Wall vs floor tiles

[Scott]

Hi folks, just a quick question. I am planning to put two tiles on the floor to level the washing machine. I have found two wall tiles. Can I use them or are wall tiles not as strong as floor tiles?

[newshound]

All depends on the tile. The standard thin wall tiles are not very strong in bending, but I'd expect them to be OK in that sort of application. Doesn't the washing machine have adustable feet, though? They are sometimes not so obvious on modern machines.

[Scott]

1. The tiles I found are the same thickness as the floor tiles. Is it only thickness that counts, no difference in composition? 2. The plumber says the altitude difference is too much for the feet and levelling the floor would be recommended. 3. I am thinking about putting some vinyl under the feet as well for cushioning. Is this sensible?

[Chris Hogg]

Wall tiles have a quiet, fairly stress-free life, whereas floor tiles have to cope with people and things trundling over them. Wall tiles generally have a different composition and are not fired to such a high temperature as floor tiles. Wall tiles tend to be quite porous, which contributes to their lack of strength, but most floor tiles are much denser, and stronger as a result. Certainly, you can increase the strength of a tile by increasing its thickness, but thickness for thickness, floor tiles will generally be stronger. You could pop round to your local tile shop and ask if they've got any off-cuts of porcelain tiles in their skip.

A bit of vinyl under the feet of the washing machine will spread the stress a bit and make it less likely that the tiles will break. In fact vinyl above and between the two tiles and below the lower tile would all help to reduce stress concentrations and make the tiles less likely to fracture, but that may make for too much thickness.

But bear in mind that when the washing machine goes into its spin cycle and starts to thrash about, the stresses on the feet and anything they stand on, will be significant.

[Brian Gaff]

Tiles made of what exactly? Brian

[Scott]

Thanks. It sounds like using wall tiles would be asking for trouble. As a supplementary, is there any need to use tiles at all, or would a suitably sized piece of wood be just as good?

[Brian Gaff]

That depends on what is against or near the sides of the machine, some machines do wobble a lot at spin time with off centre loads, but this can also happen with rubber feet on a floorboarded kitchen like mine! Brian

[Michael Chare]

Why not use floor tiles? Would you be able to set the tiles on the proper cement so that they are level?

[Scott]

Opportunism. It is four half tiles that are needed and I happened to find a box of half tiles. It would avoid the cutting!

[Scott]

Ceramic, but I don't have any further details (or knowledge of tiles).

[2987fr]

Yeah, it will work fine.

[Chris Hogg]

My washing machine stands on a large sheet of 20mm ply, in turn on a suspended wood floor, because on spin, the floor vibrates alarmingly. The extra sheet of ply adds stiffness. But if you're only putting small blocks of wood under say a couple of corners, I'd worry that the machine would shake itself off the block during the spin. Of course, that problem would also exist with tiles.

[Jim K..]

Clay usually?