Deck Tiles With Tiledek from Duradek

North American building codes are all about “water management”. As in, how to get rainwater off, and away from your building or home as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Tile decks are beautiful. A natural stone such as a slate provides a unique earthy tone to your deck while still providing plenty of texture for grip during those rainy, icy, or slippery days. A tile deck has the added benefit if done properly, of creating usable space beneath the deck. This means you can tile roofs, patios over storage or other rooms or overhead walkways with tile.

So, we’ve established that deck tiles look beautiful and provide functionality to your home or building project. However, tile has several critical limitations:

• All tile, whether natural stone, ceramic, or porcelain, glazed or unglazed, are porous, meaning water can and will seep through to the substrate.
• Roof tile is more often than not at least 12″x12″, in these installation scenarios grout lines of a quarter inch are a minimum. You cannot use an epoxy grout or unsanded grout in a quarter inch grout line, so your choices are limited to sanded grout, which again is porous and will seep water to the substrate over time.
• The “substrate” we are speaking of, is the core structure of your home, more often than not some form of lumber, which does not react well to prolonged exposure to water.
• Even concrete substrates will seep water eventually as well.

What makes the process of installing tile on an outside deck even trickier is that “water is smart”. As we have already noted, building codes usually are very strict on water management and If there is a way for water to penetrate a waterproof membrane, water will eventually find it. This usually ends up in the waterproof membrane being compromised from below, bubbling, and eventually, the membrane will separate and lift from the substrate completely.

So does this mean that there is no good solution for installing deck tiles? Absolutely not, Tiledek from Duradek is an under tile waterproofing solution installed only by approved professionals. This is an important point as there really is no certifying body in Canada and the USA for Tile Setters, resulting in no set standards and drastic quality swings from installer to installer. This won’t happen with Tiledek.

Tiledek installers have to be approved and certified as Duradek and Tiledek applicators, and our international applicator network stands ready to serve you. You can rest assured you’ll get the best quality deck tile job when you contact your local Tiledek installer.

Are you a Tile Setter? Interested in becoming certified as a Tiledek installer? Contact us today.