Making Concrete Tile
The concrete tile you see on floors in high-end restaurants, boutique hotels, and beautifully renovated homes didn't come from a machine. It came from a pair of hands, a metal mold, and a process developed in France in the late 1870s — and remarkably, that process hasn't changed much since.
Granada Tile's Echo Collection demonstrates this technique in their Nicaragua factory, and watching it unfold reveals just how labor-intensive and craft-driven these tiles really are.
What Are Encaustic Cement Tiles?
Concrete tiles — often called encaustic cement tiles — are handcrafted decorative tiles made without firing in a kiln. Unlike ceramic tiles, they are formed under hydraulic pressure using a pigmented cement mixture poured into metal molds. The top layer absorbs the color permanently, which is why they develop a beautiful patina over decades of use rather than fading.
The Six Key Elements
The entire process revolves around six tools: the plate, the crown, the lid, the design mold, the ladle, and the press. Each plays a specific role in building up the layers that give encaustic cement tiles their color, pattern, and strength.
The design mold is placed inside the crown, and a craftsman uses the ladle to carefully pour the pigmented cement slurry into each compartment of the pattern by hand. This requires a steady hand and an eye for color — the liquid pigments must stay within their sections without bleeding into neighboring areas.
Handpoured, Every Single Tile
Every area of every tile is handpoured. There is no automation in this step. Granada Tile keeps a collection of historic bronze design molds — many of them over a hundred years old — and continuously creates new molds so clients can match tiles to their specific style. Custom tiles are available alongside their best-selling patterns, and clients can use Granada Tile's online Echo Collection Catalog to select their colors.
The Press: 3,000 Pounds Per Square Inch
Once the color layer is set in the mold, a dry cement backing layer is added on top. The assembly is then placed under a hydraulic press delivering 3,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. This fuses all the layers together and gives the tile its exceptional hardness and durability — it's what makes these tiles last for generations rather than years.
Dimensions and Curing
The finished tile is 5/8 of an inch thick, with the decorative color layer making up the top 1/8 inch. After pressing, the tile is removed from the mold and placed in water to cure. Once cured, it's packed, shipped, and installed. The result, as Granada Tile puts it, is a floor or wall that will last a lifetime.
Why These Tiles Are Worth It
Because the process is entirely handmade using natural ingredients — mineral oxide pigments, cement, and fine sand — no two tiles are identical. Over time they develop a patina that only deepens their character. It's the handmade process and natural materials that give these tiles their organic beauty. They don't just cover a surface; they age beautifully with it.
This philosophy of natural materials and honest construction runs through much of organic architecture — explore Modern Concepts of Organic Architecture for the deeper principles behind design that works with nature rather than against it.
Good design isn't just about appearance at the moment of installation — it's about how a material performs and transforms over decades. In that sense, encaustic cement tiles are among the most honest building materials available.
Where to Use Them
Concrete tiles work beautifully in kitchens, bathrooms, entryways, and outdoor patios. Their thermal mass also makes them ideal for radiant floor heating systems. Designers often use them as a feature floor or backsplash, pairing bold geometric patterns with neutral walls so the tile becomes the room's focal point.
For a look at how concrete surfaces work as furniture, see our post on the Concrete Cantilevered Desk — a great example of concrete's versatility beyond floors and walls.
Care and Sealing
Because concrete is porous, these tiles require sealing before installation and periodic resealing over their lifetime. A penetrating sealer protects the surface from stains while preserving the natural matte look. With proper care, concrete tiles can last well over 100 years — there are original encaustic tile floors in European buildings from the 1880s still in use today.
If working directly with concrete appeals to you, our guide on Building Concrete Furniture covers hands-on techniques using similar hand-forming and finishing methods.
Also worth exploring: our Custom Plaster Tile post covers another approach to artisan handcrafted surfaces for interiors.
Related Articles:More Concrete Projects on Architectoid
If you enjoyed this deep dive into concrete tile making, these posts go further into working with concrete as a design material:
- Building Concrete Furniture — how to form and cast concrete into furniture pieces
- Fast Concrete Countertop Build — a practical step-by-step countertop project
- Concrete Cantilevered Desk — a striking architectural concrete desk design
- Rammed Earth House — another elemental material used in contemporary architecture
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