Pasta tile, keeping the colonial feel.

For those of you who have thought of buying and renovating an old Colonial in Merida, but are worried about the cost of replacing damaged pasta tile. You shouldn’t let that stop you. Replacing missing or broken tiles, is not that hard nor is redoing an entire area. We are in the middle of redoing our own place in Merida and are at the point in time, where we have to look at flooring. Since our place is in Centro and it had Pasta tie in the majority of places, it seemed only natural to replace the broken or missing ones and keep the other rooms in period style as well. I was worried that the cost would be completely out of range, but surprisingly that is not the case. In fact Pasta tile is quite reasonable, considering it is custom made. The folks at Mosaicos Penninsular in Merida have a very good selection of the old Pasta tile patterns and can make them to order. Tiles and zocalos (wall trim) prices vary according to the complexity of the patterns, but are around 8.50 pesos a tile to 30.00 pesos a tile. So as an example, the tile to fit our 4.5M by 5M bedroom and 1.5M by 4M bathroom plus all the zocalos, came in around 7,000 pesos. Of course it has to be installed and polished in place afterwards, but for a stunning recreation of an antique floor, the price is pretty cheap, even when compared to normal floor tiles. So don’t let the cost of flooring scare you off, when you look at old colonials.