ceramic tile flooring

traveler · ‎03-09-2010

Okay, educate me. Currently our place has vinyl flooring in kitchen and foyer, lot's of wet tracked in. The rest of the condo is carpet except for bathrooms. Our attached neighbor (duplex condo) replaced all his carpeting with wood floors and is it noisy. We hear them running up and down stairs, moving stuff, whatever.

The other day DH was talking to someone else and said he'd like to replace carpeting with hardwood and the vinyl floors with ceramic tiles. I've thought they chipped and were hard to clean. Did I mention he doesn't clean? So how are ceramic tile flooring?

lynnzzz · ‎03-10-2010

I have ceramic tile floors that we put in the bathrooms and bedroom! It is hard and if you drop anything on them, it will break. I would opt for a darker grout as it gets very dirty and is hard to keep clean! It's cold on the feet in the winter, I have several throw rugs down. It is very pretty though! HTH

ANewHue · ‎11-21-2011

I have tile in my kitchen /bathroom. and although it's true most things you drop will break I still love them. Mine are a natural color with a terracotta grout, I clean the grout with a paste made from borax and water and they come clean. I do that several times a year. They would stay cleaner if it weren't for my DH coming in from the yard with dirty shoes/boots. I would love to redo mine to larger tiles. It is cold in winter but I always have something on my feet so it doesn't affect me.

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

Before you make a decision, look at the new vinyl that looks exactly like hardwood planks. I'd love to do my whole house in it. Vinyl is the most practical surface for kitchens.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

brii · ‎06-20-2010

The reason hardwood floors are loud is the proper under layment wasn't used. We have ceramic tile planks that look like hardwood. They used a thick mesh type layer before the tiles were put down.

We have vinyl plank in our basement. We put it right over the previous flooring.

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

We JUST put new 16" Armstrong vinyl resilient tiles in our kitchen last week...LOVE the new floor! I was thrilled to finally get rid of the old and yellowing formica floor. I was brought up with formica, had it in my apt before I met my DH, and both houses we lived in had formica...LOVE the change!

We wanted tiles, but not ceramic. Ceramic is cold to the feet (for those that love to walk barefoot like myself), easily chip, and we didn't want the added expense of adding a heat system under the floor.

We also grouted them too (the color of the grout is seashell)...liked the look better than if the squares were right next to each other.

I'll go get the pics off our camera and post them in a few minutes Smile

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

We have ceramic tile floor & some engineered hardwoods. You cannot hear anything when we walk on the wood floor. The ceramic is easy to clean. I disagree with using a darker color grout. My girlfriend used a darker grout & now it really looks dirty. We used a color called Tumbleweed which is a lighter beige/tan color. Our grout is now gray. When I researched before we bought tile I read you might as well use gray color grout because that's what color it will turn. Guess it's true because that's what happened to ours. Of course it won't turn gray if you use a darker grout. I think it will just continue to get darker & look dirtier. Our grout does not look dirty it just looks gray now. We have had our tile for 10 yrs or a little longer. None of the tiles have ever chipped or cracked. If you live in an older house & your house has settled you probably won't have that problem unless the installer does not know what they are doing. We are on slab not sure what your foundation is. I use the Hoover FloorMate on out tile & sometimes use a floor steamer.

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

The 1st 3 pics are of our old formica floor...the same floor from when the house was built back in 1995. This 1st pic is by our front door. Why oh why there is barely a square yard of a different formica flooring by the entrance I always thought looked silly