Selection of Floor Tiles for our House

As discussed in our previous blog post, different types of tiles are made to serve different purposes. It is not wise to install one particular type of tile in all the rooms, bathrooms, porch, terrace etc (you can, but if possible; you shouldn’t). After days of discussions and analyzing all the pros and cons, we finally agreed upon the type, size and color of the tiles. Let’s discuss them one by one.

Floor Tiles for Rooms

For the rooms (bedrooms, drawing, living rooms and kitchen), we are using Glazed Porcelain tiles. They absorb very less moisture and the glazed one look super shiny and beautiful. These tiles will be 2×2 ft in size. We decided to use shades of grey because our house design includes lots of white and grey colors.

Initially we planned to use same color tiles through out the house floors, but now we agreed that each floor should have different color. Ground floor will have a lighter grey shaded tiles through out the floor, and first floor will have slightly darker shade of grey. This makes each floor a little bit different from the other and makes thing a bit interesting. Consistency is boring, right!

For bathrooms, we have a slightly different idea in our minds.

Floor and Walls’ Tiles for Bathrooms

One problem with glazed tiles is that they are super slippery too. So our bathrooms will have matt (non-glazed) porcelain tiles on the floor. They are excellent against water as they absorb very less moisture and can withstand water damage very efficiently. They look almost like the glazed ones, just a bit less shiny.

We are also going to install tiles on bathroom walls because let’s face it; all bathroom walls have to suffer water splashes. We don not want our bathroom walls to absorb water and ruin the house structure. So we are using Ceramic tiles on the bathroom walls.

Matt (non-glazed) Ceramic tiles are baked in a way that makes them ideal for wet conditions. They are not as much stain resistant as Porcelain tiles, so we decided to use a darker version in the splash-prone zone, and lighter color in the area above. Our bathroom walls will be two-tone, and they will look great.

Porch, Back alley and Roof top Floors

Nothing withstands the harsh, ourdoor conditions like the marble does. For our porch floor, back alley and Roof top floor, we decided to stick with our trusted old buddy, the marble.

Marble is well suited for harsh outdoor conditions, whether its rain, snow, hot summer sun or dirt, marble can fight them all. Not only it can withstand harsh conditions, it also looks great.

Staircase and Counter Tops

That leaves us with the areas most prone to scratches, and nobody can handle scratches better then the Granite. All the foot traffic on stairs and sliding utensils on counter tops; they are a piece of cake for the granite.

We could also have used marble here, but the granite looks more shiny and premium then marble. It gives the kitchen and stairs a fresh and unique feeling. Above all, it falls right in our budget, so it’s a win win situation.

Our Progress

Now that we have decided which type of tiles we want, we sapent the last week with our builder; choosing the colors and sizes of the tiles. We chose the colors and designs of tiles and our builder placed the orders.

Before started to work on installing marble, we need to level the floor. This step is specially important as you want all the rain water to move towards drain pipe as soon as possible. Rain water must not be allowed to stay on the floor and make small ponds. This way, the water will seep into the floor, going down in the walls and ruining the whole structure.

Level the floor in such a way that the drain pipe is slightly lower the rest of the floor. Floor gradually becomes lower as it moves towards the drain hole. This way, gravity pushes the rain water towards the drain hole.

Once the roof top floor is leveled properly, our work with the marble started. Yesterday the first batch arrived and today, the work started on the roof-top. The marble tiles will be installed on the roof-top and then the work will move downwards, one floor at a time. You can see the images in the gallery below: