Porous Floor Tiles on my Porch

[LSU]

My house was built about 1972. My front porch has (what I think) are "half brick" floor tiles that appeal to be regular bricks (with mortar in between the bricks). The bricks appear to have becomes porous and now accumulate dirt/crude and mold. I can pressure wash them with Simple Green & Bleach and scrub them up and they look fine. Give it about two weeks and they look dirty again.

Other then tearing them out - I'm looking for a way to seal the tiles to keep the dirt out, etc.

I thought about having some sort of "epoxy" finish applied but this is a front porch and I don't want it to look like a garage floor.


Suggestions? Comments?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[PCustoms]

Picture?

I'm not thinking after cleaning you may want to use a tile sealer ment for porous stone/tile

 

[larry4406]

At the day job we have sealed brick on rare occasions. I recall it being some sort of clear crystalline product, but unfortunately, I don't have the details.

The occasions were on vertical surfaces where excess water penetration from driving rains was causing issues that were not otherwise easily mitigated.

 

[PCustoms]

At the day job we have sealed brick on rare occasions. I recall it being some sort of clear crystalline product, but unfortunately, I don't have the details.

The occasions were on vertical surfaces where excess water penetration from driving rains was causing issues that were not otherwise easily mitigated.

Worth adding to both our posts that brick is generally supposed to be porous.

 

[mm08822]

Before just throwing any ole sealer on, you may want to consider types that can accept an abrasive media mixed in with it.

Extremely slippery surfaces have been created after sealed concrete surfaces get wet. In your case, depending on the "coarseness" of the brick surface finish, this may or may not become a problem.

Pics help.

 

[dscheidt]

At the day job we have sealed brick on rare occasions. I recall it being some sort of clear crystalline product, but unfortunately, I don't have the details.

The occasions were on vertical surfaces where excess water penetration from driving rains was causing issues that were not otherwise easily mitigated.

Probably a siloxane sealer. As noted, brick is supposed to be porous, and sealing one surface doesn’t keep water from getting in the other five, but can block its escape. Depending on climate, and lots of other factors that can cause problems. Around Chicago, there are lots of idiots that repoint with cement and paint brick. The results are the paint starts peeling in a year, if they are lucky, if they’re not, the faces of brick pop off when the trapped moisture freezes.