This paper considers the problem of building saturated models for first-order graded logics. We define types as pairs of sets of formulas in one free variable which express properties that an element is expected, respectively, to satisfy and to falsify. We show, by means of an elementary chains construction, that each model can be elementarily extended to a saturated model where as many types as possible are realized. In order to prove this theorem we obtain, as by-products, some results on tableaux (understood as pairs of sets of formulas) and their consistency and satisfiability, and a generalization of the Tarski--Vaught theorem on unions of elementary chains.