Choosing the Right Tiles - An Article by Milena

Bathrooms require more durable materials than the rest of the house as they are constantly under strain from water. So far, the most popular materials for these rooms are stone, ceramic, porcelain, and glass. All of these materials are beautiful, strong, and come in a variety of shapes and colors.

To narrow down in size and material you need to know exactly where the tile will be placed. Most commonly, stone, ceramic, and porcelain are used for counters and floors. Glass is mostly used for walls and backsplashes.

Ceramic tile are tiles made from thin slabs of clay or other inorganic materials, hardened by oven firing and usually coated in a glaze. They are a good fit in bathrooms or other moisture-rich environments, as well as in kitchens as they do not harbour bacteria. They are easy to clean and install, waterproof, sturdy and great value for the price.

Porcelain tile is actually a subtype of ceramic tile and now a very a popular choice for bathroom floors. Porcelain is a denser, more porous, and harder option that offers greater stain and water resistance than ceramic tile. The manufacturing process of porcelain provides many more design possibilities than ceramic tiles. As a harder tile, it is also harder to wear down.

Ceramic tile vs. Porcelain tiles

These two types of tiles might often look the same but below the surface lies a world of differences. The main difference is hardness rating and porosity. Ceramic tiles are made from natural compounds and therefore, are softer and easier to cut than porcelain. Porcelain tiles are much harder to cut and due to their low porosity, they require a special compound for setting. Although porcelain bears the perception of high quality, it is not always the best choice for a residential application and tends to work better in commercial settings, as its toughness is unnecessary for domestic kitchens and bathrooms.

Glass tiles are a common choice for bathrooms today because they are easily recycled and come in a wide variety of colors and finishes. Mosaic tiles are usually shaped in rectangles, squares, or "pennies". However, in terms of installation costs, they are more expensive to fit and also harder to maintain as there is a lot of grout, which means a lot of area that can get cracked or stained.

Natural stone wins in durability and its natural beauty, and since no two stones are exactly alike, a natural pattern will emerge on tiled floors or walls. Natural stone requires more maintenance than ceramic, porcelain or glass. A smooth stone works better in kitchens, where surfaces will need regular wiping, but a textured stone floor will help prevent slips on a bathroom floor. Attention must be paid to the cleaning products used on natural stone as some chemicals will stain or bleach tiles, but natural stone requires regular, careful cleaning to prevent limescale and other residue build-up.

How much do they cost?

Tiles vary wildly in price range, from £10-£15 per square metre for very basic tiles, up to 100's of pounds per square meter at the luxury ceramic and porcelain tile end. For a good mid-range tile, you should look at spending anywhere between £35-£50 per square metre.

How to find a good tiler?

A bathroom fitting company who are providing a tiling service within a full bathroom refurbishment is likely to charge you much more for installation than a sole trader / independent tiler. However, whether you will get the same guarantees from a sole trader is debatable. A good tiler will give you a written quote detailing all the specifications. It also mentions the time required to finish the job, number of tiles needed, additional materials required, and so on. The best is to compare the quotes offered by the three to five recommended tilers in the area and choose the one that suits you best. If you are working with an interior designer, your designer will take care of finding the best tiler based on their experience. 

 Limestone tiles laid in a herringbone pattern

Natural blue slate tiles

Ceramic tiles 'folded' from Italian supplier Mutina

Ceramic tiles printed with patterns to imitate

encaustic concrete tiles

Glass tiles as a kitchen backsplash

Porcelain tiles from Mandarin Stone

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Solar Glazing

Solar glazing is becoming more and more popular in today's energy-conscious culture. The South-facing facade is a big commodity nowadays and everyone seems to want it, whether it's for a traditional or modern design, new build or extension.

Architects, designers and self-builders alike are installing these large, glazed screens which haven't been available until fairly recently, at least not at the scale they are being produced today. This size of glazing is far from the standard folding patio doors!

The reason for their popularity is quite intuitive - who wouldn't dream of opening up a whole side of their house to bring the outdoors in and to flood their living room with an abundance of natural light and warm sunshine?

The latter is often known as passive solar gain and although great in the winter when you are getting lots of free heating but not so great in the summer when the amount of heat can become hard to control. In a heavy masonry construction (and therefore high thermal mass), this heat can be stored in the walls and floor, acting like a radiator to seep the heat back into the living spaces long after the sun goes down. Many houses built in the 70's and 80's were designed to self-heat with this principle but unfortunately they only ever seemed to work in hotter climates, not so much in our cloudy, rainy Britain!

These large glazed windows created uncomfortable heat in the summer and allowed a lot of heat to escape in winter so offered little stability in terms of a stable temperature throughout the seasons. In other instances, the UV light from the sun when exposed to wooden floors, furniture and fabrics, fades colours and sometimes even causes floor adhesives in some floor types to break down. It's obvious why the amount of sunlight entering a house needs to be controlled!

Building Regulations today addresses the issue, referred to as 'limiting the effects of solar gain in summer;. The regulations themselves refer to another document, SAP Appendix P, which includes methods for calculating solar gain, and indicates some of the solutions we can use to minimise some of the less welcome effects.

SOLUTIONS:
1. Contrary to popular belief, a West-facing facade (towards the setting sun) is a better orientation to place your solar glazing as you will receive some of the heating effects in winter (although not as powerful as South facing in winter) but less of the uncomfortable over-heating in summer.
2. A roof overhang can create an element of shading that provides the correct amount of shading from the high sun in the summer, but allows in the low winter sun.
3. The obvious post-fit solution is blinds and curtains, which can be fitted internally or externally to control the amount of light. The downside of curtains is of course that they don't always fit aesthetically with the large glazed screens. Blinds are a good light control solution but can obviously be expensive when installed across a whole wall of glazing.
4. In warmer climates, people have used shutters for hundreds of years to keep the sun out as well as to ventilate rooms (when shutters are closed but windows are open). Whilst regular shutters won't work with large glazing systems, it's worth noting that a good ventilation system will help to regulate the heat gathered by the glazing system.
5. Special glazing products already exist and are being developed further, for example Pilkington's Suncool and St Gobain's Cool-Lite, which work to reduce solar gain by reducing solar transmittance whilst maintaining low-emissivity in order to meet today's low U value standards. These technologies are modern-day answers to glass tinting but the glass remains clear!

Regardless of these solutions, we should be vigilant against the interiors we choose to place in front of glazed windows. Avoid wooden floors that aren't UV stable (such as cork and lino) or brightly coloured furniture in sensitive materials (such as silk). Choose pale colours where fade won't be as noticeable, keep artwork away from direct sunlight and make sure rugs are rotated frequently (at least they will fade evenly). Most importantly, check the UV resistance of your furniture and fittings! It's all worth it for that added natural light.

Resources: Homebuilding and Renovating

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