Ceramic tiles offer a wide range of colours, sizes and finishes for contemporary interiors. They are beautiful, easy to maintain and long lasting, and their use can be extended to the living room and bedroom too.
Ceramic and porcelain tiles
Ceramic is one option for floor and wall finishes. Tiles are easy to clean, durable and look nice. The choice of ceramic tiles is now so wide (various formats, decorative accessories and designs), so a buyer can easily get confused in choosing them.
The basic rule is to put only those tiles that the manufacturer marked as floor tiles on the floor. Otherwise, you can have various side effects - cracked tiles or slippery surfaces on which it is difficult to walk.
The floors covered with tiles are of high quality, easy to maintain, they do not "collect" dust and they make the room cosy. Service life and cost depend on the product, substrate, installation and care.
In summer, ceramic tiles are ideal, since they "cool" the space and give the area a pleasant feeling. However, this property of ceramics is very undesirable in the winter. So it's good to limit the floor area covered with tiles to hallways, bathrooms, kitchens and utility rooms.
If you are satisfied with the durability and easy maintenance of ceramic tiles, and you want them in the living room too, there is a large selection of tiles that mimic wood or natural stone. These "imitations" are very nice and they give the room a feeling of warmth, like having wooden flooring.
Underfloor heating can improve comfort where the complete heating and tile system is compatible. Have the system designed and installed by qualified professionals, following the heating, adhesive and tile manufacturers’ instructions.
Tile is a hard surface underfoot. Consider comfort, acoustics and the room’s use alongside appearance and maintenance.
Choose joint widths to suit the tile and grout specifications rather than making them as narrow as possible. Grout colour affects the pattern and how readily marks show; test your proposed combination first.
Invest in quality ceramic tiles. If you think that buying second or third class tiles is cheaper, think again. Such tiles can be much more difficult to set up (because of small bumps), which means that they will be much more expensive to install. Another reason for buying quality tiles is that even the slightest bump can wear and make damage to your furniture.
GLASS TILES
You can bring in the reflection and sensation in your bathroom with new and unusual glass tiles of various shapes.
New technologies and ideas have brought a lot of opportunities in bathrooms design. Glass tile designs that range from those with pointed ends, or bubble-like constructions, give the bathroom a new and modern dimension. While we previously had only ceramic tiles and irregular forms, now these forms are transformed into glass materials, maintaining its original form.
Glass mosaics can create luminous colour and reflective detail. Confirm suitability for the proposed wall or floor and check the adhesive requirements, especially for transparent finishes.
MOSAIC TILES
With the help of mosaic tiles your walls and floors could look more like a piece of art than just a pure standard pattern of paving. Mosaic tiles can create beautiful and original designs tailored to the dimensions of space.
Because of their attractiveness, convenience and modern design, mosaic tiles have been popular floor and wall coverings for bathrooms and kitchens for a long period of time. There is a wide range of colours, sizes and shapes and they offer a variety of effects depending on whether they are made of glass, porcelain, ceramics...
In small bathrooms, both large tiles and mosaics can work. The layout, colour, grout contrast and number of cuts influence the visual effect. Sometimes it is necessary to tailor the tiles size, since the standard size cannot be installed in irregularly shaped bathrooms, niche or protrusions on the wall. However, it can spoil the total impression and change the rhythm of the tiles line up. Mosaic tiles are very convenient for this type of intervention and can easily fit in any space. They can also be used for tiling some demanding surfaces such as pillars.
Mosaic tiles are ideal for introducing dynamics into a space. This is achieved by combining different colours or different shades of the same tone. Additional dynamics can be achieved by placing tiles at an angle of 45 degrees.
It is not necessary to pave the whole bathroom with the same type of tiles. Using tiles of different sizes but of the same shade can create interesting combinations. Mosaic tile borders can be used for achieving horizontal or vertical accentuation in a bathroom. You can additionally highlight the space and save a few square meters of tiles by estimating where and in what part of the bathroom you can set the tiles at a lower level. You can also tile just the areas around the shower or bathtubs.
Mosaic tiles can emphasize the shower cubicle interior, or the space under the sink, around the toilet tank, or even an entire wall.
A dose of glamour and gloss can be achieved by lining the walls with glass mosaic tiles. The effect of glass mosaic tile is additionally accentuated with various shades of the same colour and the play of light and shadow on each single tile. They can be made of recycled glass, which increases the value to ecology devotees.
Finally, maintenance depends on the mosaic material, texture and grout. More joints mean more grout to clean, while scale can form on tiles of any size. Use a cleaner approved for the finish.
Choose by use as well as appearance
Check wall or floor ratings, slip performance and moisture exposure for the exact product. Compare porcelain mosaics and glass mosaics, then order samples before committing to a full area.