tile siding?

[John Arnold]

I was not inspecting this house -- just walked by it this morning.
Anyone ever seen this kind of siding? Appears to be sheets of tile.

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[Jerry Peck]

I was not inspecting this house -- just walked by it this morning.
Anyone ever seen this kind of siding? Appears to be sheets of tile.

Probably is 1" square tile on those sheets, and, depending on the wall behind it, it may not be a problem at all - or it may be a disaster ... just know way to know without knowing how the wall behind it is built.

[John Arnold]

Probably is 1" square tile on those sheets, and, depending on the wall behind it, it may not be a problem at all - or it may be a disaster ... just know way to know without knowing how the wall behind it is built.

Closer to 1/2" I'd say.

[Daniel Leung]

Anyone ever seen this kind of siding? Appears to be sheets of tile.

This is called "mosaic tiles", very common used for exterior wall cover in the warm countries. Only peeling off from the higher floors of high-rise building. It is not a problem for low-rise building in the area of no snow in winter.

[John Arnold]

This is called "mosaic tiles", very common used for exterior wall cover in the warm countries. Only peeling off from the higher floors of high-rise building. It is not a problem for low-rise building in the area of no snow in winter.

Thanks Daniel. We have snow in winter, so what's the problem with snow?

[Daniel Leung]

We have snow in winter, so what's the problem with snow?

If the tile-grout is not water-proof, then very easy to spalling in winter (similar to the frost damage to the cracked brick chimney). Therefore, it is rare using in Canada too.

[Glenn Curtis]

We've got a lot of it here in 'Vegas'. It's kind of rare in residential applications, but fairly common at the downtown hotel/casino's, especially the older ones, and most have it on exterior walls around the swimming pool areas. The outside 'shower' stall would be one example.

I was a General Contractor and Division 9 subcontractor for many years here...We took the south side exterior wall cladding off of Cambridge Towers in the mid 1980's because the 'Rock-crete' was peeling off in large chunks and falling on cars in the parking lot below. It was an 8 or 9 story building...apartments as I recall...mainly for 'strip' employees... The steel-framed exterior curtain wall had a 3-coat conventional stucco system applied but instead of putting on the 3rd coat or 'Finish' coat...small washed pebbles were shot into, and embedded into the 'brown-coat' (coat #2) using a hand-held spray rig that looked a bit like a drywall texture gun. When carefully applied it looked great...but after some years of being in the hot Vegas sun, small...then larger sections began to fall-out...followed by even larger ones. Our company was hired to remove the entire south side (the 'hot' wall in the summer months...and the main one affected....the other three walls were left as-is). and then re-lath and plaster (again..3-coat conventional stucco) the entire south wall using a standardard knock-down 'Spanish-Lace' texture for the finish coat.

So...what's all that mean relative to your question John? As Daniel alluded to previously...the mosiac tile 'finish' should be fine, provided they have good 'key'...good adhesion to the underlayment...whatever it is, and they keep water out of the system and miminize impact-damage. The underlayment could be some type of 'hardboard' or it may be a standard or 'hybrid' exterior stucco system. And as Daniel also said...it's a fairly common 'type' of exterior wall cladding in warmer climes... How it will hold up long-term in that locale, time will tell. Nothing is forever...except forever! And besides....John...even if it did fail...I'm sure that "...whatever happens in Philly...stays in Philly..." eh?

PS: If any of 'youse' guys are going to the COA Conference in Las Vegas in September...I'll be a 'presenter' there. Look for my class on 'Risk Management'. I'll be the only guy in a martial arts uniform (dobok). The course will probably be called 'Earning your Black-Belt in Home Inspections' or something close. Come up and say 'Hi'! Especially Jerry and Ted...and John...Rick!