If you’ve enjoyed a beautiful natural stone finish throughout your home for some time, whether it be marble stone flooring, slate cladding or limestone wall tiling, there comes a time for many where painting over walls helps to promote a newly introduced interior design scheme.

If you’ve got a similar predicament to deal with, you might be interested to learn about how you could paint over your currently installed stone tiles. There are plenty of natural stone tiles that can be painted over when given the correct treatment, so here’s a quick guide to painting your stone tiles.

Step 1 

The first thing to do is to sand over your tiling as this creates a rough surface that can be easily painted on.

Step 2

Once you’ve achieved a rough finish, you need to clean the wall with a thick scrub brush before making sure the wall is dry.

Step 3

Apply two separate coats of primer before sanding over the tiling so that you get rid of any imperfections. Apply the second coat only after the first has dried completely.

Step 4

Paint over the tiles with two separate layers using a foam roller. Continue to search for imperfections and sand over them if necessary.

Step 5

Your tiling should now be ready for paintwork, so pick your chosen colour preference and start decorating!

As we get closer to winter, the opportunities we get to start decorating the outdoors with natural stone start to decline. Instead, you might find yourself carrying out many more interior tiling jobs, whether it’s kitchens, bathrooms, table surfaces or floors.

There are plenty of tiling add-ons to seek out that will further improve your interior tiling jobs during the winter. For example, you might be wondering how you can further enhance the insulating properties of your tiles in preparation for the colder months.

Insulation Boards

This is what most people will turn to if they are keen to improve insulation throughout the property. When laying a natural slate flooring for instance, the insulation board helps to prevent heat loss and saves energy in the long run.

They are usually waterproof and can be used with both walls and floors. Insulation boards work by reflecting heat back up through the tile.

There are also a number of tiling finishes available on the market today that perfectly resemble the specific time of year, including wooden ceramic finishes. Another hugely popular tiling choice during the autumn and winter is slate, which offers durable porcelain material and low maintenance properties.

To learn more about our tiling range and tile fitting services here at the Stone Tile Emporium, call us today on 01737 201125. From tomorrow, you can visit our brand new shop in Bell Street, Reigate and explore our wide range of natural stone tiles and mosaics.

If you’ve just acquired some natural stone tiles and you’re wondering where to go next, it might help if you know exactly what it is you need to get the tiling process underway. Tiling might seem reasonably straightforward but there are a number of tools that can make the time-consuming process a whole lot easier. Here are 5 essential tiling tools that you should invest in if they aren’t already part of your toolbox collection.

  1. Start by getting hold of a grout float. These are essential if you want the job to be done neatly and efficiently. Use the grout float to press the mortar into the seams created between the tiles.
  2. A trowel is another essential tool that lets you spread the mortar for the tiles to be placed on. They are designed in a pointed fashion to ensure you get the right amount each time.
  3. You’ll need a mallet to tap the tiles into position. Just make sure you use a rubber mallet instead of a wooden one!
  4. If you’ve noticed a build-up of excess mortar on the top of the tiling, you can use the tough, resilient grout sponge to get rid of it.
  5. Finally, make sure you have a bucket to mix the mortar in. It needs to be new and ideally suited to making thinset mortar.

There you have it, 5 essential tiling tools. Make sure they’re available to you the next time you decide to purchase some tiles from us here at the Stone Tile Emporium!

The vast majority of patios take a beating throughout the winter months, so it’s important to make sure your limestone or other mosaic stone patio is restored to its finest condition before the summer. It’s easy to neglect patios as they are often covered in various plants and other garden accessories.

It turns out that cleaning your garden patio isn’t as hard as you probably thought, with plenty of products available online to get the job done effectively. Alternatively, you can have a go at other straightforward cleaning techniques that will have your patio looking in great shape for the summer.

It’s good to start by getting rid of pointless clutter as this can affect the room you have to start cleaning. If you’ve had various plants on your patio throughout the year, you’ll probably need to do a thorough sweep of the patio.

Depending on the type of natural stone your patio is, you can mix a cleaning solution like bleach with water and scrub with a tough outdoor brush to get rid of other stains. It’s also a good idea to get rid of the weeds growing between the stone beforehand if there are any.

Finish the cleaning process with a garden hose, getting rid of the bleach solution that’s remaining and leave it to dry overnight.

When we anticipate putting up a new range of tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, we don’t usually make grout a huge priority. However, grout can have more of an effect on the appearance of your tiles than you’d probably think, so here are some of the best grouting methods you can use when assembling your natural stone tile designs.

If you’re looking for something reasonably neat and simplistic, you’re probably better off going for matching grout. This can really improve the overall finish, so it’s ideal if you don’t want the tiles to look ragged or stand out too much. The grout colour doesn’t have to be identical, though it shouldn’t stand out as much as the primary colour of your tiles.

If you’re thinking of doing the opposite to matching grout, you’ll probably favour contrasting grout. You’ll need to find a grout colour that suits your chosen tiles, whilst it may not be overly necessary if you’ve already got an attractive, natural finish. However, coloured grout works well if you want to hide dirt accumulation.

If you want something a bit more advanced for your porcelain tiles, such as accent grout for instance, you might want to choose a colour that fits the overall style and theme of the entire room. Once you’ve chosen a specific colour scheme it can be difficult to change it, especially when you use accent grout, so keep this in mind when choosing this option.

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