How To Seal Natural Stone Tiles

Here at Walls and Floors, we've teamed up with BAL to bring you a comprehensive guide to tiling with natural stone tiles. Our professional tiler shows you have to clean, seal and prepare your tiles, ready for tiling.

When working with natural stone tiles, there are several things that you need to take in to account. One of them is that, obviously, they are natural – they are of the earth – so every single tile is going to be different. Secondly, you will notice that the tiles will also be very dusty.

With the variation in mind, you need to decide whether you want to have a good mix. Or, alternatively, you can choose to put some tiles aside if they are too different – i.e. have too many designs, or too much of a different pattern.

Regarding the dust, this is going to have to be removed before tiling can commence. Take a clean, sponge with some water, and buff the tiles until you have a nice clear surface.

You may also want to consider using a temporary sealer to protect the tiles from any grout stains or marks during the fixing.

For a guide on how to fix the natural stone tiles, go to How to tile a wall followed by How to grout a wall or How to tile a floor followed by How to grout a floor, and then come back!

So now you’ve fixed your natural stone tiles in place, you will have wiped off the temporary sealer during the grouting process. Now, you need wipe the tiles down with a sponge and cold water, to get rid of any residue from the tiling process. Then, you need to add a permanent sealer to insure there will be no staining in the future.
To seal the tiles, you need to apply a tile sealer, which is a liquid that you apply to the tile base. This will ensure the tile does not absorb water or other fluids that may be spilt onto it, and will continue to protect the tile through its lifetime.

The alternative to just using a normal sealer (which will just protect the tile and keep the original colour), is using an enhancer sealer.