Tiles

http://www.spaintiles.info/documentos/process.pdf

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. - wikipedia
Tiles can come in many forms and in many different materials, but their defects aree all mainly the same. The type of tile focused on for the first part of this project would be ceremic tiles.

Natural stone tiles can be stained by spilled liquids; they must be sealed and periodically resealed with a sealant in contrast to ceramic tiles which only need their grout lines sealed. However, because of the complex, non repeating patterns in natural stone, small amounts of dirt on many natural stone floor tiles do not show.
Most vendors of stone tiles emphasize that there will be variation in color and pattern from one batch of tiles to another of the same description and variation within the same batch.
As ceremic tiles are artificially made with manufactured colouring, these would be easier to replace when any defects occur.

There are literally thousands of colors, sizes, styles, shapes and grades to choose from.

The trend in ceramic tile used to be to stay as neutral as possible. In fact, most of the tiles sold for home use were either white, almond or gray. Nowadays, white and almond are still the most common, but people are experimenting more with color. Colors are getting warmer and brighter, as well as clearer and cleaner.

Double firing process

In this process, the pressed body is fired to form a bisque and subsequently a glaze is applied on top of this and the body is once again fired to obtain the final finish.

Single firing process

In the single firing process, the glaze is applied directly on to the pressed and raw body; both are fired simultaneously to obtain the final finish.

Tile Sizes and Shapes

As far as size goes, the most popular tile sold is still the 4-1/4" square wall tile. However, the current trend is towards larger tiles, like 12x12s and even 18 x18s. It's tough for a do-it-yourselfer to install anything bigger than this because the underlayment has to be absolutely even and level.

Small one inch tiles are also common. These are called mosaic tile because you can mix different colors to create borders, patterns, and even pictures. These are usually joined together in 12"x12" or 12"x24" sheets to make them easier and quicker to set. You can even have custom patterns made.

Tile Types

Glazed Floor TileThe material that's used to make tile and the methods of manufacturing determine its durability and absorption. It's important to know what tile is best suited for your specific situation.

Most ceramic tile is glazed. Glazed tile is made from a mixture of clays that are pressed into shape. A "glaze" is then applied to the top and baked on. Glazed tiles are available in high-gloss, matte, and abrasive slip-resistant finishes. Glazed tiles also come in decorative styles with a pattern or hand-painted design. The glaze on the tile doesn't go all the way through, so if it gets chipped, you're going to see the color inside. Glazed tiles may tend to get scratched on frequently-used countertops, but they're ideal for walls.

Mosaic tileMosaic tile is made from different types of clay with color pigments added so the color goes all the way through the tile. Mosaics are suitable for almost any surface because they resist moisture, are stain-proof and will not chip easily.

Quarry tile is a broad classification for any tile made out of a mixture of clays. They are usually deep red in color and left unglazed. These tiles are used mostly for interior floors because they're usually porous and irregular in shape. The surface of these tiles can be sealed or left unsealed, although, they may stain if left unsealed.

Another hot trend is natural materials such as slate, marble, granite, and limestone cut into thin pieces and installed like tile.

Trim Tiles

trim tiles - bullnose tileMost lines of tile have special tiles for creating borders and accents. They should also have tile for finishing corners and edges. These will give your project a professional look.

You can get really fancy with your tile layout. One way is to use trim tiles for an accent strip in your design. These come in many different varieties.

Glazed tile that is used in the field will only have glaze on the top surface. This is so they can butt up to other field tile. Special tiles will be rounded at the edges to finish off the field tile.

Bullnose is a term used to describe rounded-edge tile. A single-edged bullnose tile is used to finish off the top of a wall, like a bathtub surround, or the edge of a countertop.

edge tile and bullnose tileA double-out bullnose has two rounded edges for finishing off the corner of a tile section.

Edge tile is used for around the overhang of a countertop.

If your line of tile doesn't come with an edge tile, you can substitute it with a bullnose tile on top and a regular field tile at the edge.

When installing wall tile, you usually want to finish off the bottom row with special base tiles. These are flared at the bottom and make a nice transition to the floor. The top of the base is square to butt up to regular field tile. There is also a tile called a "sanitary base" which has a finished top. These are used in areas where there won't be wall tile.

Properties

Chemical Durability

The high chemical durability of the great majority of ceramic products makes them resistant to almost all acids, alkalies, and organic solvents. Of further importance is the fact that ceramic materials are not affected by oxygen. The materials generally contained in the ceramic products have already combined with all of the oxygen for which they have an affinity, and therefore, are not affected further by the presence of oxygen in their environment.

Mechanical Durability

The mechanical durability of ceramics is evidenced by their strength and hardness. The compressive strengths of ceramic materials are extremely high, normally 50,000 to 100,000 lbs/sq. in. This hardness makes ceramic materials very resistant to abrasion. It is this property which makes them useful for floors, and for the grinding of metals and other materials.

Thermal Durability

Most ceramics have the ability to withstand high temperatures. This is why they are useful in the production of all types of heat-containing equipment such as kilns for the ceramic industry, and such products as the inner linings of fireplaces and home heating furnaces.

Reasons to use ceramic tiles

The use of tiles as construction items is becoming more general throughout the world. Today, they are not only used in countries where for historical reasons they are generally used, but other cultures are beginning to discover their advantages.

