because you should use distilled water for grout

[@ernestzabala4007]

Great info

[@lourdesrosenberg7302]

thanks fo rthe video. my tile grout is grayish and would like to know how to clean it (not surely orig color) or put the polymer sealant/ colore you used to lighten up the grout

[@granworks]

We tried a few cleaning compounds on the original very-stained grout and the one that worked the best was a homemade mixture of 50/50 vinegar and water... and then scrub the heck out of it with a stiff brush. I will say that even though that worked the best, it still wasn't good enough and so that's why we applied that stain/colorant. That was tedious to apply, but it made the grout look like new, so it was worth it.

[@lourdesrosenberg7302]

@@granworks Thank you so much for the information!

[@gerardov.9716]

Saltillo tile looks great but the maintenance scares me. Are you in California?

[@granworks]

Arizona.

[@rigovaldez2469]

Also you should really use 1/2” trowel on floor and back butter another 1/2”

[@0802turtleman]

I do not understand why you put grout over all the tile. You created much more work for yourself. Great video! I Saltillo tiled my 200 square ft patio. Hard work but worth it!

[@overthemoon9941]

Charles Atwell ...not a good video...any tile installer should know u don’t spread grout over entire tile just the grout area between tile..

[@RVBadlands2015]

Are you going to put a moisture barrier down.

[@granworks]

No. I do add a vapor/moisture barrier whenever putting down a wood floor or a similar flooring type that reacts to moisture in a very different way than the concrete in the slab, but since the tile reacts almost identically to moisture, it'll react in the same way and that's what I want. If this was a new slab, then I'd consider putting a decoupling membrane between the tile and slab to keep cracks from telegraphing through, but this is a 40+ year old slab and has cracked all it is ever going to crack.

[@Monumentalmic]

#1 trowel needed is a 3/4 inch in order to fill the voids. #2 there is a product called grout release by 511 that makes the grout not stick #3 zep stripper to remove old sealer and clean pavers #4 Saltillos should be sealed with water based acrylic sealer aka behr low luster/ behr high gloss #5 grout paint is horrible. Don't use it. Makes maintenance a pain.

[@wendyward3273]

Did you seal the saltillo prior to grouting or was soaking them in water enough to prevent stains on the tile? Also, when applying the color to the grout was the saltillo tile sealed before that process? TIA Im currently stripping and cleaning this tile in my kitchen and want to change the color of my grout from light yellow to natural grey. I mean who does light yellow grout in a kitchen?! 😢

[@granworks]

I didn't seal the tile until after every other step was done. Yes, just soaking the tiles was enough to discourage the grout from staining, since they are far less likely to suck out the moisture from the grout. And then the color on the grout was applied also prior to staining -- honestly, this was just a matter of being careful and using a bit of painters tape. I'm not convinced that pre-sealing the tile would have done much if the dye had egregiously covered the tile.

[@wendyward3273]

@granworks my grout lines are wide like yours. I'm going to try to free hand it after stripping and cleaning it. Thank you for your input and this video you uploaded!

[@michele8154]

I was wanting to to my entire house... now I'm not! I love Saltillo, but not that much!!

[@joshuaherrera6982]

Sorry bud but I wld never recommend installing Saltillo this way. But then again it’s diy.

[@granworks]

In all seriousness, if you are a pro and you do know the right way of installing Saltillo, then please create a video and post it! I did this video largely because I couldn't find any video on the topic and this was my way of giving back based on the many little bits and pieces of info I got from other sources. I've never pretended it was the right way since I have no way of knowing what that even is. If you do, then please post the canonical video on the subject.

[@ede2225]

Vague responses to DIY videos of "You're wrong" without providing "correct" information are useless. Gran's results look quite satisfactory IMHO.