11721 Cotto Sealing

Hello

My cottos have been laid and are ready to be protected. We really liked a product available from Fired Earth called Rapid Cotto. You apply boiled linseed oil first, and then a coating of this product. It does not require buffing and only needs to be reapplied every year. The problem is the product is not distributed in Italy, and cannot be flown.

I have begun looking at the HG products but cannot see if they can be used over the top of linseed oil. That seemed like a good idea to me to bring the colour out of the cottos.

Does anyone know firstly, where you can buy boiled linseed oil? and secondly, of any specific products that sound similar to the Fired Earth product and are widely available in Italy.

Thanks all

Strawberry*

Category
Building/Renovation

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 07:40

You could have a look through this site to see if there is anything suitable.

[url=http://www.filachim.com/index.jsp]Filachim[/url]

As for boiled linseed oil, perhaps our Oil di lino may be able to put you on the right track.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 08:50

If you intend to do it the hard way then boiled linseed oil can easily be bought from an ironmonger or somewhere like Brico (B&Q type store) but various people who restored around here had professionals cover their terracotta with a resin type sealant and have not done anything to there floors since 2004. Nearest neighbours live here all the time and bought handmade cotto...there's posh, and the resin coating did not diminish it's beauty. Alternatively as I think you are in Le Marche perhaps someone on the Forum driving there from UK could bring you the Fired Earth stuff?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 15:42

I must agree with Noble. To try and combine the HG products with Linseed probably defeats the object of using something like HG. We used HG matt on our ancient English floor pammments. Perhaps the finish wasn't as dark as linseed, but it darkened over time and was incredibly quick and easy to apply. The nice thing about the HG product is that if you don't like the effect, it can be stripped just as easily as applied and I'm 99% certain that it's available in Italy.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 02:59

MADRAS products are used here in Toscana-there are various versions-neutral resin-no colour-or tinted to look darker and more antique.I personally think Fired Earth stuff way over priced and unneccessary as the Italians treat their floors all the time . For 150 euros i had my floors treated and sealed by a professional who works for Madras-theyre fabulous! I do use boiled linseed oil on the pre existing ancient cotto though-its available very cheaply in all the diys-OBI,BRICO etc-mix it witha bit of white spirit (aquaragia)otherwise youll be waiting forever for it to dry and it will be permanently sticky. I wouldnt have thought the linseed with a resin sealant technically a good idea personally as the oil will be trapped underneath..if its reason is to darken the natural terracotta then I would stick with the specialist stuff. Good luck ! shas

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 04:50

Hello

Thank you for the good advice and recommendations. I have found this to be a real stumbling block. I imagined that Italians would know how to look after cottos, but the people local to my house just don't seem to know. I had the cottos sealed by the builders when they were laid, but it was not effective, they can't tell us what they sealed them with, and the colour of the cottos had gone. They look very grey. The cotto floors in the kitchen and breakfast area have now been acid cleaned so that we can start again.

I thought that the linseed oil would be good for bringing back the natural colours of the cottos. Maybe this isn't correct, or there are easier ways to do this.

Shas - would you be able to PM me the details of the professional you got to finish your floors. You say 150euros, but for what sort of area?

Thanks again everyone

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 08:57

well the person I used was "doing it in their own time"so I cant really recommend them(its usually a woman's work by the way),but Madras has people who do the treatments all over Italy for the big palazzos whatever-I havent googled them but I would think they had a website. Maybes your builder didnt clean off all the old cement /grout-this is really the longest and most important part of the treatement so to speak and i cant imagine a builder taking quite so much time to make sure it was all off before they applied the sealant(presumably a resin thing)?if your now back to square one why dont you try one of the tiles with a mix of 3parts linseed,1 part white spirit and if you like it go for it.I cant imagine all these modern treatments and resins were around in the 15/16c and that is why the traditional thing is the olio di lino you see all over and what my neighbours here use and also myself for the older tiles like I said ,because I assumed they were already sealed one way or another afetr a couple of 100 years-and it certainly brings out the colour. Youve gotta remember too that cottos differ in colour-umbrian being more sandy coloured than tuscan for example-I dont know where you are? shas

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 09:58

The Madras website,unfortunately in Italian but with plenty of info about treatments etc...
[url=http://www.madras.it]Madras[/url]
:smile:shas

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 04:52

Another company that may be of help with products are Liberon. It is a French company, that deals with floor sealants of all types. We have used their products on brick flooring in the UK, so it is also possible they are available here. ( Have just this morning sealed a doorstep with the sealant)
Link attached for the UK website.
[url=http://www.liberon.co.uk/flooring/stone,434,464.html?args=Y29tcF9pZD0zMDQmYWN0aW9uPWZpY2hlUHJvZHVpdCZpZD0xNTQmfA%3D%3D]Stone : Stone Floor Wax - liberon.fr[/url].

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 03:28

Hi Geotherm

Are these products available widely in Italy in places like Brico do you know?

Thanks :o)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/24/2009 - 03:36

[quote=strawberrystar;111828]Hi Geotherm

Are these products available widely in Italy in places like Brico do you know?

Thanks :o)[/quote]
Hi Strawberrystar.
That I am not sure of, but the best idea may be to email the UK office and hopefully they will be able to find out, or give you a contact.