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| Introduction | Trends | Tips | ||||||
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This guide has been prepared with the sole purpose
of promoting widespread awareness amongst consumers on the use of
Ceramic wall and floor tiles. This awareness is mainly focused on
the following four areas: 1. The varied applications and uses of Ceramic wall and floor tiles. 2. The advantages of using Ceramic tiles over other building materials to cover their walls and floors. 3. The importance of Quality and Brand when choosing ceramic tiles. 4. The correct tile fixing techniques and methodology. 1. The varied applications and uses of Ceramic wall and floor tiles In the past, ceramic tiles have simply served as a functional element and have always been the ideal choice as a hard, abrasion-resistant and easy to clean surface, used mainly in bathrooms and kitchens. Today however, ceramic tiles have come a long way, and are available in so many designs, colors and surface effects, that they have become a Design Element and thus the usage has also increased vastly. One can find ceramic tiles throughout the home - in the livingrooms, corridors and passages, fireplaces, as decorative elements on walls, and of course, the bathrooms and kitchens. Ceramic tiles are also used widely in commercial places for office floors, shopping malls, cinemas, hospitals, hotels and also as exterior cladding on walls of commercial buildings. In essence, the usage is only limited by ones own imagination! You must, however, be aware that tiles are made for specific use on specific surfaces, and incorrect usage could lead to problems. For example, it is advisable to use PEI IV and PEI V grade floor tiles in high pedestrian traffic areas like shopping malls, corridors, banks, hotels and commercial office floors. PEI is an acronym for Porcelain Enamel Institute at Pittsburgh, U.S.A., which grades floor tiles according to the abrasion resistance and anti-skid properties of the tiles. This is an indication to you, the user as to which floor tiles suit which usage better - for example, a high traffic area, like the floor of a shopping mall or a building corridor would require a higher abrasion resistant tile than the floor of a bathroom or dining room. A lower PEI grade floor tile is ideally suited for the home living room floor, and a greater anti-skid property would for instance, be required in swimming pool areas. It is a growing trend in India, for example, for banks and automobile showrooms to use high abrasion resistant ceramic tiles for their entire office flooring. All this exhibits the flexibility of the ceramic tile. However, you must be aware of the different types of tiles suited for different uses. For instance wall tiles should be used only on walls, and floor tiles only on floors. A wall tile typically has a high gloss and lustrous finish, whereas a floor tile is heavier and thicker than the wall tile, and traditionally has a matt finish. Traditionally, wall tiles are glossy because that makes them easier to clean (since they are traditionally most used in bathrooms and kitchens, the hygiene factor comes in), and floor tiles are traditionally matt to allow for abrasion resistance and anti-skid properties. Some people however prefer a matt finish on the wall. They tend to use floor tiles on the wall. (They are unaware that some companies even have the technology to give them a matt finish even in a wall tile, and a glossy surface finish in the floor tile.) They may also use floor tiles on the wall because a floor tile is usually cheaper than a wall tile. They are misled into believing that floor tiles could be used on the wall without any problems. However, they regret this move, because, a floor tile being heavier and non-porous tends to crack and even fall off. 2. The advantages of using Ceramic tiles over other building materials Let us look at the properties of a ceramic tile first, which will help us to compare with other building materials better. Ceramic tiles are toughened by a firing process at extremely high temperatures during the production process. In fact, a less known fact is that ceramic tiles are used to cover a portion of the U.S. space shuttles as ceramic is found to be the best known material to withstand immensely high temperatures and pressure experienced when the shuttle enters and leaves the earths atmosphere. A ceramic tile is abrasion resistant and used wherever an easy to clean surface is needed. A ceramic tile is basically clay that is mixed with bonding materials and compounds to give it strength and durability. It is acid-proof, alkali-proof and stain-proof. It is also resistant to color change; fading under light or flames; and fungi resistant. Tiles are thus both tough and maintenance free. Coupled with this is the ease with which a variety of aesthetic design effects can be generated on them. All of these attributes make it the ideal choice over all other building materials used to cover vertical and horizontal surfaces. Let us examine the alternatives one by one. Mosaic is cheaper today than ceramic floor tile and hence is more widely used. However it looks cheap too. And it has design, consistency and color limitations. Today, as the disposable income among homeowners is increasing, a large number of them are switching to ceramic flooring with more than satisfying results. They