Terra Cotta Kitchen Floor Tiles

[Carley M.]

I recently bought a fourplex and I am starting to make improvements to the owners unit. One of the items on the list was to replace the kitchen floor (currently adhesive tile that is peeling up). I was able to buy 12 boxes of 6x6 terra cotta tile at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore (with 2 big buckets of tile adhesive) for $125. The Project Manager at Habitat advised me that I would need to seal the tile several times.

Is sealer from Home Depot sufficient, or would there be a benefit to going with commercial grade sealer from a builders supply or tile store?  

[Account Closed]

I have some rather bad news for you: setting any kind of floor tile with tile adhesive isn't a good idea, and setting saltillo tile with tile adhesive is a REALLY bad idea. You need to investigate floor tile installation. Saltillo tile is a low-density tile and really needs the support of real tile mortar underneath it. And it might be some other kind of terra cotta tile, and that would probably just make matters worse. If you're installing over a plywood or OSB subfloor, you need to install cement board and lay your tile with modified thinset mortar

I would use a penetrating sealer on the tile. 511 Impregnator, available at Home Depot, is probably the best-known and most effective variety of this kind of sealer. I would also use grout release on the face of the tiles before I grouted, then I would wash off the grout release and seal the floor with the 511. This is an advanced tiling technique you typically only use with this kind of tile and natural stone.

Good luck, Carley. I hope you believe me. You have no real reason to. But please take a second look at what you're planning to do. The project manager at your local HfH Restore does not seem to be an ideal resource.