These are some of them:

A natural product

Ceramic tiles are impermeable and are made of a clay body with or without an essentially vitreous coating: ceramic glaze. The raw materials that they are made of come from the earth which, together the water and firing, produce a natural high quality product. Thanks to the use of these materials and high technological development, today a wide offer of ceramic products that offer many advantages is available. All this is produced through the use of three basic environmental elements: earth or clay, water and fire.

Easy to clean

Ceramic ware is characterised by its easiness to clean, its ability to be kept from dirt and any type of corruption.

Ceramic ware is easily and simply cleaned with a damp cloth and if the surface is dirty or greasy, cleaning agents such as detergents or bleach may be used. The nature of a ceramic surface prevents anything from sticking, and grease may be eliminated easily. Thanks to this, ceramic products are today used generally in bathrooms, kitchens, hospitals, laboratories, swimming pools, and factories..., where their use prevents the generation of dirt and odours.

On the other hand, their ability to act as electrical insulators, helps to make ceramic surfaces repel electrically active atmospherical dust, thus contributing towards our material ease.

Hygienic and antiallergenic

The ability of ceramic surfaces to prevent humidity, also prevents the development of colonies of germs and fungi that are easily generated in constructions with deficient permeability.

The action of these organisms on certain non-ceramic surfaces is progressive and may cause stains on the surfaces and deterioration on their inside. Moreover, the proliferation of these agents must be prevented for hygienic reasons.

For this reason, their use has increased in places where water is used continuously, such as in bathrooms, kitchens, factories, laboratories, swimming pools, façades...

Final installation

Ceramic surfaces do not require any maintenance after they have been laid, except normal cleaning. Their resistance to abrupt temperature changes, chemical and biological agents, their hardness, resistance to friction..., gives them durability in buildings. A new building made of tiles may remain untouched anywhere. This is why their use has proliferated everywhere and stands out in façades, public areas, shopping centres, promenades and avenues... Their incombustibility also helps to prevent the spread of fires.

Inertia

Their inertia, i.e., they repel any possibility of biological life, prevents degradation of the atmosphere; once it has undergone firing, clay acquires the same properties as stone or elements of a similar nature. How to lay tiles:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-install-ceramic-tile-flooring-155486/
Ceramic tiles can be beautiful and elegant. But it can also be bland and uninspired
Remember to clean your tile and let it dry before you begin any project.
1. Seal both tile and surrounding grout with a water-based floor varnish. Ask your home improvement retailer for suggestions about a good water-based floor varnish for your area.
2. Brush paint primer on both tile and grout. Let it dry for at least 12 hours before you begin painting.
3. With an artist's brush, paint your pattern with latex paint. Simple designs are best. You can use stencils or, if you are brave, try painting your own original design directly on the tile. Let the tile dry before sealing.
4. Seal the tiles with two coats of water-based varnish. Let the tile dry between coats.

If you inspect the leftover grout in your possession, it should be a fine powder with no lumps or clumps. The presence of small, hard lumps or clumping means the grout may have started to mix with water vapor. Clumps or lumps mean the grout is bad or is going bad. But if the grout appears like a bag of fresh baking flour, then it is my opinion the grout is perfect. When you mix grout with water, it is important to add just the right amount. This is no different than making cake or pancake batter. Add too much cooking oil and water to cake and pancake mix and you get a runny batter that will not produce the desired foodstuff. The same is true with grout. Add too much water as you mix and the grout will never get as hard as grout mixed properly.
The proper consistency for grout is like that of a thick cake batter. The grout, once mixed, should readily stick to the end of a putty knife. When you grab a glob of grout from the mixing bucket, it should not droop off of the putty knife. If the grout is runny and can be poured like a milkshake, too much water has been added. You can fix the problem by adding more powdered grout and blending the mixture until the grout thickens.
This is why I always only mix part of a bag of grout at one time. I always want to have extra powdered grout in case I add too much water to the original batch. Furthermore, you only want to mix as much grout as you can apply to the tile in 30 minutes.
The installer could have also ruined the grout after it was mixed perfectly. He could have re-tempered the grout by adding water to it as it was getting hard in the bucket. This, in my opinion, should never be done. The added water breaks apart the crystalline chemical bonds that are forming as the grout transforms from a plastic substance to man-made rock.
Finally, the installer could have issued a death sentence to your grout as he was finishing the joints. If he used a sponge that contained too much water, the water could have diluted the grout while it was hardening between the individual pieces of tile. The sponge used to strike and finish the grout joints must have all excess water squeezed from it before it touches the grout between the tile.
It helps to cure grout in places that have low humidity. Parts of the West and Southwest have very low relative humidity, and the water in wet grout can evaporate too quickly. When this happens, the grout can lose strength. The best way to cure grout if the humidity is low, is to cover the freshly-grouted tiles with damp white-paper towels. The paper towels will readily stick to the wall tile. The next step is to mist the paper towels with clean water every hour or so to ensure they stay damp.
It also helps to run a humidifier in the tiled area for 48 hours. This water vapor helps the grout gain every bit of strength possible. It takes days for the grout to achieve its final strength and the first few days of the process are critical. If you keep the grout slightly damp for 48 hours after it is installed, it should last a lifetime

Ceremic tiles are commonly used in:
bathrooms due to its high resistance to water