Ceramic FAQ

Rustic Elegance, in tile form. We set expectations honestly and aim to surpass them.

Is ARTO ceramic right for you?

Maybe. Maybe not.

We make our ceramic by hand in our clay department in Los Angeles. Every tile passes through real hands: pressed, glazed, fired. That means subtle variation in color, glaze pooling, edge character, and surface from one piece to the next. No two are exactly alike. Far from perfect. That's the whole point.

We call our work high-fire terracotta. The "high-fire" part is doing real work, not just sounding good. Firing at extreme temperatures is what gives the tile its lifespan, its resistance to staining, and its clean health profile. More on that below.

If you want something perfectly uniform, every tile identical, every edge crisp, porcelain is a better fit. We make great porcelain too. But if you want a wall or floor with depth, character, and the feeling that a person actually made this, that's what high-fire terracotta does that nothing else can. Color you can feel. Texture you can see.

We'll send you as many samples as you need, free, so you can see the range before you commit. Order three of the same color from three different runs if you want. That's the honest preview.

Glazed, or unglazed (naked)?

Two different products with two different lives.

Glazed ceramic: a glass surface fired onto the clay body. Stain-resistant, easy to clean, sealed on day one. Color stays close to where you started. Light bounces off the surface and gives it its glow. Right for kitchens, baths, and anywhere you want a low-maintenance surface that works hard.

Naked ceramic (unglazed): bare clay. Porous, raw, alive. It absorbs the room around it. It develops a patina. It will look different in five years than it does today, and different again in twenty.

Glazed is for people who want the tile to stay close to where it started. Naked is for people who want the tile to tell the story of the room it lives in.

What's it made of?

Clay and naturally occurring minerals. That's almost the whole list.

Because high-fire ceramic is fired at temperatures above 2,000°F, the kiln burns off any organic compounds in the raw materials. The result is a finished tile with zero VOCs, no formaldehyde, and no PVC. Per the TCNA, ceramic tile is also hypoallergenic and inhospitable to bacteria, mold, and other indoor allergens.

In a kitchen, a kid's bathroom, a school, a hospital, or a restaurant, indoor air quality matters. That profile is hard to beat. Vinyl, laminate, and engineered wood products often can't say the same.

What if I want something I don't see in the catalog?

Send us the photo. Send us the sketch. Send us a paint chip from your grandmother's house.

ARTO started as a custom ceramics shop in the 60s. Custom is in the building. Custom glazes, custom hand-painted designs, color matching, historical restoration, one-off commissions. We do all of it. Most tile companies tell you no. We're built to say yes.

If we can make it, we'll make it. If we can't make it yet, we'll tell you the truth.

How much should I order?

Standard math: square footage of the area, plus 10 to 15 percent for cuts, breakage, and future repairs. After install, set a few unused boxes aside in a dry spot. They're harder to match later, even with our records.

That said, your contractor sees the job. They know the layout, the cuts, the pattern, the substrate. At the end of the day, they decide.

Will it look right across the whole floor or wall?

Yes, if the installer plans for it.

For the best overall appearance, we suggest working from several boxes at once. Open them all, pull tiles from across the cartons, and lay out a dry run before any thinset hits the substrate. Strong random shading is what makes our tile look hand-laid instead of factory-stamped.

If the job needs a second order to finish, don't burn through the original first. Mix old with new across the field.

Can I use it outside? In freezing climates?

Some lines are rated for exterior and freeze-thaw. Others are interior-only. Tell us where the tile is going (pool deck, patio, exterior wall, freezing climate, near salt) and we'll point you to the right line up front.

For architects and specifiers: EPDs, HPDs, and CSI 3-part specs live on the Downloads page. ARTO is one of the participating manufacturers in the North American Ceramic Tile EPD, listed alongside the largest domestic tile producers in the country. Most imported tile can't hand you any of that.

Does it fade? Crack? Last?

Fade and last. A favorite joke around here: if granite mountains can be turned into clay, nothing is indestructible. But our high-fire terracotta gets pretty close.

The Tile Council of North America puts a hard number on it. Their UL-certified Environmental Product Declaration for North American ceramic tile establishes a 60-year service life. Their life-cycle cost study lists glazed ceramic floor tile at fifty years of expected life. For context: carpet, six years. Sheet vinyl, ten. Hardwood, fifty. Their own framing: tile is engineered to last as long as the building it lives in.

ARTO contributed data to that EPD. We're one of the manufacturers listed. That number isn't a marketing claim. It's our product, measured.

What you might mistake for fading is almost always a film: efflorescence, hard water, soap residue. A mild cleaner brings the color right back. Skip acidic and alkaline cleansers; those can actually damage the surface. Color is fired in. It's not going anywhere.

The other thing that happens over time is patina. Patina is the point. A glazed porcelain tile installed in 1987 looks like 1987. Our high-fire terracotta installed in 1987 looks like it belongs to the space. The room and the tile age together. That's not a flaw to manage. That's the value.

Crack. A single cracked tile is usually an installation issue: voids under the tile, poor back-buttering. A crack that runs across multiple tiles and through the grout is a substrate issue (movement or a slab crack). A hairline only in the grout is grout shrinkage from too much water in the mix. Each one has a fix. Call us and we'll help you figure out which one you're looking at.

Is it slippery?

Some tiles more than others. Glazed is slipperier than naked. Wet is slipperier than dry. (True of every floor in the world.)

The number you want is the Dynamic Coefficient of Friction (DCOF), the current industry measure for slip resistance. DCOF data for our lines lives on the product pages. Your dealer, your architect, or our team can walk you through what's right for a pool deck, a shower, a commercial kitchen, or a front porch.

Where do I find installation, sealing, and maintenance details?

Right here. Every line has installation sheets, sealing recommendations, and maintenance protocols on our Downloads page. Specs, EPDs, HPDs, and CSI 3-part docs live there too. We don't ship paperwork in the box. It lives online so it's always current.

Still have questions? Talk to us. Real humans answer the phone.