Good Evening,

Has anyone had any experience with Crackled glazed tiles? I am working on a large kitchen backsplash and am having some difficulties. For instance, when I cut some tiles they get significantly darker after the cut. Tried using fresh water(also running water) and cleaned out pump and hose with no luck. Also, it has only occured recently and not with any other tile boxes?? The tile is also almost impossible to snap and I need the precision of the wet saw for L-shaped cuts, etc. The manufacturer also recommends sealing before grouting, which I was planning on anyway. If I had to take a guess it appears that some of the tile bisque is running onto the surface of the tile and getting into the glaze, but not entirely sure?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Smitty23

I've only used those kind of tiles a few times, so I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions for you.

Does the tile stay dark even after it dries out?

Hi Rob,

Thanks for responding. Yes, it does stay dark. It seems as if the tile gets stained by the water. Maybe the minerals in the water? I am not sure. I am going to call the manufacturer today. I am also going to try distilled water this morning. I will let you know how I make out, and will post my results, so no one has to go through what I did yesterday.

cut them dry and see if thats better...

I've let them soak in warm water awhile before snap cutting them which seems to work, although the wet saw is still required for finer cuts.

Hello all,

Just to recap the end results of the color changes. It was the water that darkened certain tiles, due to the fact that they were hand-made and certain tiles were fired longer than others. This enabled water to soak into some of the tiles and change the color to a darker shade. It took some tiles almost two full days to return to the original color. Hope this helps anyone who works with this tile in the future.