Living With Tile Floors?

If you are referring to ceramic tile floors, I can tell you they are colder to walk on than other type floors. You certainly can't roll things with wheels very easily, and pulling in the chairs is difficult. However, it is easy to install, durable, less expensive most of the time.

I would reconsider putting ceramic tile in the dining room. It would be best to put down tile sealant every year to keep the water from getting into the grout and staining it.

Hi:

I recently installed a real nice porcelain tile. I used a 3/16 grout line. Each tile is unique like Travertine and the whole floor is unique every time I look at it. I installed a 3 1/4 inch skirt/wainscot of tile around the entire kitchen and bathroom. I rounded the last corner tile in my entryway.

The astectics are enjoyable because each tile has a unique marbled pattern and color distinction that it is very enjoyable.

Some other things I did was install a sound/waterproofing membrane to the subfloor. Schuleter, Dal-Tile, NAC?s SAM3. I used SAM3

Finally if I could do over again I would install a heating membrane in the traffic areas, My tiles get cold in the winter especially since my heat registers are on the ceiling.

Two things I would Unequivocally do when building a home

(1) put in a variable speed furnace, I like the Carrier 58MVP or the 58 CVA

(2) Have Vinyl (heavy duty) windows with low-e gas glass in every window. These windows are minimum code in Oregon. I sure wished the other 50 states would do the same. These windows will save you money and provide you comfort ? lots of it.

GOOD LUCK

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. -- WCF

i LOVE good ceramic tile flooring........................i liberal use a large area rugs, will warm it right up!

We have a smooth, light colored ceramic tile floor in the kitchen (with dark grout). The large tiles are spaced pretty far apart. It is cold, hard, slippery and it gets dirty fast. It is not as easy to clean as I would have guessed. The dogs slide all over it. I slide on it when I come in from the snow or rain. I absolutely hate it. If I clean it 3-4 times a day, it looks ok. I'm sort of clumsy and tile is exceptionally unforgiving when you drop stuff on it. The stuff breaks & sometimes the tile cracks as well. We're putting a tumbled marble tile into our bathroom because it's not slick, but I imagine it's also going to look dirty fast. One day, I will remove the tile from the kitchen floor and DH will never have to hear me complain about it again. Even if there was sub-floor heating for it, I would still hate that damn tile.

We have marble tile in the foyer. Those tiles have no space between them & are very easy to clean. It's slippery when wet, but it's not a place where I spend any time (just going in & out the door) so it's ok.

Evidently, I'm a wood floor woman.

The post above is correct, you should put on an even coat of grout sealant, I like Miracle Sealants 511. Put it on at least every 2 years.

Difficultly moving chairs and things on wheels depends on your grout line whether its 1/16, 1/4, 3/16, 1/4, or 3/8. Plus it you don't level out each tile to be perfectly even with the surrounding ones you will have bumps very noticeable by walking on the floor barefoot or sliding things around. To make your installation a little easier use,Tavy Tile spacers and a Tavy Tile Puck.

GOOD LUCK

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. -- WCF

One last thing, natural stone (Travertine) is not as slippery as a glazed product. With natural stone products (marble) your grout line is usually 1/16 and you MUST seal them annually with MIRACLE SEALANTS Porous Plus to ensure long life.

PS Hardwood in the kitchen and bathroom could buckle after a few major spills. I've seen many times.

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. -- WCF

--> What do you like or dislike about your tile floors?

I had the entire home, aside from the audio room, done in porcelain tile last year. I needed an absorbtive flooring in that one room, so it remains carpet.

Advantages: if the cats decided to not use the box, or throw up, I no longer have a major problem. Looks very attractive.

Neutral: not as cold in the winter as I feared. Not as slippery as feared when wet, due to the slightly rough texture.

Bad: Probably harder to clean than simply vacuuming a rug - I don't pull out the mop and wringer-bucket as often as I should. Vacuuming doesn't take up the inevitable dirt that needs to be wet-mopped off, and which one would never see in a carpet. Tends to be a lot of grit on the floor between vacuumings, some of which is tracked into the bed from the bottom of one's feet. (Largely fixed by having a throw-rug by the bed.) Concerned that if I ever replace the crummy sliding glass doors with better models, the new units' tracks will have to fit in exactly the space occupied by the old, because the tiles are not going to move without major hassle. And if one drops something like a plate or glass, it's gonna shatter. I've been very pleased with the decision...it is a definite aesthetic plus.

Art

If you use it in the kitchen and drop a dish or glass, you can be almost certain it'll be smashed to smithereens.

(How come we say, "smashed to smithereens", but I've never heard anyone refer to anything as a smithereen, or for that matter, to a bunch of smithereens?)

