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Tile Flooring--Is It The Right Choice For Your Home?

By: Linda Tanner

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When it comes to beautiful floors, it is hard to beat tile. Tile floors are beautiful, durable, and natural. With today's sealers, stone and clay tiles are virtually impervious to food spills, water and mud making them very practical for kitchens, bathrooms and entry ways. There is an extensive range of colors in the natural stones from cool white marble to black granite, with golds, grays, greens and brown in between. Stone floors can be accented with an inlay or a border in contrasting stone or they can simply be topped with an area rug.

Tile floors can run from country casual to formal and luxurious and some of them can come at a high price. There are bargain prices out there at the home warehouse stores, but when buying tile for floors be sure the tile you are choosing is rated for flooring. It will say so on the box. Floor tiles are thicker and more durable then those for walls or countertops. Unless you expect extremely heavy traffic, your tiles need only be approved for residential, not commercial use.

Tile floors do have certain drawbacks. If glassware falls on tile floors it will be no contest...expect to clean up shattered glass. If small children fall on it...well, the floor is hard so you get the picture. Also, if you drop heavy items on the tile, you could crack or break the tile and if you have spare tile (highly recommended) you will have to reset it and re-grout around it. If you don't have any spare tiles left over from when your tile was laid, matching what you already have could be an impossible task. When you do any tile job, keep a few extras around just in case.

Tile floors can be tiring to stand on for long periods of time and unless radiant (underfloor) heating is installed, they are almost always cold. Finally, remember that most hard flooring is heavy, so be sure that the subfloor is strong enough to support it. On the upside, you are never going to wear tile out. Sometimes your grout may start to look kind of dingy, but grout sealers should prevent that or you can re-grout which is a surprisingly easy process that can pay off big dividends. A re-grout job can give your current tile job a whole new look.

If the area to be tiled will get wet, either choose tiles that repel water, or be prepared to do some extra maintenance. With today's sealers that extra maintenance is really not a big deal. Select floor tiles with a grainy or bumpy surface, so they won't be slippery when wet. With the rise of modern manufacturing methods, many tile materials have become chameleon-like. Porcelain or ceramic tiles, for instance, can be made to look like natural stone, either textured or smooth or can even look like terra cotta. With all these possibilities you can get the look you like as well as the properties you need without a lot of maintenance.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Linda Tanner has experience in home improvement projects. She has bought over 15 homes that she improved and/or remodeled, then resold for a profit. If you would like to know more about selecting tile for your home go to installyourowntile.smmsite.com

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