We save our hard-earned money for years and finally dream of renovating our home lavishly. We walk into a TILE showroom and see what they have to offer. Once we fall in love with a TILE design, we immediately make the purchase.

But wait a minute!

Should we have a good thought about the TILE we wanted before deciding the purchase because when the said TILE is installed and used, it will stay put with you for the next decade or so? Comes what may, you will have to live with it if you made the wrong decision from inception.

Seriously, what should we be asking ourselves before making that grand purchase in beautifying our home? Here are the 7pitfalls you should avoid before coming to your final purchase.

1.Watch out if it is a Ceramic Tile or a Porcelain Tile

There is a difference between the both where Ceramic Tile is cheaper while Porcelain Tile is more expensive. Ceramic Tiles is not as durable as porcelain tile. This phenomenon is mainly due to the differing firing rate for both the products, which eventually determine their characteristics and water absorption rate.

Ceramic Tiles can be further breakdown into ceramic floor tile and ceramic WALL tiles in which the former is suitable for use on floor and wall, while the latter is only applicable for walls. Do avoid thinking all tiles are the same, and please verify what you are getting yourself into by asking what sort of tiles you are buying.

2.Watch out if the Tile is stain resistance or not

Supposedly, all tiles produced are stain-resistant. Some are easier to clean while others are not. A simple rule of thumb is that any tile with a matt surface with its surface glazed will be easier to clean than the structured surface. 

However, please pay attention to your wonderful Polished Porcelain Tiles used commonly in your living-dining area may not be so wonderful after all. Its surface has many micro-pores that you cannot see with your naked eyes and require temporary protection with a nano-tech solution during production. This substance can easily wash off or wear off due to wear and tear or some chemical reaction like heavy washing using a high concentration of acid or alkaline detergent. Therefore, your living dining tiles can be free from stains when you ask your tiling contractor to immediately cover and protect your flooring upon finishing the tiles installation with a protective layer like plywood. During post-installation, please avoid using a high concentration of liquid detergent for your daily floor wash, and do use the appropriate floor detergent that does not contain any fluoride compound or its derivatives.

3.Watch out if the tile is slip-resistance or not

Stay cautious on wet areas and NEVER opt for super-smooth surfaces like polished surfaces in such areas as it can cause slips and falls. Unintentional or accidental death due to falls is the second-highest number after road accidents in the world. We can avoid falls and slips by selecting the correct tile surfaces following specific areas. 

For example, the slip-resistance rate starting with R9 rating under the German Standard (Oil Wet Ramp Test) is usable for the occasionally dry places. The subsequent rating of R10 is conducive for the occasionally wet areas, and R11 is suitable for constantly wet areas. For R12 and R13 ratings, these tiles are best suited for commercial or industrial flooring that may be exposed not only to constant liquid but lubricant contaminants as well. If you choose the correct slip resistance tiles for wet areas, you will be helping to reduce the statistic on slips and falls worldwide. 

4.Watch out if your tile is scratch resistance or not

Tiles with glazing are the easiest to get scratched. A glaze comes from a thin film of protective impervious liquid glass on the surface of the tiles. Depending on your traffic, the higher the traffic, the easier the surface that is walked upon to experience scratches.

 For glazed tiles, surface resistance to abrasion can be measured in the lab and rated with Porcelain Enamel Index (PEI) that starts from PEI 1 to PEI 5, where PEI 1 is the lowest and PEI 5 is the highest on the abrasion resistance scale.

 We should opt for a minimum PEI 3 for our purchase as this characteristic will help resist traffic abrasion for prolonging cycles.

 Under unglazed tiles (not governed by PEI), they are usually durable to withstand heavy traffics. The only issue we face is the sand particle, which is brought in specifically by a person wearing shoes as sand has the same property as the tiles in terms of its hardiness to scratch resistance. That is why the entrance to each shopping mall if you notice, will usually have a big carpet laid out to dust off as many sand particles from patrons that enter.

5.Watch out if your tile has a low breaking strength

With the unprecedented pandemic beginning in the year 2020, the sad fact is that cost of raw materials is increasing along with sea freight charges worldwide while population spending power is shrinking in tandem. Many people are hoping to purchase at a lower price as tiles start becoming unaffordable. To resolve this, many factories begin to produce thinner tile bodies or fire at a lower temperature to make it more affordable.

The thinner the tile body or higher its water absorption rate, the lower will be its breaking strength. The minimum thickness for a tile as spelled out by ISO Standard is 7.5mm as it needs this thickness to maintain its body shape whenever there is weight loaded on it, whereas breaking strength for a tile must not be less than 800 Newton for those tiles with high water absorption rate.

A minimum thickness of 7.5mm will be ideal for a human load while, on the other hand, thick tiles with 20mm thickness are for a heavier load like cars or trucks. At the same time, the said item has to have a low water absorption rate to achieve higher breaking strength. We should not settle for anything less than this standard except for thin tiles or ceramic wall tile (with a high water absorption rate of 10% and above), which can only apply for walls as it does not endure any weight load.

6.Watch Out if the size of tiles used are suitable for your specific areas

The rule of thumb is to use large format tiles whenever you have sizeable space for an area. Small space will require a small size tile. As such, it helps to minimize your grout lines and eventually makes your place look spacious. The grout lines are usually in a minimum size of 2mm for rectified tiles and 3mm for non-rectified tiles. We can never butt joint the tiles as we need to allow for some movement for your floor substrate to move harmoniously with the tiles on top of it.

 On top of that, if you force yourself to use large format tiles in a small area, more wastages will occur as you will end up needing to cut the tiles more frequently at the end of the wall to squeeze in this large size tile.

 The main objective is to minimize the grout lines for an area and maximize the floor coverage with tiles. By so doing, the optimal size recommended will be 300x300mm for a small area of about 30 ft2 to 100ft2, 300x600mm for above 100ft2, 600x600mm for above 400ft2, 600x1200mm for above 800ft2 etc.

7.Watch Out if your tile is flat or not

When fired at high temperature and let cool over time, tiles will shrink and warp one way or another. However, there is a tolerance for this sort of shortcomings as we do not want to end up with uneven floor flatness (during installation, installation skills play a significant part as well). One encounters predicament like “leapage” or “kick” or uneven surfaces that may cause trips and falls in some extreme cases.

 The simple way to look at whether your tiles are flat or not is to take a long metal ruler of 2 feet (for 300x600mm or 600x600mm size tile) and run its edge across the particular tile surface. If you have a filler gauge instrument, use the 1mm thickness and insert it through any cleavage between the metal ruler and tile surface. If you do not have a filler gauge, combine 4pcs of your business card to form about 1mm and insert it through the metal ruler. Any reading below 1mm is a good quality tile, whereas above 1mm will constitute an unfavorable tile quality.

 Do take note that the reading exceeding 1mm (not exceeding 3mm for 600x600mm size tile) will still pass the ISO Standard but does not qualify our LEO Ceramiko standard and may cause uneven surfaces if poorly installed. To have a piece of mind when buying your tiles, please request for product test report from the suppliers and read up for further information and verification.

 The fact is many tile suppliers are trying to entice customers with cheap tiles in the market. For that reason, many cheap tiles that are made available do not constitute high-quality products, and many customers are unaware of the pitfalls to avoid before their tiles purchase.

On the positive end, you can still get a good bargain with high-quality tiles if you arm yourself with the knowledge and understanding from reputable brands on the dos and don’ts without being taken for a ride by unscrupulous tile suppliers.

After reading the scripts to this end, we believe you are now ready and equipped with those discerning questions to post to your tiles suppliers whenever you are about to buy those beautiful dream tiles with confidence.