Ceramic tile for exterior purposes

[rainyjim]

Aloha all

I was wondering about siding and thinking about my options. This led me to question why you don't see ceramic tile used as siding. Disclaimer, I've seen some sort of community building / church type building off paradise dr. in HPP recently with siding that appears to be tiles - unsure though. I thought i'd break it down to pros and cons first...

Pros
- more aesthetically appealing than other options
- doesn't rot like wood
- lots of options as far as color and design/patterns are concerned even specific imagery

Cons
- possibly much more expensive depending on detail
- would earthquakes be a big issue with tile?

Anyways I was curious if it would be feasible from both an economic and a structural engineering standpoint any contributions are welcomed.

Mahalo

[Rob Tucker]

All your points are valid. In an earthquake the tile would depend on the type of wall it is on. Wood frame, as other have noted, can and will sway and move... not good for tile.

Have you considered stucco?

[rainyjim]

I had considered stucco, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought stucco would have the same issues with earthquakes...cracking/crumbling is what I foresee. I feel like tile would be easier to clean off (could just blast it with a hose) than stucco. I feel like stucco would have a lot of 'pores' for lack of a better word and the pores would be hard to clean out.

Thoughts on stucco abd earthquakes and cleaning/maintaing stucco?

[Carey]

Ceramic tile pros of easy clean/no mold/mildew on the tile might be terribly offset by the cost of substrate (tile-backing board) + thinset + tile + tile edge pieces + grout + sealer, ease of application (ie, wall tiling is not as easy as floor - dang things want to peel off if they are of any size & you are more limited by the size of the tile - gravity takes over at a certain tile size) & you will still have those grout joints & any service through the wall will need extra attention & care... PLUS the whole project will need rain protection while the thinset & grout are setting, or the work might get washed off the walls! (have seen some beautiful outside tile pieces here... some incorporated into rock walls & such have even seen hallow tile with ceramic type surface prep...so this is an option...but not a cost or time saving option)

Stucco is also limited by the skill of the stucco-er...

For both maybe the cement board siding like Hardipanel may offer the ease, at a lower cost (& they do have a stucco look panel) - in fact, the cost will be much closer to the tile backer board cost for a tile project, without all of the added costs

[peteadams]

We found that modified thinset over cement board (e.g., Hardibacker) is an excellent exterior finish that is easy to apply if you've done any drywall coating at all. The thinset at the right consistency applies very much like wallboard compound and goes on quickly. We used two coats, the less expensive, coarser type as first coat, then the white, finer consistency type as the topcoat. Then we used HD's mortar and stucco paint as the finish. The paint was really thick stuff and went on as a single coat. Pretty much zero cracks after eight years. The underlying construction was either Protec SIPs or metal studs with a Tyvek layer under the panels.

[rainyjim]

Okay, thanks for the input Carey and Pete.

So now i'm thinking about the protec SIPs with either a tile coating or a stucco coating.
Do you guys think both tile + stucco would hold up well on the panels?

[David M]

I made a sprayable texture coating for over my ProTec, both inside and out using HD rentable sprayer then spray Behr interior/ exterior with an airless, going on 7 years. Also applied tile on interior ProTec in bathrooms and kitchen.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[rainyjim]

Hi David,

Can you extrapolate on your 'homemade' sprayable texture coating you used to cover the protec panels. Also, can you comment at all on the ease of installing tile on the interior protec panels, and did you use some sort of backer or thinset or just straight onto the protec?

I'm curious, though may be crazy, could you adhere the tiles to the protec panels without a thinset or backer? And I guess what i'm really asking is not if you 'could' but if you 'should'.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Carey]

Protec panels have a mesh reinfoced cement surface, so would act as the tile backing board...you would need to adhere the tiles onto the cement surface & thinset is one of the methods (usually the most cost effective) but there are many other mastics & adhesives that can also be used...I have adhered larger tiles onto walls, but large tiles (depending on the tile weight/thickness, usually a foot or more) do need support while setting, and so doing very large tiles means having much more time, as each tile/row needs time to set before the next is adhered.
Reason? this is the nature of gravity at a certain tile size (mass to gravity) the adhesive quality of the mastic is overpowered by the gravitational pull, not the tiles fault!

If this is used in a wet area (like tub/shower) you should check to see if a vapor barrier is required... as moisture does pass through the grout lines to the mastic & backerboard (or in you question, protec panel)

[rainyjim]

Thanks for all the clarification Carey. I think i'm going to give it a try, but on a more modest project to start.