Choosing Tile Types For Hall Floors, Kitchen, Bathroom, Etc

Doing a complete renovation and it is taking ages and ages. This means we are getting too much time to dwell on everythinG and get totally confused. We are now looking at tiles for floors, and walls ie kitchen, bathrooms, en suites. the price differential is enormous eg 70% off and so on.

My Q is what am I looking for exactly in a tile, ie what is best for floors and for walls or put another way, what is the difference and what must I look out for?

noah

floor tiles are generally heavier than wall tiles, as the wall tiles don't need to bear weight and so don't need to be as strong. if picking dark tiles in an area like a kitchen, make sure they are the same color the whole way thorugh..nothing worse than seeing a black tile with a chip gone out of it which is white.

For hall and kitchen, pick a colour that is very neutral, then you can have pretty much any colour units, paint etc. My kitchen/diner/utility are done with a plain rosa coloured tile, kinda beige. They have a slight sheen to them and are warm to look at, don't look grubby how ever manky they get! and go with stainless steel appliances and different types of wood - no bother. The hall is a wishy-washy pink layed in a brick pattern, (to disguise an unusua shaped hall)

Bathrooms are different in that you can go for a theme with your tile with plain accessories or (the way I went for our main bathroom) plain white tile livened up with a border. My main bathroom is 1/2 tiled on the wall with white ripply tiles and a black, grey and white border - floor is mostly white with black tacos and a grey tile around the outside. Paint colour on the top 1/2 of the wall is like blackberry yoghurt, towels etc to match.

Sky's the limit when it comes to tile, price wise. We went for the best that we could afford at the time. Always try and buy 1 or 2 boxes more than you think you'll need, you can always return them - then you are assured that all tiles will be the same shade. Luckily for me hubby is well handy and tiled everywhere, if you're not that confident it's worth paying a professional - would be a shame to pay all that money and be disappointed with the results.

best to go with a relatively smoot surface for floor tile. I tiled our hallway about 18 months ago with a ceramic tile that has an old stone like finish on it and its imposible to clean.

Last weekend I retiled our kitchen floor because I did not keep enough tiles to cover a channel I had to cut to get power for a new cooker so take the last posters coments about geting extra tiles. before selecting the tileswe brought a selection home from dafts daves tile shop and left them on the floor. We quickely selected the one that did not show up dust and marks quickely. You would be suprised how tiles of similiar design and colour can be easier to keep clean

I would also advise against a glazed tile for kitchens - or anywhere where you're standing for a long time in the one spot e.g. at the sink, the tiles are extremely cold underfoot (unless you wear thick soled shoes!) If I was doing mine again, I'd pick something else I think.

Thanks all we have been out looking again and think we have started to ask the correct questions that is until I spoke to my engineer today and mentioned that we like poreclain tiles for hallway!! He then asked what was the " non slip resistent level" of the tile we liked. I kid you not.

And we have found styles have changed a lot.

noah