It is not all cement tiles and zellige. This section covers fired clay, hydraulic terrazzo, marbled tiles and handmade roof tiles: materials that are made differently, tested to different standards and behave differently when it comes to water and wear.
Where terracotta works inside a house, when exactly it is treated and what you mop it with, with the figures from test report no. 7539.
A lab-measured 16.9 % water absorption and what it means for laying terracotta outdoors: frost resistance, slip resistance under the Spanish CTE and treatment.
What coloured terrazzo is, the types and chip sizes available and how to combine it on floors, in bathrooms and on worktops, with real test data.
Pitch, overlaps, tiles per m², fixing and finishing: how to lay a roof of handmade tiles and how those tiles are made by hand.
The useful question is not which one is best, but how much water and how much foot traffic there will be. Fired clay needs treatment and copes poorly with frost; hydraulic terrazzo stands up to outdoor use and wet areas with a proven slip resistance class; marbled tiles give a continuous floor with no pattern. The available formats and colours are on the terracotta and terrazzo pages.
