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Design considerations
The tiles must fit in with the furnishings and the range of objects, colours, shapes and activities that exist in the environment. They must also match its shape, dimensions, area and lighting, etc. This choice also depends on personal taste and fashion, so it is difficult, and perhaps inappropriate to lay down rules.
Technical considerations
This rule must be followed: the tiles should have technical characteristics and levels of resistance to stress (mechanical, chemical, thermal etc.) that will be adequate for the environment in which the tile will be installed. In other words, the greater the probable stress will be, the higher the performance and the more resistant the tiles must be.
Choosing the right tile for your location
There are tiles for all environments but there is no such tile that is suitable for all purposes. One cannot just choose at random; the consumer has to make an informed choice.Let us now look at some practical examples of this. First of all, we will look at the rooms in the home and tiles look good in any room in the house where tiles with special technical and design characteristics have to be chosen. We will then give some tips on choosing the most suitable floor tiles for public buildings and factories in order to show how tile characteristics must match use to which they are to be put.
A Private Dwelling
Floor Tiles in the Entrance
The amount of foot traffic and the stress to which tiles are Subjected will differ from one home to another. The entrance is one of the most walked areas of the home, but the amount of wear through, abrasion to which the tiles are affected will depend the location of the dwelling: the hall in an apartment on the fifth floor of an apartment building will be different from the hall of a house with garden that a sand or gravel path leading LIP to the front door In the latter case, wear through abrasion will be much greater than in the previous example, so tiles with a higher resistance to abrasion should be chosen.
Wall and Floor Tiles in the Bathroom
The floor and walls of the bathroom come in contact with chemical and staining agents (e.g. personal hygiene products, cosmetics, perfumes). Detergents that contain corrosive chemicals must sometimes be used to carefully clean them and ensure that they are hygienic. Tiles that are highly resistant to chemicals must therefore be chosen. In particular, the tiles must be able to withstand acids and alkaline.
Kitchen Floor and Wall Tiles
The kitchen floor is subjected to the greatest wear and tear of all floors. The kitchen floor tends to be exposed to the most dirt and grease and therefore has to be cleaned more often and more vigorously. It is also the floor that is most likely to have objects falling onto it. Floor tiles must be chosen that have high resistance to mechanical and chemical stress. Kitchen wall tiles are, Of Course subject to little mechanical stress, but they are subject to great chemical stress, which is due both to cooking and detergents. It is therefore important to choose wall tiles that have high resistance to chemical stress (including resistance to acids and alkaline).
Outside Wall and Floor tiles
Choose tiles that are declared and certified to be frost resistant. In general, these are pressed tiles with low water absorption. They may be glazed (single fired) or unglazed (porcelain stoneware, red stoneware) or else they may be extruded tiles (clinker, cotto).
Flooring in a Public Building
The mechanical and chemical stress levels to which the tile surfaces are subjected will normally be higher than in a private home. Design considerations are also important (certainly more so than in a factory environment). Glazed or unglazed tiles must be chosen that are very hard, resistant to abrasion and resistant to staining and chemical attack. Great caution should be exercised before choosing shiny glazed tiles, especially if the area to be covered is directly accessed from the street. The tiles will become exposed to the abrasive dirt. Similar caution should be exercised before choosing porcelain tiles for places like bars and restaurants. A shiny polished surface is very beautiful but it is also more likely to lose the shine than non?polished surfaces.
Factory Flooring
In factories, the tiles will be subjected to very great loads (because of vehicles and heavy machinery), mechanical surface stress (movement of people and vehicles, abrasive dirt), and chemical stress (spillage of corrosive chemical substances onto the floor). If foodstuffs are processed on the premises, it must be possible to carefully and thoroughly clean the tiles in order to ensure total cleanliness. Tiles must therefore have a compact body because of its superior mechanical characteristics and the tiles must be thicker in order to withstand heavy loads. Tiles must be exceptionally resistant to abrasion and chemical exposure and tile surfaces must be hard and compact in order to limit penetration from dirt and to facilitate cleaning and greater hygiene. In areas in which there is a high risk of slipping, tiles with a slip resistant surface must be laid (tiles with a rough or relief surface). Porcelain stoneware or red stoneware tiles may also be selected for this purpose.
These brief examples do not cover all the environments that can be tiled or address problematic tiling situations. They are merely intended to demonstrate the best way to proceed and the factors that should be taken into account when choosing tiles
We thank Brady Tiles for their valuable assistance in the creation of this website.
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