Flooring Tile - Installing tiles on exterior porch

Hi there,

I have a huge conctre porch, it has some hair line cracks and looks very ugly. I planning to install some sort of tiles on the porch, Is it ok for me to install tiles on concrete porch ?, what kind of tiles /slates , porcelean tiles I can put there.

Is any other product out there to resurface this proch ?

The condition of your slab would dictate that you use some sort of isolation & anti-fracture membrane over the slab prior to tiling. I think I would go with ditra, but the tile pros here might recommend somrthing better.

I think I would go with a porcelin tile, since it won't need to be sealed prior to installation, porcelin is dense & doesn't absorb moisture like other types of ceramic & others which are more porous.

Use a modified thinset rated for exterior use in the elements.

Now you said this was a "huge concrete porch" , be more specific please, on large scale outdoor projects, expansion joints are required every 12' to 16'. Also is this actually a slab or is a poured porch sitting above ground?

You got a good idea with the tile, IMO it's much better than astroturf for a solution to cover your ugly porch up, you just need to do some more homework before jumping in with both feet. Post back with the answers to the questions I posed & with any new ones you come up with, we're always open & the advice is always worth the price charged. :D

Is this porch in danger of settling any more?If so then the astrturf may not be a bad idea.Good job dell we'll turn you into a tile guru yet :D There are alot of membranes on the market for this type of install rubber ones trowelable ones,paintable ones,each has there own set of rules that you need to follow,personally for this type i would prefer the rubber ones.If these are just small cracks and you don't think the porch will settle much more then use the rubber ones and i say this cause the ditra is plastic and may not hold up in the cold.

Also the tile needs to be an impervious tile one rated at .5% water absorption usually the porcelain tiles are the ones you need to look at for this type of install,and the thinset as well as covered by dell in the earlier post,also what i like to do is to mix the grout with a latex additive as well to help in the process of water deflection it dries so much harder than when mixed with water and is more water retardent so it won't seep in and freeze and " blow up".Let us know what you come up with :cool:

Well I try floorman, I don't do tile everyday like you, but I do try to stay up on all the latest info. Hadn't thought about the cold affecting the ditra since it would be completely sealed in the concrete, but I guess that does logically make sense. Wonder what Schulter says about it's use outdoors? Have to look that up, got their install manual on my HD, I've read thru it once, but it's been a while back.

What I was trying to get out of him was whether this was a poured porch or like alot of them in my area, it's a set of slabs that are set off the gound atop piers or block, stone, etc. I see alot of older homes around here with that type of porch & I definitely wouldn't try setting tile over one of them, unless you included expansions above the the slab seams below.