Tile Types

Glazed Ceramic Tile: These tiles are coated with glass-forming minerals and ceramic stains. Typically they have a matte, semi-gloss or high gloss finish. They offer better stain and moisture resistance than unglazed tile.

High gloss finishes can be more slippery and scratches can become more visible.
Matte or textured finishes help with traction and scratches and dirt are less visible.

Unglazed Ceramic Tile: These tiles are very hard and dense. They come in various surface treatments and textures. Typically these are installed outside as they do not offer much protection against stains compared to Glazed Ceramic Tile. Unglazed tiles do have good slip resistance, however they do require sealing to prevent staining.

Porcelain Tile: Porcelain is the hardest and densest tile you can buy. They can withstand temperature extremes. The color in a porcelain tile goes all the way through. These tiles are non porous and resist scratching.

Tile Sizes and Shapes

They are a vast amount of tile sizes ranging from 1”x1” to 18”x18”. With such variety the design opportunities are endless.

Typical flooring tile sizes are 8”x8”, 12”x12”, 13”x13”, 16”x16” and 18”x18”.

Tiles of different sizes in a repeated pattern are also popular. An example would be a cobblestone look.

Tiles 2”x2” and smaller are usually referred to as mosaics and are often used with different colors to create a pattern.

Some of these smaller tiles also come different shapes, such as hexagon, for more design options.

Pattern borders in different size tiles or different colors can create beautiful looks. When creating a pattern with different tile, the more prominent tile that is throughout the largest areas is called the "field tile".

Larger tiles actually can make smaller rooms appear bigger because there are fewer grout lines.

Smaller tiles offer more traction or slip resistance because there are more grout lines.

Mosaics	Floor With Border

Tile Ratings

There are many industry ratings that can help you determine which tile will perform best in different areas of your home. Ask your design consultant to review the ratings with you. One commonly used rating is:

COF or Coefficient of Friction rating: This measures slip resistance, the higher the rating the more slip resistant the tile. This is particularly important in areas such as your bathroom or kitchen floor.

Decorative Accents

Also available are multitudes of accent pieces sometimes called "decos" or “feature strips”. These can really personalize and enhance the look of a room.

What About Color Consistency?

Solid Color Tiles-Solid color tiles provide a consistent look, however shade variation is inherent in all fired ceramic products. Certain tiles will show greater variation within their dyelots. Many manufactures will list what the shade variation is with a low, medium or high rating.

Natural Stone-looking Ceramic-some ceramic tile is made to emulate the look of natural stone. These tiles will intentionally show slight variation.

olid Color Tile	Natural Stone Look

Choosing Grout

Choose a lighter or darker shade of grout based on the foot traffic that will take place in the tiled area.

Design Options-grout can match, contrast or coordinate with your tile. Remember that grout colors can change from the sample in the design center to the grout installed in your home based on the temperature and humidity at the time the tile is installed.

The Value of Upgrading

Wider selection of size, color, textures and finishes.

More design options available, such as borders, patterns, mosaic insets, clipped corners, decos.

Higher performance rated tiles.