Question:
Can anybody help me with the following
1) We want to upgrade our new house to Tile flooring, can anybody tell me
which tile is cheap and low maintanence and durable.
2) We also want to upgrade garage flooring and patio flooring. What is best
for the two?
Answer:
Virtually all tile is cheap and low maintenance and durable. You need
to hither thee to a tile shop. The only thing you must confirm is that
the tile you're interested in is rated for flooring use. Also, some of
the more rustic tiles such as Mexican saltillo is unglazed and softer
and thus requires more care (re-sealing every year or so being the
usual thing needed). However, the more rustic tiles are supposed to
look "distressed", so the inevitable chips and wear that come of it
being softer actually add to its character.
I personally like the new porcelain tile in 1' squares. Looks pretty
cool (like a nicely textured stone flooring), very durable VERY
durable, these things are TOUGH , but a bit more expensive than
"regular" glazed tile. These tiles seem to be going for about $3
apiece in my area, with about the same per square foot to install
them. Note, however, that installation costs are very much specific to
your region (as are sales taxes on the tiles themselves!).
Garage flooring -- you probably don't want to mess with that other
than to clean it. There are very few materials rated for use in
garages, where you want materials that are not only durable and
capable of holding up a car, but also with good oil resistance. A good
cleaning can get the concrete looking like new. If you want something
a bit more than just clean concrete, you can get a colored/textured
concrete overlay (with lines stamped into it to make it look like
pavers) that looks pretty good and is as durable as, well,
concrete. There are also epoxy floor coatings that are pretty good
though I think they're kind of ugly (anything other than grey fades
distastefully when UV hits it, and let's face it, grey isn't sexy).
For patio flooring, many people like terracotta-looking pavers for
their patio. Put some miniature palms around in terracotta planters
(take them in during the winter) and you, too, can have a miniature
tropical paradise in your back yard
. You can get these pavers made
out of concrete, which is probably the best material for patios. The
real clay terracotta tiles absorb too much moisture to be good for
that use in most of the country (they might work here in the Phoenix
AZ area if sealed top and bottom first and re-sealed every year, but
definitely won't work anywhere that it actually snows). You can
install pavers either via grouting or sanding, either way results in a
durable installation though sand-installed pavers tend to be a bit
messier and harder to keep clean.
Note that installing pavers over a cracked concrete patio slab is a
special case, and depending upon the situation might require an
isolation membrane, a sanded install, or the professional tile guy who
looks at it might throw up his hands and say the only thing you can do
is jackhammer it out and pour a good slab (in which case you might as
well get one poured with the colored/stamped concrete that looks like
terracotta tiles).
