Here Is Everything That You Should Know To Choose the Best Flooring Tile for Any Room in Your House
Just like the world outside, if the ground is good, the environment becomes even better. So, moving indoors with the similar philosophy, floors stand of utmost importance and the better their quality is, the more beautiful your room will look.
Unfortunately, selecting the best type of floor for the living room is still pretty much vague to many home owners. They buy the floor according to what they see or like around themselves and in some cases, they decide to get suggestion from the tile contractor. However, believe it or not, this still doesn’t guarantee the protection and elegance that you can bring into your living room with the right floor.
While there is no shortage of materials, colors, textures and designs to choose from, people need to understand that not every tile can suit all spaces around the house. The decision is more complicated than you think. So, even if for instance, you love the idea of Saltillo Mexican tile Phoenix for your living room, there are still a lot of factors that you need to consider before making the final call.
Check The Hardness of Tile
Tiles are going to be an integral part of the foundation of your house so you have to make sure that it is hard enough to bear all kinds of pressure, withstand heavy foot traffic and provide you standard protection against scratches as well.To make the process simple, Porcelain Enamel Institute rate the strength of tiles after putting it under rigorous laboratory testing. You can always consult the scale in order to identify what will suit your living room the most.
- Class I: Can’t bear any foot traffic. Only appropriate for walls.
- Class II: Can withstand light traffic with no scratching or stiff dirt. Will look ideal in places like bathrooms and bedrooms.
- Class III: Light to normal traffic. Stands suitable for any part of home except for kitchens, entryways, and other similar areas which can get crowded at times.
- Class IV: Best for places with heavy traffic e.g. kitchens, halls, entryways etc.
- Class V: If there is going to be extra heavy traffic with scratching and dirt, then this is your safest bet for such places – esp. commercial buildings.
What’s the tile porosity?
Porosity is basically determined by the ratio of air holes to solids in a tile or the amount of water it can absorb. So, if there are chances of moisture around the specified space, you should consider the porosity factor for flooring tile by all means.- Impervious: water absorption of 0.5 percent or less. More suitable for kitchen and bathroom.
- Vitreous: water absorption stands at 0.5 percent to 3 percent.
- Semi Vitreous: water absorption level 3 – 7 percent.
- Non Vitreous: The worst of them all has water absorption of more than 7 percent and is highly not recommended for any kind of floor use.
Check Slip Resistance
Most tiles are slippery by nature and if there is water on top of it by chance, then you are always in trouble. So to eliminate such associated risks, you need a completely slip resistant tile where children and elders roam around very often.There are certain ways to check the slip resistance as well. For example if you are looking for shower tile floor then look for something with high COF (coefficient of friction) and always go for sizes that are near to 4x4.
This doesn’t stop here on only as there are other factors associated to slippery nature of the tiles that one needs to consider as well.
- Ceramic or Porcelain: It is pretty much possible that the special textured surface will impress you but you need to make sure that your preferred tiles have slip resistant coatings.
- Slate: This type of tiles are usually based on a beautiful stone that is naturally slip resistant.
- Small size tile (glass, mosaic, etc): The grout lines on this make the surface more textured and eventually slip resistant as well. Another preferred option can be penny tile rounds that are small and can shine out.
- Pebble stone: An aesthetically pleasing and textured surface that can be your safest bet in this case.
Choose Light Color Tiles To Make Your Place Look Grand
This is basically a pro tip if places like your bathroom is small and there isn’t any window inside it for natural light. Light color tiles like white, sand, beige, and cream, in porcelain or marble can enhance the appeal of your room in awe-inspiring ways.In such a scenario, you can also go for larger tiles which can make the room look even bigger and to put an icing on the cake, you can install the same tiles on walls too.
When this gets combined with similar light, you are in for a real treat.
Stone Tile Is A Statement For Ultimate Luxury And Quality
For those, who want luxury and durability, then stone floor tile should be your ultimate pick. Among them marble, granite and travertine stand on top that equally provide an option of naturally beautiful floor. However, you still need to seal them all in order to make sure that they remain resistant to stains and especially water infiltration.Moreover, the process of sealing should recur after every 5-10 years for optimal looks and quality.
Author: Justin Mark is an experienced house remodeling contractor, and has been in this business for more than a decade. He is very enthusiastic about his work and keeps himself updated by the latest home improvement trend.
