Decorating Tips - Ceramic Tile

Expert Advice

Learn about the creative designs, long-wearing durability, moisture resistance and ease of maintenance, which makes ceramic flooring the ideal choice for beauty and wear.

Use this guide and visit our store to consult with our experts first hand.

Create a Contemporary Look with a Classic Choice

With its timeless beauty and long-wearing durability, ceramic, porcelain and stone tile flooring create a unique look that's as practical as it is personal.

It's perfect in kitchens and baths where moisture resistance and easy maintenance are essential. And its impact and scratch-resistant properties make it ideal for family and recreation rooms that get heavy-duty use.

You'll find innovative designs in ceramic, porcelain and stone tile that are as affordable as they are appealing.

Decide Which Tile is Suitable for Your Intended Location

All our ceramic tiles are clearly labeled for their performance in a variety of conditions and applications. Our Quick-Pick icons indicate if they are suitable for indoor or outdoor use, if they are rated as frost-proof, and whether they are appropriate for residential or commercial settings.

Choose Tiles to Complement Your Decorating Goals

Today's broad selection of ceramic, porcelain and stone tile is suitable for both casual and formal settings. You'll find a stunning array with glazed and unglazed finishes, in deco, rustic and contemporary styles with porcelain, slate and terra cotta tiles. And, you can create endless designs throughout your home with perfectly matched decorative accents and trim pieces.

Understand Shade and Texture Variations

Quick-pick icons help you choose tiles according to their range of shade and texture variations, low, medium or high. These variations are natural effects of the tile manufacturing process and account for the vibrant mix of shades and textures unique to this traditional flooring.

Learn About Country of Origin

Knowing the country of origin can assist you in selecting a fashion look that will complete your theme for a room or provide settings for special furnishings and decorator pieces.

All these elements make a difference in how your floor will look: our Quick-Pick Icons identify those differences so you're sure to get the look you want. DonÍt forget to check out Installation to learn all about the little details that make a big difference when transitioning from old floors to new.

Installation

Avoid any bumps in the road to your home design project. Use our installation guide for great tips on the transition of your old floors to the new.

We help you bring your new floors home with ease.

Installation Matters

Learn about our Points of Difference Guarantee, because how your floor is installed will impact its performance and life. We provide a warranted installation by a trained, professional craftsperson who will finish the job to perfection guaranteed. Ask any sales professional for details.

Things to Do Before Installation

We want you to have a clear understanding of the services we provide as well as to be aware of items you will need to handle prior to the installer arriving at your home. After your purchase, items crucial to the smooth installation of your new flooring will be detailed by your sales professional in a pre-installation check list and may include some of the following:

• Verification of the installation date.

• Ensuring the removal of all "breakables" from the room.

• Determining who will remove furniture, appliances and the sub-floor, if needed.

• Arranging for the disconnection of gas appliances and icemakers.

• Determining if any change to the height of the floor require adjustments to doors in order for them to close.

• Ensuring the removal of items in storage areas and closets where the floor is to be resurfaced.

• Make certain drapes, wall hangings and pictures are removed from walls.

• Verify that your in-home temperature is appropriate for installation.

Installation

Your local Flooring America store offers expert installation for all of the flooring products we carry. You can trust our installers to create a great-looking floor for your home. Whether it's a solid-color carpet or a detailed, custom tile design, our licensed and insured professionals will get the job done accurately and beautifully.

We are so confident that you will be more than satisfied with our professional installation that we will be happy to correct any installation-related problems for free during the intended life of your floor.

Get started today and bring your colors, swatches, photos and ideas into your local Flooring America retailer. Find the store nearest you.

Ceramic Tile Flooring

From the time when we first determined that beauty in our environment extended to our dwelling, tile flooring has been a popular choice and remains so today. As has been the case for centuries, tile flooring provides exceptional beauty and durability, and the great range of styles, colors and surfaces make tile an appropriate choice for any style, taste or budget.

Most floor tiles today are ceramic -- a hard, durable choice that comes in a variety of sizes, shapes, patterns, thickness and color. Traditional ceramic tiles are oven-baked clay products, and modern manufacturing processes have produced ceramic tiles that not only maintain the traditional beauty and durability of their ancestors, but also tiles that replicate the appearance of granite, marble, slate and other more expensive stone tiles.

Ceramic tiles are divided into two categories -- glazed and unglazed. Almost all tiles are available either glazed or unglazed.

The majority of ceramic tiles used in flooring are glazed, which means they have a special coating that is applied before the tile is "fired," or baked; the firing process adheres the glaze to the tile, giving it the color, surface texture and tone that makes the tile distinctive. Traditional tiles used salt, soda, ashes, and other natural substances as glazes; modern tiles enjoy a wide range of special chemical glazes that create the full range of colors, textures, patinas and surfaces. The glazing seals the naturally porous clay tiles, making them highly resistant to water and stains.

Unglazed tiles have many of the same characteristics, but lack the special coating of glazed tiles. Most common among unglazed tiles are quarry tiles, which take their name from their original source; quarried stone. Stones were reduced to a powder, reconstituted into a clay, and fired, producing a beautiful and especially durable tile. The modern extrusion process of producing these tiles allows for more uniform tiles than their hand-made relatives, while retaining the ambiance of an artisan made product.

Encaustic tiles, another traditional, decorative unglazed floor tile, are manufactured tiles that use compressed dust to create special patterns and designs. Instead of applying or embossing the design on the tile under a glaze, encaustic tiles have the design inlaid within them before firing. Encaustic tiles are available individually, or in assembled geometric patters of smaller, single-colored tiles.

Using ceramic tile as a flooring choice embraces all design preferences, from the formal to the casual to the practical. Because of the almost limitless range of color, size and pattern, ceramic tiles have become a great favorite with decorators and homeowners for kitchen, bathrooms, playrooms, spa rooms, entryways, or any area where significant moisture may be present. Since they come in a variety of sizes (some as small as one-half inch square) colors and patterns, ceramic tiles give the homeowner a way that is both easy and satisfying to create a unique flooring look by blending shapes, colors and textures.