12 Types of Tiles to Consider for Your Home Tiling Needs

Home tiles combine beauty and functionality, transforming the interiors of your home into inviting and visually appealing spaces. Ceramic and vitrified home tiles feature a wide array of colours, patterns, and sizes, allowing you to create personalised and stylish spaces.

Tiles can visually expand rooms, with larger tiles making small spaces appear more spacious. Additionally, their reflective surfaces can improve lighting and make rooms brighter. Creative tile arrangements, such as herringbone or mosaic patterns, can become focal points, adding a sense of elegance and uniqueness.

Tiles are also practical, with options like durable porcelain or glazed ceramic being suitable for high-traffic areas like kitchens and bathrooms. Their easy-to-clean top surface makes maintenance hassle-free.

Of the several types of tiles you can find in the market to finish your home design, the best choice for a space depends on several factors. Considering these factors in your tile selection will unlock all the advantages of tile usage, while wrong selection can cause accidents and repair costs.

Which Areas Need Tiling in Your Home?

Broadly, you can install tiles on the floor and the walls. However, this classification is not enough to help you select the best tile options. Different spaces in your home require different kinds of tiles to add to the safety and durability of the place.

Here's a list of all possible places you can add home tiles to:

• Living room and bedroom floors
• Accent walls in the living room
• Headwall in the bedroom
• General wall cladding in the living room
• Kitchen Backsplash
• Kitchen & dining area walls
• Kitchen floor
• Passage walls
• Bathroom walls
• Bathroom floor
• Staircases
• Kitchen and bathroom (vanity) countertop
• Terrace floor tiling
• Garden and patio floor tiles
• Parking area floor tiles
• External wall cladding for house and boundary wall

Classifying the areas to such detail helps you with two things while purchasing home tiles:

1. You can prioritise and focus on functional areas first

2. You can remain within your budget and get the best tiles for all the areas in Step 1

This is important as covering the entire structure with tiles may not be the best decision for your pocket even if home design allows it. With these areas in mind, understand the different tiles for the home floor and walls available to you.

Different Types of Tiles

Although tiles have been a part of home construction since time immemorial, modern technology has produced several options. The humble ceramic tiles are now a scientifically perfect building material that can fulfil specific finishing and functional needs.

Appropriate tiles can even replicate or replace natural materials, like wood, marble and granite. Here's a list of tile classifications available to you in India:

Tiles by Material

The first classification of your home tiles is based on the tile body and its traits. Home tiles can have the following two types of bodies or base materials:

• Ceramic or Non-Vitrified:

Ceramic tiles are made of earthen clay and water and fired between 800-1200 degrees centigrade. This tile has a higher water absorption rate of around 3-10%.

• Vitrified Tiles:

Vitrified tiles are made of silica, clay, feldspar, quartz and other minerals as needed, and baked into a uniform glasslike structure at 1200 degrees. These tiles, even though featuring nanopores on the surface, are almost impervious to water and absorb less than 0.5% water.

For home and building applications these tiles can be given various finishes:

• Full Body Vitrified:

Almost stone-like appearance, can be polished to make glossy and special polishing to make stainfree.

• Double Charge Vitrified Tiles:

Feature a thick layer of colour pigments on top. The top layer forms the design and polishing makes the tile stain and scratch-resistance and their thickness gives the top pattern a long life.

• Glazed Vitrified Tiles or Porcelain Tiles:

These are vitrified tiles with a hard glaze on top. The glaze can be used to give the tile various types of surface finishes and is digitally printed with intricate designs.

Tiles by Surface Finish

Various surface finishes of tiles add safety, appearance and other features to your home structure. Here are the various surface finishes available with different types of tiles:

• Polished Tiles:

Available with all vitrified tiles, polished surface makes the tiles impervious to stains and gives them an elegant glossy finish.

• High Gloss Tiles:

High gloss finish is available with glazed vitrified tiles. This finish gives the tiles a mirror-like surface.

• Unpolished & Matte Finish Tiles:

Matte finish surface is available with both vitrified and ceramic tiles. Unpolished full-body vitrified tiles feature a matte finish surface.

• Satin Matte Tiles:

Satin matte is a version of a matte finish surface with a smoother, non-reflective surface. Satin matte is less reflective than a glossy finish, however, easy to clean.

