Bring the Look of a Checker Board or a Serene Outdoor Patio Into Your Home with Tile

Do you know the difference between natural stone tile and ceramic tile?

Tile Flooring Guide
Versatile. Beautiful. Distinctive. With its wide range of materials and colors, tile offers endless possibilities for creating your vision for a room. In addition to its variety of decorative design options, tile is very durable and easy to maintain.

There are a number of common tile materials, which each offer their own unique characteristics. Natural stone, such as granite or limestone, are naturally formed so no two pieces are exactly alike. This helps create floors that are elegant and distinctive floors. In either glazed or unglazed styles, ceramic tiles are a popular choice for attractive, long-lasting floors. Glass, mosaic and metal tiles provide opportunities for fresh creative expression in flooring design.

While it requires careful installation, tile is a preferred choice for high traffic areas, like entranceways, and places where moisture is an issue, such as kitchens and bathrooms.

Tile Flooring: Guide for Home Decorating
Durable, easy to maintain, and water resistant, tile flooring offers a number of advantages for use in practically any room in your home and even outside. While the choices are nearly limitless, there are a few key things to consider. Consider this tile flooring guide when choosing ceramic tile for your home.

Natural stone tiles

  • Granite —its high density resists bacteria and moisture, which makes it ideal for kitchens, outdoors and high traffic areas.
  • Marble —not as tough as granite, it's best suited for bathrooms and lower traffic areas.
  • Limestone — this softer stone is decoratively versatile, but not recommended for high traffic areas.
  • Slate — Naturally slip resistant, it's hard and durable which helps make a good looking, long lasting floor for any room.

Ceramic, Glass and Metal
These tiles are all versatile and can be used in a variety of rooms, although glass and metal are primarily recommended as accents.

Tile floors are heavy, so it's critical to make sure the sub-flooring is sturdy enough to support the weight. In addition, tile floors can also be chilly (not a bad thing in warm climates) and sometimes slippery.