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Today’s topic is something that confuses me about how I feel about it all the time. As we’ve seen in most of the residential projects that we’re working with homeowners, ceramic tile flooring has been a go to choice in American homes for decades. But after years of working with tile in every kind of residential and commercial project imaginable, there are a few things our design team thinks every homeowner should hear before putting ceramic tile on the floor. Some of it will surprise you. Some of it might change your plan entirely.
What Experts Say About Ceramic Tile Flooring? Pros and Cons
Ceramic Tiles Are Not the Best Tiles for the Bathroom Floor
Before you ask, let me answer it directly: Is glazed ceramic tile slippery when wet? The answer is yes, it is. But, especially when it comes to the bathroom, it’s a YES! The glossy and glazed surface finishes that make ceramic wall tiles so beautiful, reflective, and easy to clean are exactly what create a low friction surface underfoot when water is in the game.
If you have children, elderly family members, or anyone who moves quickly through a wet bathroom in the morning, well, you need to think about it twice. Our design consultants consistently suggest to our clients porcelain floor tiles or natural stone tiles with a honed or textured finish for bathroom floors, specifically because of this.
You May Not Want to Drop Your Mug on a Ceramic Kitchen Floor
Ceramic tiles are not as hard as porcelain tiles, and if you don’t care about it too much, well, you’ll find out when you drop a heavy object on it. Porcelain is fired at higher temperatures and pressed at higher density, which gives it a hardness rating that ceramics can’t reach. That brings us to a question we’ve heard for a long time: why does my ceramic floor tile chip so easily? This is one of the most common questions we hear from homeowners a year or two into a ceramic kitchen floor.
A heavy steel pan, a heavy handmade ceramic mug, a chair leg dragged across the floor by your children, ceramic shows the evidence of daily kitchen life faster than porcelain does. For light traffic residential ceramic flooring ideas, a breakfast nook, a laundry room tile, ceramic can be a perfectly reasonable choice. But if we’re going to talk about a high traffic kitchen floor, porcelain vs ceramic tiles is a conversation worth having before you install anything.
Porosity Is Not Only for Natural Stone Tiles
A lot of homeowners assume ceramic is a sealed, impermeable surface and stop thinking about maintenance there. But ceramic tiles are actually REALLY porous, and unglazed ceramic especially absorbs moisture, stains, and bacteria if it is not properly sealed and maintained, especially if they’re bathroom tiles.
This matters most on floor tiles in wet or food related areas. The glaze on glazed ceramic tiles does provide a protective layer, but grout lines remain porous regardless, and in a kitchen or bathroom floor situation, that means regular sealing is still a necessity you shouldn’t avoid (to protect yourself, being a subreddit issue). It is not a natural stone tile level of commitment, but it is not zero either.
Our Contractor Clients Recommend Them: Why Your Installer Might Prefer Ceramics?
As a tile expert who’s been working with contractors for a really long time, I can easily say that they love ceramic tiles! Ceramic is genuinely one of the easiest floor tiles to cut and install. It scores and snaps more cleanly than porcelain; it is more forgiving around curves, toilets, and pipes, and it produces less waste during cutting because it shatters less dramatically under a wet saw. That means your project will have lower labor costs and a faster installation timeline. And that’s the ultimate goal for a tiler.
You Wouldn't Know That: Ceramic Tiles Can Be Anti Allergenic
This is the one that surprises people, but I like using that trick as someone who has asthma. While many modern flooring options off gas VOCs for months or even years after installation, ceramic tile is fired at such extreme heat during manufacturing that it is one of the only truly non toxic flooring options available. No formaldehyde, no adhesive chemicals baked into the surface, no synthetic fibers trapping allergens.
For a nursery, a child’s bedroom, or any home where indoor air quality is a priority, hypoallergenic floor tiles for nurseries and allergy sensitive spaces are a real and legitimate use case for ceramic.
You Don't Have To Give Up on Ceramic, Just Know the Facts
Ceramic tiles are beautiful, and they are absolutely the right choice in the right place. Our suggestion: use them where using them makes sense. Bring your residential or commercial tile project and let our tile experts create your design journey according to your circumstances. Experience the artisan feeling of our full hand painted ceramic tiles and more at Country Floors!