Ceramic tile is a mixture of clays and other natural materials. The special clays are mined from the earth, shaped, colored and than fired in kilns. Traditional ceramic tile can be naturally colored and left unglazed like terra cotta, or they can feature colored or highly designed surfaces which can be glazed (finished with a glass surface) either in a high gloss or matte finish. Most ceramic tile has either a white or red body coloration underneath the glazed, colored top layer. Glazed porcelain has a body made of the porcelain material and then a glaze is applied over the surface much like a regular ceramic tile Porcelain tile is a newer form of ceramic tile and extremly popular among homeowners. Porcelain tiles are composed of fine porcelain clays and fired at much higher temperatures than ceramic tiles. This process makes porcelain tile more dense, less porous, much harder and less prone to moisture and stain absorption than ceramic tiles. For these reasons, most porcelain tiles are suitable for both indoor and outdoor installations. Porcelain tiles are also harder to cut due to their density and hardness. For other information you can check this site Ciciliot

Thanks all! The tile is 24" high, mine is 8" square. The concrete block place where I bought it has square, rectangles and round up to about 12" wide. All of theirs are 24" high. I was tempted by the round but after that curvy bird bath....I need something to set at the end of my driveway. We live on a 2 house cul-de-sac and my new neighbors took down the #1 sign at the end of their driveway for some reason. Nobody knows which house is which. I think I will do my design and then put the #2 in something visible on top of the other tiles. I'm only going to do it on one side because I'm planning to move in a couple of years (hopefully son off to college). Can you imagine me telling a real estate person, "You need to only show me houses that begin with the number 2 so I can reuse my mosaic address marker."

First, it's really beautiful, and your choice to mount it was perfect. Second, you posted your question on Saturday, and by Sunday the project is done? Now that's impressive!

No, you can’t see if waterproofing is there without tearing things out and likely damaging the waterproofing. I will echo HB’s caution to not beat yourself up. It is easy to get into a heap of trouble when buying a house. We bought this one knowing it had foundation work done that was warranted and the warranty transferred to us. Six years later, we learned that the front living room and foyer of the house, which was on a slab foundation, had a big crack down the middle of the slab and had fallen a good four to six inches. Yes, the foundation piers that had been put in were working fine and were guaranteed. But the foundation repair company had advised the homeowner that he needed 12 piers, and he only did six. The right side and front were supported, but left side was still sinking. The home owner had hidden this from us by putting in a false floor and putting thick carpet over it. It turns out that the front room was sunken 6 inches lower than the adjacent foyer when it was built in the 1970s. The owner used that six inches to put in a kind of floating floor with 2 x 4s, shimmed to level with wood shims, with a plywood subfloor on top. This was not a first house for us. It was my 4th house, and we hired an inspector who my friend had used and who was supposed to be picky. He did not notice that room seemed odd, with a 1 inch drop. It cost us six months of construction living and $40,000.