We want to use large (600 x 600) rectified tiles on our main floor, and are primarily looking at white/light cream coloured tiles and we keep coming across Lappato finish tiles.
There was one tile we really liked, but when we saw it in a relatively new display home, we were really disappointed because it was very dirty and scuffed, and it seemed that the dirt would not wipe off very easily, so we gave that tile the flick and decided to look at polished porcelain. But since starting to look at those, I have seen heaps of polished porcelain tiles in friends houses and unless the floors are mopped every day or two, it seems they look pretty awful in the light.
So we went back to the drawing board and found a lappato finish tile that seems a lot less rough than the original tile and seems to be stacking up a bit better in some home-dirt tests, but before we commit to that, I was just wondering
1) can we expect the surface of the batch we get to be as smooth as the trial tile, or is the surface roughness variable between batches?
2) are lappato tiles generally a pain to keep clean, so even though the second tile we have found seems better than the first, are we still likely to have problems with it? I have 3 young children and not a lot of time to mop regularly (we will also have a pool though, so not keep on polished porcelain if I can help it)
3) assuming they are difficult to keep clean, what sort of tile should we be looking for?