To seal floor tile or not

[Peggymarie]

Should you seal floor tile or not before your 1st year in new home? If you did, who would you recommend?

[Debfrommaine]

Could call warranty office and see if it voids your warranty.

[RARO1]

The vast majority of ceramic and porcelain tile does not need to be sealed. One of the best features of ceramic tile is that it is not porous like natural stones and hens doesn't absorb liquids and dirt that gets on the surface.

Now, what you might want to seal is the grout, some modern high quality grouts do not need to be sealed after application, however, this being a Villages house the grout used was probably just a standard builders grade grout and they probably did not seal it as its a very labor intensive project, you would typically apply the sealer with a brush or a sponge, let it sit for a minute or two and then wipe it off.

I would only seal the grout if it is a very bright color or if the grout and the tile are very different shades i wouldn't bother if its regular gray grout. You could seal only the high traffic areas like the entryway and the kitchen, where spills would happen. I have used and like the brand Miracle, their product called 511 impregnator sealer is good.

[Bill32]

We have sealed the grout several times in our homes, doesn't last. Eventually we put luxury vinyl plank flooring over the tile. No more grout, water proof, much softer to walk on...

[villagetinker]

I had very poor results with the 511 product, especially in the kitchen. When I called them they stated "in heavy traffic areas this needs to be reapplied EVERY 2 YEARS", I strongly suggest staying away from this product. As noted above, you should NOT reseal the floor. If you were to do this you may end up with a very slippery surface, and if the sealer does not grip well it may peel off. You do need to seal the grout, unless you got lucky and the original grout was the sealed type. I have used a product called grout shield which is similar to paint. You order it based on your grout color (get this from home warranty). This takes time to apply, but a much better product than 511, also it matched the original grout so well I actually missed a few areas that showed up when we mopped the floors.

[Carla B]

Based on Village Tinker's recommendation we ordered Grout Shield on line. Home Warranty can tell you the name of your grout color, then you order that color from Grout Shield. They send instructions on how to apply it. Husband put it off for months as he has a bad back. When he actually decided to tackle the job he found it easier than he thought and it went very fast. We just did the kitchen, as the rest of the grout in the LR/DR doesn't get that dirty. It blended in perfectly. No more expense for sealing which doesn't last long anyway.

[Peggymarie]

Thank you all for all the great information. I'm sorry I wasn't too clear, I did mean just the grout.

[eyc234]

Even Grout Shield will have to be reapplied at some point. No sealer is forever.

[vintageogauge]

Our home was built in 2017 and we had tile put in our lanai by The Floor Shoppe at that time. We asked them if we should seal the grout and/or tile inside our home and they told us neither the tile or grout that The Villages used needs to be sealed. I thanked them for their honesty.