Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Nov 09, 2009 2:40 pm Ok, this is my first new thread so forgive me if I do something wrong. We are building a new house in a waterfront estate. Every house around us has porcelain or timber flooring. We dont want timber flooring as we have inside dogs and I wouldnt want scratches all over it. We are pretty set on porcelain but everyone we speak to has an opinion about them, basically warning us not to get them. Hard to keep clean etc then there are the horror stories of the cheaper ones that have a haze over them. Really what alternatives are there? I dont want ceramic, I love the 600 x 600 look and the tiny grout lines you get with porcelain. From this forum I know to take a sample home and test it with stains, but really what else can you do to ensure you arent wasting money on porcelain tiles? Does anyone have any cleaning tips for when we do have them? Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 3Nov 09, 2009 3:02 pm Yep, that was my solution too SuH. I just decided to go for matt rectified porcelain. We also have inside dogs Ms Builder, and the matt are a bit more forgiving as far as showing up dirt/hair etc. The lovely seemless look, but not the degree of worry as with the polished. Here's a pic of mine..... uncleaned, they'd just been grouted. http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u353/joles_photo/2009-10-21_14-36-47_211020091342.jpg I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 4Nov 09, 2009 3:32 pm Yes we were thinking the polished porcelain - we are going for a lighter colour so im not too sure what matt would look like? I think in the darker colours they look lovely. Joles I love the colour of your tiles with the lighter grout. In our last house we had ceramic a bit lighter than that with light grey grout and I loved it but this is kind of a different style house we are building. I might need to go and have a look at some of the matt colours available and see how we go. We are also having porcelain in our bathrooms and up the walls to the ceiling, I was thinking of perhaps having a darker colour floor and one half row as say skirting and then a lighter colour on the wall but my partner isnt too keen on the idea. Is there anything you regret about having matt porcelain so far? Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 6Nov 09, 2009 3:39 pm Yes they look great but they do seem like a lot of work and everyone is warning us against them. We have a while until we have to choose, construction has only just started, the house has only been pegged out but I want to get in early. Last time we left things till the last minute and ended up choosing some things we wouldnt have if we had more time. Plus we dont get much time off together when the shops are open so starting early is the way to go lol. Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 8Nov 11, 2009 3:28 pm EKT Mine are going in this week. I made sure they weren't chinese imports and we took a sample home for a few months to test it out. I will post photos next week. what colour are you getting and are they polished? Is there anything else you looked for? And how did you know it wasnt cheap from China, did you ask the retailer, or did you find the brand and do your own research? If you dont mind sharing, do you know how much per square m they cost? Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 9Nov 11, 2009 7:28 pm They are an off white almost cream colour and yes they are polished. They are 450mm square with a rectified edge and made by Eureka Tiles which is an Australian company based in Ballarat. I'm not sure if any of there tiles are imported from China but we asked the question and these ones were not. They were orignally $77/sqm but we waited until they discontinued that particular line and got them for $50 (we picked them out a few months before our build started so we were able to wait) We found the tile at a retailer then went home and research the brand and got a sample before making our decision. Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 10Nov 11, 2009 7:48 pm I am living with family at the moment and they have the 600 X 600 high gloss porcelin tiles. OMG - They are only clean for 1 hours after they are cleaned. They show everything. And you have to mop them with boiling water then dry them or they go streaky. I will be avoiding these tiles in my new house. I love the matt smooth tiles, love the ones in the picture. Flooring is such an important decision, make the wrong one and you'll have a mop attached to your hip! Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 11Nov 11, 2009 8:56 pm Yep, polished porcelain tiles look pretty darn good. I know because we had them in our rental. BUT they were b****y impossible to keep clean . I was lucky if they stayed clean for 1/2 an hour Geez, did I hate the additional cleaning in wet weather . Mind you.....they were white Add to that the danger factor. I slipped twice & my adult son actually fell down. So for me polished porcelains are . I am soooo grateful for having had the experience BEFORE actually installing them in our current house Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 13Nov 12, 2009 9:16 am We have had matt tiles, gloss ceramic, porcelain, light tiles, dark tiles, cork, timber carpet etc etc and they ALL get dirty again an hour after cleaning. I dont think it matters what floor covering you have - if you have kids/pets/high traffic they are going to show the dirt. Also, I have had slips on ceramic tiles as have my children. I have tested these against porcelain and they are no different. Go with what you like (by the way, the dirtiest off the lot were the matt dark ceramic tiles and the timber) Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 14Nov 12, 2009 11:08 am Well I always thought the matt darkish brown tiles I had in my old bathrooms were bad - hard to keep the streaks off and every mark you could see. They were ceramic though. I thought the shinyness might hide some of it rather than a matt showing it up. Is the dirty look just when you look at the angle or would you just walk through and think urg these tiles look like they havent been cleaned? WE have a steam mop so I was thinking that would make it easier to clean with. Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 15Nov 12, 2009 11:20 am The matt brown tiles I have in my ensuite show up water marks but not so much the dirt, the semi matt brown ones I have in my rumpus show up fluff from my rug and dirty wet footprints. I think the high gloss show streaks from cleaning and of course dog poo and dirty footprints, as I pointed out. If you dried them straight away it would probably help, but geez that's like cleaning the floor twice The tiles in our living/kitchen/halls is a light grey with darker grey marbling and they don't show up anything I love the shiny look, but I am opposed to the extra maintenance at my tender age, but you youngens go for it Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 16Nov 12, 2009 12:20 pm I think dog poo is gonna show up on any kind of tiles, and although I have a dog, I am definite I wont be having any dog poo in the house We have a steam mop which is what I think will stop me from having to dry the tiles - the steam should basically evapourate right? My partner is set on polished porcelain, im scared about it for two reasons - the cleaning and making sure we get the right one. apart from matt finish porcelain (which we are going to also look at), I dont know what other options we really have. I dont want timber flooring and every single house in our estate either seems to have porcelain or timber... Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 17Nov 12, 2009 12:43 pm Ok this is what I did (i'm such a loser) - I put my polished porcelain sample tile (450 x 450) down on top of our current semi gloss ceramic tiles in a high traffic area and told everyone to make sure they walked on it when they went past. 1 day, 6 adults & 2 kids later and it wasnt that bad at all, still nice and shiny and all that i could see in in the light was a bit of a smudge which is no different to what will happen to any tile - as i said in my post above - go with what you want Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 18Nov 12, 2009 12:46 pm We have beige matt porcelain tiles in 450 x 450 and I love them. They are very easy to keep clean but as already mentioned they do show marks and dirt very easily. I have a microfibre flat mop (which I use for the timber floor in our bedroom). This is also handy for flicking over the tiled floor to get rid of a few spots or marks, I just use a spray bottle first and wipe... too easy!! Here's a pic; Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 19Nov 12, 2009 1:06 pm SuH I love the shiny look, but I am opposed to the extra maintenance at my tender age, but you youngens go for it +1, oh yeah !! you youngsters can have them AND the extra work Built the Eden Brae Cambridge 34 Family with Boston Corner Facade Re: Scared about porcelain tiles!! 20Nov 12, 2009 9:26 pm Southies Yep, polished porcelain tiles look pretty darn good. I know because we had them in our rental. BUT they were b****y impossible to keep clean . I was lucky if they stayed clean for 1/2 an hour Geez, did I hate the additional cleaning in wet weather . Mind you.....they were white Add to that the danger factor. I slipped twice & my adult son actually fell down. So for me polished porcelains are . I am soooo grateful for having had the experience BEFORE actually installing them in our current house +1. Agree to everything you said. We have white porcelain tiles and white grout. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have these tiles clean for even half an hour. And yes, they literally are like a mirror on the floor. EVERY single dirty mark and grit is visible... they need a good clean at least once every 3 days if you can be bothered. BUT, at the end of the day.... POLISHED PORCELAIN LOOKS AMAZING!!! If you want to sacrifice the 'look' for endless cleaning, go for it. Its good to admire the porcelain, really like how it gives the reflection and makes the house look that little bit bigger. Also, other than the cleaning matter with polished porcelain, there is the laying issue. Laying polished porcelain is pretty hard as a DIY job, unless you know what youre doing. If you dont know what youre doing, the errors look really obvious.. as for example the tiles arent level, this is reflected on the tile and really noticeable. Through your builder/tiler... it costs more $$ to lay these tiles. BTW, does it really matter what floor coverings your neighbours/suburb has?? Go for what you like... its not like they can see your floors from the outside.. Firstly the ableflex that has been installed needs (manufactures specification) a sealant cap over the top, preventing water draining down between the slab and the… 3 7833 Our house was completed 8 years ago. Builder did not leave any spare roof tiles behind. Just found out that one tile is cracked. Wanted to replace the tile but most… 0 2806 1 15861 |