Happy New Year!

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

Advantages... Durable Attractive Low maintenance...no need to wax or clean No worry about spills, cat barf, burns, whatever

Disadvantages... Cold on bare feet Anything that drops on it breaks

In short, we have had ceramic tile in two homes and like it. A few throw rugs in compatible colours take away any institutional look. It's not as cheap as other tiles or some wood. But it lasts forever. But I strongly advise against doing a large area yourself unless you are an expert. I once did our kitchen and we ended it up taking it up and having a pro come in. A small area should be okay if you use a proper underlay. I'm pretty handy but it was that project that taught me what I should tackle and what I should not. The key thing is to make sure the surface is perfectly flat and level. Good luck ds

smithereens?)

Easy to clean, stays cool, no wear. Don't drop glasses or dishes on it, and be sure you *really* like the color, it'll be there a few decades.

Jeff

Because all that one can do with smithereens is sweep them up and toss them in waste can?

Dick,

Thanks for the feedback!

As you mentioned, we'll be placing throw rugs in sensitive areas to keep this problem to a minimum.

I'm certainly no expert, but I have no hesitation to tackle a large tiling project. We've done every step of the house contruction ourselves, including the excavation, foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, etc. We're working on the sheetrock as I speak, and should have that finished in a few weeks. Tiling will just be one more skill to learn. Obviously, we'll never match the skill of a professional, but we do it because we enjoy it.

Thanks,

Anthony

It's really not that difficult to install if you have two things; a flat floor--we are on a slab, and some sort of wet saw. If you don't have a slab then you will have to put a special underlayment down first. You can buy some cheap wet saws at Home Depot for around $100 or rent a nice one.

Our kitchen we did with a regular scorer thing that just puts a scratch on the tile then you break it along the line. My foyer I did with the wet saw and put the tile down at an angle with the corners pointing towards the door. That looked nice, but was difficult to get the proper cuts around door jambs and such.

My bathroom I did with 8" tiles and it was no problem. If you do the bathroom, lift the toilet and lay the tile below it. An extended wax ring or a double height one will suffice.

You can do it.

By the way, if you have done all these projects with your wife and neither of you has fired the other one and are still married, then you are my idol.

Couple more comments... Tile splitters work easily once you get the hang of it. And you can cut odd shapes where necessary by using a masonry cutting wheel on your electric saw. It makes a lot of dust but it works. Be sure to wear eye protection. As for the marriage thing... My wife and I have been married 48 years. I have learned that the best way of working is to do separate tasks alone and call for help when you need it. If we're laying flooring for example, I do the cutting and screwing boards, she does the staining and urethaning. If we both work on the same aspect of the project , we're at each others' throats in five minutes. I still think that if the area to be tiled is any bigger than, say, eight by eight, you should use a pro. It is essential the floor be smooth and perfectly flat. If it isn't, be sure to put down an underlayment. If you don't, tiles will crack and the grout will come loose. Use less rather than more cement and start working in the middle of the area rather than at the wall. Good luck with the tiles and happy new year. ds

HerHusband wrote in news:Xns946258DEAAC46herhusband@216.168.3.50:

When we first relocated to Arizona we built a home in which we tiled every floor in the house except the master bedroom, total tiled area was 2600 sq. ft. What a royal PITA. Having a "cold" floor was a good thing, but the maintenance was a nightmare. The grout had to be steam-cleaned twice a year at substantial cost. We vacuumed frequently as one would do with any flooring surface, but the tile required washing at least once a month to look its best. That's a LOT of floor to wash and dry. Never again!

Wayne

Like others have said: make sure the floor is perfectly flat... small differences in height are QUITE noticeable. When you grout, put the sealant down as soon as possible (whatever that is...you have to let the grout dry for 1 month(?) by then it's stained in the kitchen, and what a chore trying to get that back to a champagne colour). Choose your tile carefully...mine as all these little pits in it as part of the texture, and the dirt gets in and stays in, really hard to really clean it. If I had known, I would have chosen a smoother tile. Would anyone know if it's worth my while to remove some of the tiles that are uneven, and retry to level these? I have lots of extras.

Considering the amount of tiling we'll be doing, I was planning on purchasing an inexpensive wet saw.

Our floors are constructed of 2x10's at 16" OC, spanning 12 feet, with 3/4" T&G OSB subfloor. I'm planning on installing 1/4" backerboard over that as the underlayment for the tile.

New construction advantage... We'll be tiling before installing the toilet and toilet flange.

Actually, we get along very well when we are building together. We've even spent the last week off work installing sheetrock together, and so far not a single argument... Makes the work much more enjoyable, especially when I typically have to work alone.

Thanks,

Anthony