by Dana Singh

Created on: November 18, 2008

Important things to consider before buying tiles.

As a home owner myself, I know how difficult is to choose the flooring for your house. There is a huge variety of ceramic tiles, porcelain, natural stones, terrazzo, mosaics and many more. Which one is the best? What to choose? It's hard to say which one is the best at the start but do not lose the hope.

1. Try to imagine your ideal stone flooring. Try to visualise the space. Create a brief. By choosing the right flooring you can transform you house. May be you should draw a small plan. You should look through the design magazines, check interior design websites, order by post tile catalogues or ask for some brochures from the tile shops you visited. This is the starting point.

2. Second thing you have to do is to decide is the size of the tile. Do you want big or small, rectangular or square or you prefer the mix of sizes? For big areas choose big tiles or medium. Small areas will require smaller size. May be you want to use a mix of different sizes. By using different formats you can create nice pattern and add some luxury to it.

Try to divide the square footage of the floor with a square footage of single tile. By doing this you will get a number of the tiles for you room. How many tiles fit in the tiled area? Too many or too less.

3. Try to decide on the colour. Colour plays an important role in a house design. Light colours will create more space, darker ones will add more texture, warmer colours will give you warmth and cool colours will recede the space.

4. As well agree on the finishes/textures.It comes in different finishes like matt, polished, satin, structured and honed. Tiles will have different varieties of textures. By texture I mean that some porcelain might imitate the stone, some stone might have a lot of fossils and veins, where another stone will have less texture.

5. The last but not least is the price. Price plays an important role in the final decision. Be smart, ask for discount but don't choose price over the quality. Try to research

6. As well you might consider various factors like durability, wear and tear, producer's country, slip resistance, frost resistance, tile thickness, stain resistance, delivery of the tiles and etc. Please note that you can prioritise my points in your own way. Enjoy your shopping and please come back for more interior design tips.

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