>> I agree with Steve - use water soak. I
>
>
>
> i thought water soaking in from the rear was the cause of the staining
> and "bloom" one often sees on older tiles, and the filling of the tiny
> hairline cracks with dark stuff.
>
> no?
>
> c

c

Yes. And often adding quite fantastic aeshetic patina to a wall. It is
the joints & cracks that bleed through, not the tiles themselves.

In this case we are talking about salvaged tiles as in they are no
longer installed and are likely to be, or soon to be, in discrete
masonry units. We presume that they are free of hairline cracks,
otherwise they would likely have broken during the deconstruction
operation. Good point though.

I love older concrete walls that show webs of hairline and larger
cracking with organic material such as lichen & moss or sumach trees
rooted in them. There is the science of concrete that developed over
time, and then there is the dissemination of knowledge of concrete to
the field, and mixed in with the durable is the less durable but
visually interesting failures.

][<

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