Zellige Tile
Installation
in Los Angeles.

Zellige is a clay tile made by hand in Morocco, a craft with centuries of history behind it. Each piece is hand-shaped and kiln-fired, most of it under a glossy glaze, so the faces are uneven, the edges are slightly out of square, and the color shifts from tile to tile. Chips, pits and fine crazing in the glaze come with it. That irregularity is not a flaw in the product. It is the reason the finished wall has depth that machine-made tile doesn't.

It depends on the surface and the budget. Machine-made ceramic and porcelain "zellige look" tiles are consistent in size and thickness, so they go in faster and cost less to install, and some are made for floors. Real zellige has glaze depth and variation a printed or molded tile can't fully copy, and it takes more labor to set well. We install both, and we'll tell you honestly which one suits the room you're doing.

Yes. The tile isn't what keeps a shower dry; the waterproofing system under it is. On our Silver Lake shower we ran 4×4 rouge zellige on the walls and the floor over a Schluter Kerdi system, set in Schluter ALL-SET, with a Schluter tileable drain grate holding a piece of the same zellige so the floor reads unbroken see the project.

Yes, with care. Glazed zellige can go on floors, shower floors included, as long as the maker's slip guidance is followed, because the glaze is slick when wet. Zia Tile's own guidance is to use smaller formats like 2×2 on a shower floor, because more grout lines mean more grip, to add a slip-resistant coating on larger sizes like 4×4, and to open floor joints to at least 1/8 inch.

It is also softer than porcelain, so edges can chip under heavy impact. A hearth, a powder room or a shower floor is a good fit; a busy kitchen or an entry that takes everything from the street is a harder ask. If a floor isn't right for the zellige you love, we'll say so before you buy it.

It depends on the job. On the Highland Park hearth we used SpectraLOCK Pro Premium epoxy grout for crack and stain resistance, because the joints were as tight as the tile allowed and a thin joint needs all the strength it can get see the project. In the Silver Lake shower we used Laticrete Permacolor in Raven see the project.

Color matters as much as type. Grout close to the tile color lets the wall read as one surface; a contrasting grout draws the grid and makes every irregular edge visible. We decide it with a sample against your actual tile.

On walls, tight: we often set zellige at a 1/16-inch joint or close to butted, which is the traditional look and what Zia Tile recommends. For floors, Zia recommends a wider joint of at least 1/8 inch, for grip and to take up movement. Because every tile is a slightly different size, the joints are read and adjusted by eye rather than set with spacers, and we blend from several boxes at once so a dark batch doesn't stack in one corner.

Because they are handmade. Chips at the edges, pits in the glaze, uneven faces and shade changes are all normal for zellige, and they are what make the wall look like zellige. The installer's job is to make that variation read as intentional rather than sloppy. Where a raised edge sits somewhere hands or feet will find it, we polish it back, as we did on a Highland Park hearth for a family with a toddler see the project.

More than a square-footage calculator tells you, and all of it at once. Zia Tile recommends at least 15 percent over your measured area, and 20 to 25 percent if you want to pull out the most chipped or irregular pieces, since they expect roughly 15 to 20 percent of zellige to carry visible imperfections. Pattern layouts and diagonal cuts eat more on top of that. Handmade tile also shifts between production runs, so a second order months later is unlikely to match the first. Talk to us before you order and we'll help you size it for your actual layout.

It depends on the finish and the room. The glaze itself is waterproof, so glazed zellige on a dry backsplash or fireplace doesn't need it. In a shower or anywhere else that stays wet, Zia Tile's guidance is to seal the tile and grout with a penetrating sealer once grouting is done, and to reseal every one to two years.

Unglazed natural zellige is porous clay and is sealed before it is grouted, then finished with a matte wax, because a stain on unsealed natural zellige can be permanent. Either way we follow the maker's instructions for the exact tile you've chosen.

There are three ways, and it gets decided at the walkthrough. The cleanest is to avoid an exposed edge at all: run the tile to the ceiling, or bring the drywall flush with the face of the tile. Where an edge can't be avoided, it gets mitered at 45 degrees or finished with a metal trim. In the Silver Lake shower we used black Schluter trim, because the rest of the bathroom already had black paint and black hardware and the trim protects the edges of a handmade tile see the project. Mitering keeps the tile as the only material you see, as on the handmade tile in our Pasadena bathroom see the project, but it is slower and costs more in labor.

We have sourced zellige from Zia Tile in Los Angeles for a Highland Park hearth and a Silver Lake shower; they stock a large range of shapes and colors in both glazed and unglazed finishes. Plenty of our clients buy their own and have us install it. If you're buying it yourself, talk to us before you order: we'll help with quantity, and we'd rather flag a tile that won't suit the surface before it's paid for.

Yes. Thickness varies tile to tile and faces are waved, so lippage is a feature of the material, not a mistake, and any installer who promises you a dead-flat zellige wall either hasn't set it or is about to grind the edges off it. It takes longer to set than a machine-made tile, and it is worth hiring someone who has done it before.

We're based in Northeast Los Angeles and generally work within about 50 miles: Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Mount Washington, Atwater Village, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, and Echo Park close to home, then Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, Alhambra, Monrovia, and Arcadia to the east, and Glendale and Burbank to the north. We also head out west as far as Malibu for the right project. If you're near the edge of that radius, ask. We'd rather tell you yes or no on the phone than have you guess.