• Sugar Finish Tiles:

This is one of the premium tile finishes which features a grainy, non-reflective surface. The finish brings out velvet-like smoothness to the tiles for the home floor and walls under the right colour choices.

• Carving Tile Finish:

Carving finish tiles are special tiles that feature glossy and matte finish carvings as per the patterns, i.e., glossy patterns on matte finish tile, or vice versa.

• Rustic Finish Tiles:

Rustic finish reflects a more natural and traditional tile finish. It is often paired with designs and colours to reflect natural materials like metal, stone, or wood.

• Wood Matte Finish:

Wood matte is a special premium finish for home tiles. This grainy wood-like finish is the special surface finish for wood-look alike tiles.

Tiles by Texture

Apart from the various surface finishes, home tiles for walls can also feature the following textures:

• 3D Elevation:

3D elevated or engraved surfaces with up to 10mm depth. The tiles are recommended usually for wall applications only.

• Punched:

These tiles also feature three-dimensional surface designs. But the 3D elevation is less prominent than 3D elevation tiles. The tiles can feature a glossy or matte finish surface.

How to Select?

Now that you know the types of options you have with ceramic and vitrified tiles, you can start selecting the best tiles for your home floor and walls.

The Best Floor Tiles For Home In India

Floor tile choices depend on the type of area and the type of surface you want. Areas with a possibility of getting wet regularly, like the kitchen, bathroom, outside parking, patio, and garden, should have anti-skid tiles.

Matte and rustic finish tiles are better for these areas as they offer better skid resistance than glossy and polished tiles. You should also consider the tile's strength for outdoor applications.

Full-body vitrified tiles are better for parking, patio, and garden as they are stronger and more resistant to water and other damage. So, to summarise here's your chart for floor tile selection:

• Glossy Ceramic or Glazed vitrified Tiles: Living Room and Bedroom floors
• Matte Finish Ceramic or Glazed vitrified Tiles: Kitchen, and bathroom floors
• Matte Finish Vitrified Tiles: Garden, patio, and parking floors
• Full Body Polished Vitrified Tile: Kitchen and bathroom countertops
• Terrace Floor: Cool roof tiles, glazed vitrified and full body vitrified tiles with skid-resistant surface

Consider these as a minimum requirement for flooring. You can use different versions of vitrified tiles everywhere in and outside the house. For example, porcelain tiles are a great choice for living room and bedroom floors. Wood plank tiles under H&R Johnson's GVT section are quite a popular choice for kitchen floors as well.

However, you should consider full-body tiles for high-footfall areas and areas exposed to harsh environments.

The Best Wall Tiles for Different Spaces in Your Home

Selecting the best wall tiles for the home is about décor and aesthetics in most places, except the kitchen and bathroom. Here's the type of tiles you should prefer for these and other spaces in your home:

• Kitchen and Bathroom Walls: Ceramic tiles or porcelain tiles with glossy or satin matte finish.
• External Walls & Inside Accent Walls: 3D elevation tiles, full body and glazed vitrified tiles.

Considering the Budget

Budget limitation can force you to optimize your choices for home tiles. You can still choose tiles with a combination of good design and functionality. Just make sure to prioritize the floor tiles before going out with wall decor. Here are the choice of tiles you can have in the house:

• Matt-finish tiles for kitchen and bathroom floors
• Living room and bedroom floor with high gloss, satin, or wood matte finish
• Balconies with matt-finish anti-skid tiles.

After these areas, add tiles to kitchen and bathroom walls. The critical tiling areas in the kitchen are the two-three feet wall space above the counter. Use high gloss or satin matt finish tiles to create the dado. This will create an easy to clean, low maintenance, and good looking surface in the kitchen.

In the bathroom, shower area is the most critical area for wall tiling. You should consider covering the walls around the shower for at least 7-8 feet. However, if the bathroom is small, water splashes can reach almost every corner. Thus, you should cover the entire bathroom with wall tiles. This will make the bathroom walls completely waterproof.

Buying the Tiles the Smart Way

The best way to go about buying tiles is to explore the available options online, and consult experts. At H&R Johnson, you can connect with a tiling expert and consult about your tiling need to understand the best possible solutions.

Visiting the Experience Centre and dealership will reveal the home tiles' price and appearance. You can buy the tiles to complete your project from the centres or the dealership once satisfied with the design and cost.

H&R Johnson can also recommend professional installation service providers for a good and safe tiling experience.

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