literally bring their homes to life with the amazing design and color options, and special textured effects, offered by ceramic floor tiles. Also mosaic is difficult to maintain over long periods of time, which is why you will see that the floors with mosaic in older houses tend to look very bad indeed. Granite and Marble are the more expensive options. They usually have a glossy look that is considered premium. However, they are difficult to maintain, as they require regular polishing. Badly maintained granite and marble can get stained and look quite terrible. Also selection of such natural stones can be quite an unpleasant and herculean task as it is difficult to get the desired consistency in quality and design. Ceramic floor tiles are the ideal option as they can offer complete quality and design consistency without the hassle of selection. Whats more, if you choose a marble or granite design in a ceramic tile, you can have the same effect too, at a much lower price! All of these benefits are provided by the ceramic tile, along with being a maintenance-free product. Ceramic flooring has additional advantage over natural stones - the wide array of designs, colors and surface effects. Italian marble is a top-of-the-line status symbol as a choice of floor and wall covering material. It is also used to cover tabletops. And it comes with a hefty price tag. With all the problems of natural stones mentioned above, the additional problem of Italian marble is that it is very porous, and can get stained very easily. The ceramic solution to this is fully vitrified porcelain tile, which is the internationally preferred alternative to Italian marble. The advantage of fully vitrified porcelain tiles over Italian marble is as follows:
3. The importance of Quality and Brand when choosing ceramic tiles The importance of Quality and Brand cannot be stressed enough. You, as a discerning customer should only buy premium tiles from a reputed company. This is because tiling is something that is not done very often - it is usually done once in five to fifteen years, maybe sometimes even more. This is why one should not compromise on quality and should buy only a known brand. These may seem a little more expensive, but the fact is that they are cheaper in the long run than low cost, poor quality tiles, which will need to be replaced more frequently. The poor quality tiles will tend to crack, chip off and even, in cases, fall off over a period of time. It is usually difficult for a lay customer to know whether the tile is good quality or not, because the tile is something that is judged by the lay man by the design on the surface of the tile, and even local companies from the small scale sector copy surface designs with ease. These small scale sector companies often sell on the basis of price and are not at all quality conscious, and they are cheaper because they often use inferior raw materials and do not pay the excise duties required by the government. How can the lay consumer be protected against such inferior products, which will not last long? The answer lies in AWARENESS. Buy only branded products, and one way to check the brand of the tile is to turn the tile around. On its back surface, you will see the brand name of the company manufacturing the tile. Ask yourself, Is the company Im buying from well known?, How many years has it been in business? How big is it? If the company has been in business for several years, and if it has wide distribution network, and has several factories, which are ISO 9002 certified, you can be assured that it would not want to spoil its reputation by selling you inferior products. The brand is a sign of quality assurance. And the best-known brands are members of the Indian Council for Ceramic Tiles And Sanitaryware or ICCTAS. 4. The importance of correct tile fixing techniques and methodology Tiles have been an integral part of inferior decor and have always been an essential component whenever a home is renovated or built. However the biggest cause for failure of tiles to last long and look good is incorrect fixing. The importance of correct tile fixing cannot be stressed enough because everything else that goes into choosing a tile, be it the quality, size, design, color, etc., all becomes useless, when the fixing is not done properly. Please make sure that the tile fixing instructions given on the box or carton of most quality-conscious companies are followed carefully. Do not use neat cement for fixing tiles, as this tends to make the tiles crack and come off. Tile fixing adhesives and grouts are highly recommended. An advantage of using adhesives is that you get a 100% bonding of tiles with the surface. Another advantage is that consistency is ensured as the cement and polymers in the adhesive mixture are pre-blended. Please note, on the cartons of the tiles, that the wall tile fixing instructions are different from the floor tile fixing instructions, as the two products are in essence different and for different applications. Please also note that in these instructions, a certain space needs to be maintained between two tiles to allow for possible expansion as per BIS/EN tolerance norms, and in order that the harmony in alignment be maintained. For this purpose some companies have unique self-aligning tiles known as spacers that maintain the required space on their own. |
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