ceramic tile flooring - Page 5

colliegirls · ‎05-13-2012

We have had ceramic tile in our baths and sometimes our kitchen for several homes. I have never cracked a tile, it is very easy to clean but the grout needs to be colored or sealed to prevent it from darkening from the dirt.

glmama · ‎03-09-2010

We have tile in our kitchen and I don't love it. It was here when we moved in and we've never replaced it. They are large squares and a lovely color, but really never look clean even when I KNOW they are clean. The grout always looks dingy, IMO. Perhaps there are newer types out now that do not do this, though. I think it generally looks pretty, but I don't think it's conducive to a house of children and pets. It also gets very slippery when wet. Even unloading the d/w can be a little scary if a few drops of water get on tile. Of course, this is just my experience. And I've seen it and liked it in other houses, but if we renovated our kitchen we would do something else.

Beauty$Junkie · ‎05-14-2010

Ceramic tile is cold and also is very heavy. Your subflooring has to be able to support the weight of the tile. If it cannot, your tile will chip and crack up almost as soon as it is put down. If you fall on it, it is a lot harder than wood flooring. I have wood and my neighbor just put in tile, and she is not happy. Just my thoughts.

Silkeej · ‎04-01-2010

Have ceramic tile flooring in my bathrooms and kitchen, its easy to keep clean, I went with a lighter color that really makes my rooms bright and cheerful and I use a steam mop to clean them. I will caution you that they are very slippery when wet, so have a rug by the sink and in the bathrooms to catch any water that falls. They are not as warm as carpet but much easier to keep clean, and I have dropped things and never chipped or broke a tile. They are not noisy to walk on. I like them better than hardwoods that dent very easily from high heels and require a lot of work to keep them up. If you saw the 60 minute special on laminate flooring be careful if you were to go that route that it is not made in China their glue has a lot of formaldehyde and a danger to your health.

Cookie06 · ‎04-24-2010

The key is to SEAL, SEAL, SEAL AND THEN SEAL THE GROUT!!! I have beautiful tile floors and the grout is a light tan/taupe color, not very dark. But when the grout is sealed properly it is not difficult to clean it at all. Be sure and ask the experts and ask people you know what product they used for sealing their grout. And also I re-seal it every year just to be on the safe side. The tile floors are so beautiful that it is worth a little extra mopping.

Best of luck to you. ${#emotions_dlg.biggrin}$

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

I had large white squares of ceramic tile in my 80s type kitchen.

When we remodeled, we got porcelain tile that looks like greenish slate and used green-gray grout (VERY thin grout).

It not only looks a lot better, the slight roughness to the tiles make them a lot safer and less slippery too.

sfnative · ‎03-10-2010

I haven't read any of the replies, but please take into consideration that tiles are going to be very, very slippery when wet. There may be a coating that one can apply these days to make it better, so I would definitely look for something like that.

As to maintenance, we had tile floor for many, many years. I think we had maybe 1 little chip and 1 cracked tile. However, these were all bathroom tiled floors, not highly trafficked areas.

(1) I replaced the grout in the tile several times over the years, after having receiving a lesson from the nice guy at Home Depot: not a big deal and it looked great!

(2) Make sure you have sufficient replacement tiles for tiles requiring replacement.

If you're seriously considering a tile floor in a highly trafficked area, it WILL be noisey and the water and mud will need to be wiped up each time folks pass through, though you do have the option of having throw rugs over the area, but make sure you have some of that sticky stuff affixed to the back of the rugs.

My take: to avoid slip and falls, you will definitely need to have area or throw rugs down. The last thing you want is someone having a fall on wet tile in your home and incuring an injury.

Ibby114 · ‎03-10-2010

On 3/3/2015 Beauty$Junkie said:
Ceramic tile is cold and also is very heavy. Your subflooring has to be able to support the weight of the tile. If it cannot, your tile will chip and crack up almost as soon as it is put down. If you fall on it, it is a lot harder than wood flooring. I have wood and my neighbor just put in tile, and she is not happy. Just my thoughts.

My flooring company was going to do this whole analysis if my subfloor could even support ceramic- the worse case scenarios were pretty bad. I opted for lamInate flooring instead!

Nuttmeg · ‎03-09-2010

On 3/2/2015 jaxs mom said:
I'd take tile over laminate wood floors any day of the week. I do love solid wood flooring though.

My sister has laminate floors in her home. I settled on hardwood floors. I am not a fan of tile floors. Keeping grout lines clean can be a job. I have wood floors even in my closets. I have a few area rugs to cover some large areas.