Choosing Flooring: Tile

Tile continues to grow in popularity as a floor covering, with good reason.

  • Tile has a natural, handcrafted look that's durable and easy to care for.
  • Tile works well in areas with high foot traffic, and it's especially suited to entry areas where water and dirt enter the house.
  • Design patterns are limitless when using all of the possible combinations of size, texture and color.
  • You can further expand your creative toolbox with hand painted tiles and colored grouts.

By combining various geometric layout and numerous trim tiles your design options are practically limitless.

Selecting Tile

Finding a tile you like is easy. Just make sure it's the right one for your floor and choose a tile that's rated for the area you where you plan to install it. Entryways need a hard, abrasion-resistant, moisture-proof tile. Baths require a moisture-proof non-slip material. Slip-resistant tile is treated with an abrasive material to "rough up" the smooth surface for safety. Some tiles are rated for indoor or outdoor use only, others can be used in either application.

Floor tile is usually 1/2" to 3/4" thick, manufactured in squares measuring 4"x4" up to 24"x 24". Other shapes, such as octagonal and hexagonal are available. (Wall tile is thinner and comes in squares from 3"x 3" up to 6"x 6".)

Mosaic tiles are two inches square or smaller and can be installed individually. Mosaic tiles are also available in pre-mounted paper or fabric mesh sheets.

Tile Ratings

All tile feels hard, but some types of tile are actually harder than others. Tile is rated by a series of standardized tests. The tests evaluate a tile's relative hardness (the Moh scale), its ability to stand up to wear and the percentage of water absorbed.

The Porcelain Enamel Institute hardness ratings are:

  • Group I - Light Traffic: residential bathroom floors where bare or stocking feet are the norm.
  • Group II - Medium Traffic: home interiors where little abrasion occurs. Don't use in kitchens or entries.
  • Group III - Medium-Heavy Traffic: any home interior.
  • Group IV - Heavy Traffic: homes or light to medium commercial areas.
  • Group V- Extra Heavy Traffic: use it anywhere.

These ratings are important, but don't get too bogged down in analysis — they serve to help you find the right tile for your application.

Porosity

Pay closer attention to the ratings test that measures the percentage of water absorbed, or porosity. A tile's porosity is critical especially when choosing tile for kitchens and baths, since these areas need moisture proof flooring. Porous tile should not be used outdoors where cold weather produces freeze/thaw cycles. The classifications for the porosity of tile are: Impervious (least absorbent), Vitreous, Semi-vitreous, and Non-vitreous (most absorbent).

Firing

The hardness of tile is affected by the firing process. Usually, the longer and hotter the firing, the harder the tile will be. The raw tile material, called bisque, is either single-fired or double-fired.

  • For single-fired tiles, the glaze is applied to the raw material and baked once in a kiln.
  • Double-fired tiles are thicker. Raw material is baked a second time after additional color or decoration is added.

Installing Tile

On the do-it-yourself project scale, installing tile ranges from easy to challenging. Tiles usually require some cutting to fit. They're applied with mortar or other adhesives, followed by a final application of grout.

As with all types of tile, areas that require precision cuts may be more difficult. Flooring presents its own set of concerns. Since tile is not a resilient material, it requires a very stable subsurface. Subfloors frequently have to be built up to the thickness required for tile flooring.

See the chart below for some common (and some less common) floor tile.

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Ceramic Floor Tile

Truthfully, there's almost too many reasons to choose ceramic floor tile for your home than there is room in this article to mention. They come in an almost endless variety of styles, they are easy to maintain, they are cost effective compared to other tiles on the market, and they're just plain good looking. If you're looking for an excellent flooring solution for your home improvement project, ceramic floor tile is one of the best investments you can make as a homeowner.

Sky's the Limit
Perhaps the most attractive thing about ceramic tile for homeowners is the almost unlimited variety of styles that is available to choose from. Whether you're looking for a refined, classic style, a rustic stone imitation, terra cotta type tiles, or decorated Mexican tile, ceramic floor tile is the answer you've been looking for. Even intricate mosaics are a possibility if that's what floats your boat. You'll be hard pressed not to find what you're looking for, and if you can't find it, don't stress. You can have ceramic tiles custom made to fit just about any design you can imagine.

Ceramic Won't Break Your Budget
One of the other advantages of ceramic tile is its cost. Compared to popular stone alternatives, ceramic is hands down the most cost-effective material out there when it comes to floor tiles. And when you take into consideration the fact that ceramic floor tile can be made to mimic just about any stone surface, you've got a beautiful tile floor that looks just as stunning as stone at a fraction of the cost.

Beautiful and Low Maintenance to Boot
Besides style and price, the other reason many homeowners choose ceramic floor tiles for their flooring needs is purely aesthetic. Ceramic floors look great. Whether you're looking for a rustic southwestern feel, a more upscale polished look, or something in between, ceramic tiles come in such a wide range of looks that you're sure to be able to suit your fancy. And because most ceramic tiles are fired with a water resistant glaze, they are a low maintenance flooring product compared many of the alternatives. In fact, when it comes to areas where water and dirt is unavoidable, such as entryways, kitchens and baths, you won't find a more durable and longer lasting flooring material than ceramic tile.



Read more: http://www.servicemagic.com/article.show.Ceramic-Floor-Tile.14166.html#ixzz0dxbpzsTs
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