The central Mexican city of Saltillo is home to a high mountain basin in which layers of special clay have formed over the centuries. This clay is perfect for making the traditional clay floor tile which borrows its name form the city. The tiles are produced in the primitive method detailed on the link below entitled "MAKING SALTILLO" This method produces a truly unique and beautiful, rustic floor tile, which is suitable in both residential and commercial installations.

The rustic nature of Saltillo is the key to its old world charm. The rustic qualities of the tile manifest themselves in a variety of ways. The most meatball manifestation would be the beautiful color variation across a Saltillo floor. When examined closely, it will be seen that the tile has occasional chips and imperfections along the edges.

Occasionally the tile will exhibit small crates in the surface which are caused by lime deposits. These areas are simply sealed aver the blend in with the rest of the tile.

Saltillo tile may exhibit slight variations in size and thickness. Some of the tile will not be flat. In some occasions, a tile will not be perfectly square. For the lucky customer, the tile will have occasional animal prints, most commonly dog prints. These tiles are rare and result from an animal walking across the fresh clay tile as it is laid out to dry enough to be moved to the kiln for firing. When the Saltillo tile is examined as individual pieces some imperfections may be evident. All of the imperfections which are inherent in Saltillo tile work together to give the installation a beautiful, rustic character. It is this rustic personality that has mad Saltillo Tile popular with so many people over the years.

The sealing of the tile was alluded to in the above paragraph. This is because the raw clay tile is porous and requires a sealer to prevent absorption. There are two basic classes of sealers commonly used on Saltillo, oil based and water based. The water based sealer will maintain the natural colors of the fired clay chaise are a blend or rose or cling pink and cream. The oil based sealer will darken the clay and result in terracotta and amber shading. This is the traditional look of Saltillo and is what most people think of when they picture Saltillo in their mind. We offer the tile presealed in either of these types of finishes as well as raw for those who wish to seal the tile themselves.