Elegant Medium Format Glossy Floor Tile in Washington DC Homes
We have looked at a bunch of different tile options here on our website and blog. Tile products, both ceramic and porcelain come in a wide variety of options. The options can be chosen among different characteristics that apply to the shape, size, finish, color, and many other details. Small mosaic pieces up to about 12-inch x 12-inch tile could be considered small format tiles. The next size of larger tiles would be considered medium format. They generally start around 24 inches wide. This tile is right in the middle. That’s roughly two square feet in size.
We have mentioned it before, and it’s an important relational context with tile, the tile size to grout ratio matters. Larger pieces of tile are more difficult to set with thin grout lines. It requires extreme consistency in the substrate. Without that extreme level of consistency, the tile can have pretty severe lippage if the grout lines are very small in relation to the tile size. Really here we’re talking about three different variables: tile size, grout line thickness, and substrate trueness.
We happen to think a high gloss tile on a floor surface is not a great idea because it can be more slippery. We don’t particularly like the glossy look either, but they’ve done a pretty decent job of installing this tile without significant lippage. In fact, it looks pretty flat and planar. Back up a bit, we don’t think the glossy looks good because it doesn’t look real or natural. It looks a bit overly refined which looks a bit manufactured. We know that some people really like that artificial looking aesthetic, like a casino or tower clad in fake gold.
In some cases, depending on the location and usage, we prefer less glossy surfaces. Also, here, from a functional perspective, the glossy surface is more slippery than a non-glossy surface. We can see that that could be a problem.
Floor surfaces shouldn’t be too slippery because the slipperiness can be dangerous. We understand there is a bit of artifice in all of the elements of design, but the glossy look can appear dated. In the mid 1970s through the mid to late 1980s, there was a period where America received a ton of flat-shipped fake gold plated or fake brass plated furniture from overseas. This stuff was really cheap. It looked cheap too, and it fell apart easily.
Sometimes the glossy surfaces look overdone and make us think about that time period off bad design choices. By coincidence, the mid 80s was the same time period that our cheesy president was designing fake opulence in hotels and casinos. This is about design, not politics, though.
The next picture shows a wider view of the layout of the floor. This is set in a square bond even though the tiles have a bit of a rectangular shape. Generally, when the grout lines run together in a grid type pattern where they meet each other, that’s a square bond. Other types of bonds that are common should include the running bond, such as is common with subway tile, and several others like the herringbone layout and the spanish bonds and pinwheel bonds that we talked about this past week. In this case though since they are rectangular, it might even be more common to refer to this particular bond as a stack bond.
They selected the vinyl base in a tan color to terminate and make the transition from the floor to the wall. No judgment if you happen to love vinyl base, but we think it looks terrible. People have been using it for a couple decades and functionally, it works from a sanitary type of perspective, but it just looks like plastic. It happens to be available in a wide range of colors, so here they did a good job picking a color that matches the tile pretty well. One of the reasons that people like it is because it’s durable, can take some abuse, and it’s easy to clean up. But there are other options.
Even in an area where there’s high foot traffic such as a commercial lobby, you can use a solid base instead. Wood trims require repainting after they have lots of scuff marks.
They can be cleaned, to an extent, but there aren’t really too many types of paint that are so durable that scuff marks can be cleaned easily. After a vigorous scrubbing, most types of painted surfaces will generally look a little spotty. In other words one area of the painted surface might not match the remainder or the next. Vigor scrubbing, as we’ve described it, is a little bit like abrading the surface, and you can see that difference in the detail.
Generally on wood trims we will recommend a semi-gloss finish. Even though here we’re saying we generally don’t like the glossy finishes, with a semi-gloss it’s at least easier to clean, a bit more durable, and not quite as shiny.
When you look closely at these grout lines, you can see they need some upkeep and maintenance. Grout wears out, it’s intended to be sacrificial. If the grout is harder than the tile itself, for example, it will cause the tile to break where there are natural micro-movements in buildings. In this particular case or aspect the tile is intended to be sacrificial and wear out first.
Grout replacement is a very tedious job, but it’s a lot cheaper than replacing chipped or broken tiles.
Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help
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If you’re contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, we’re happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience.
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