Cement tile

Cement tiles or hydraulic tiles are handmade colourful tiles used as floor coverings. They appeared in Catalonia in the 1850s, and have been widely used in Europe and America.

They are mostly known throughout the world as encaustic cement tile. Like their predecessors, encaustic clay tiles, they derive their name from the term "encaustic" which is an art term used for metal enameling that uses a type of lost wax procedure. They have this name because of the intricate patterns and designs that mimic the encaustic enameling process. Cement tiles are not fired; there is no glaze layer on the surface of the tile. They derive their durability from the combination of finely dehydrated ground Portland cement layer and a more coarse layer of sand and cement. The pigment layer is hydraulically pressed into the surface and becomes a part of the tile.