5 Reasons Tile Flooring is the Right Choice

Why Tile?

Making choices about flooring and wall coverings shouldn’t be too difficult. But it’s not just about color, texture, and design anymore. You worry about traction, allergies, and how easy it will be to clean a surface, not to mention the daily warnings and exposés about toxins and emissions.

Here are five things you’ll definitely want to consider when shopping for surfaces. 

1. Tile Is Beautiful

The possibilities are nearly endless when it comes to tile. No matter what style you’re going for, tile has what you are looking for.

Cutting-edge technology lets us recreate your favorite flooring surfaces with precision so you’ll get the look without the added maintenance, worry, or cost.

2. Tile Is Durable

Everybody knows that durability is the hallmark of tile. But next time you client is concerned about durability, go the extra mile and tell them why tile is so durable.

Tile is

  • Chemical resistant
  • Weather resistant
  • 60 year life span
  • Can go outside, in wet areas, or in the pool
  • Resistant to heavy foot traffic and wheel traffic

You won’t want to use heavy chemicals to clean your tile, but you could if you really needed to. It resists chemicals and chemical spills. Many tiles can withstand the weather too, from the hottest Arizona day to a freezing Minnesota winter. Just make sure to recommend a tile that is rated for exteriors.

Tile has a 60 year life span. Actually, you will want to update your tile long before it wears out—but the point is you don’t have to. Ancient Turkish baths still have intact tile in perfect working order. If breakage does occur, it’s a matter of replacing the one tile instead of the whole floor.

Commercial builders have long relied on tile to meet the demand. It handles heavy foot traffic and even wheel traffic. Tile also offers commercial spaces a bit of style. Tile isn’t institutional these days, it offers high design with the same durability.

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3. Tile Is Cleanable

Tile has always been very easy to clean. Even with the new textures available today, cleanability is still simple. No special products or chemicals required.

Tile is

  • Stain resistant
  • Easy to sterilize

With other floor surfaces, a dropped glass of red wine could be cause for distress. But with tile, it’s no big deal. It resists stains. If clients are still concerned, tell them to seal the tile and grout to keep their floors looking great—even in high-traffic.

Hospitals and other care facilities need to be able to sterilize floors without worrying about damaging surfaces. Tile is easy to sterilize and can be sterilized over and over without injury.  

Learn more about tile maintenance.

4. Tile Is Multifunctional

Enjoy any look you want anywhere you want. Tile is well known for floors, but it can do much more than that. 

Tile for the outdoors continues to grow with surface technology such as StepWise™ that makes tile safe for outdoor applications. That means you can continue the flooring from your kitchen right out onto the patio for seamless indoor-outdoor design. 

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5. Tile Is Healthy

Tile is made of clay and other naturally occurring minerals. That’s an important consideration when your clients are worried about keeping materials out of their spaces that have potential adverse health effects.

Tile has NO

  • VOCs
  • Formaldehyde
  • PVC

Ceramic tile is rarely if ever a culprit of “Sick Building Syndrome” and other environmental illnesses and respiratory concerns that you hear about in the news today. Beyond being made of natural elements, any potentially dangerous materials are burned off during the firing of the tile.

Tile makes for happy, healthy homes! Learn more about creating a healthy home with tile.

Healthy Tile

Daltile and ASID Team Up to Present Scholarship

 

For the last five years, Daltile and the American Society of Interior Designers, ASID, have teamed up to present scholarships to aspiring interior designers across the country. 

This year, the sixth year, the Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center joined the partnership and provided the inspiration for the project. 

Students took the existing space at Booz Allen Hamilton and integrated FitWel components, which emphasize health and wellness in living and working spaces.


Brinda Sen Gupta (Booz Allen Hamilton), Tiffany Kernan (ASID Foundation), Baileigh Petty (scholarship winner), Gaby Goodman (Daltile)

Entries were judged by a panel of experts from the design industry on the design’s function, aesthetic, and the use of Daltile’s featured products. “We were so impressed by the creativity and innovation in the student submissions this year,” Shelly Halbert, director of product design at Dal-Tile, told Floor Covering Weekly at the awards ceremony held at the Daltile Design Studio in Philadelphia this week. “It [showcased] the amazing talent we can look forward to in the next generation of designers.”

This year’s grand prize winner is Baileigh Petty, an interior design student at Utah State University. 

Petty designed a juice bar break room in the Booz Allen Hamilton space that emphasized health and wellness with easy access to fresh produce and a clean-lined, inspiring aesthetic. “I selected tile products and colors that were natural and included natural elements that would create an atmosphere of comfort and refreshment,” she told us. 

Consideration for the Booz Allen Hamilton brand was also a top priority. “I took the brand colors and brand messages and integrated that into the design,” Petty says. Booz Allen Hamiltion is no stranger to creativity. The juice bar design is a reflection of the mission statements and focus of the Innovation Center-which is what makes this design such a great fit. 

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The future is bright for Petty who plans to pursue a career in commercial design after she has completed her final year at school. We look forward to what her career will offer the world of design.

The Daltile Philadelphia Design Studio hosted the awards event where Petty was presented with a scholarship check for $10,000 on behalf of Daltile, ASID, and Booz Allen Hamilton. She said, “this is a huge boost to my confidence as a soon-to-be professional in the design field and will give me a great start.”

Three runners-up were also announced at the ceremony. Brianne Brooks, Amanda McRae, and Sasitorn Wangspa recieved scholarships for their excellent designs. Additionally, a grant was awarded to the school with the most entries. Utah State University claimed that honor with 70 student entries. 

We join with Daltile, ASID, and Booz Allen Hamilton in congratulating Baileigh Petty on her accomplishment and look forward to meeting more promising future designers next year.

Learn More about Scholarships

Design Scholarship Call for Entries

We’re pleased to announce the sixth annual Daltile Interior Design Scholarship presented by the ASID Foundation.

Each year, Daltile teams up with the American Society of Interior Designers to present undergraduate interior design students with the opportunity to earn scholarships. The themes and challenges revolove around creative designs that meet the needs of real life situations.

This year’s theme is Imagine What’s Possible: Design for Innovation. We’ve partnered with Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center to provide students with a real space to create for.

The challenge for students in 2017 is to reimagine the Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center and  incorporate Fitwel components to create a stimulating and comfortable space for employees.

Fitwel is a future-looking building certification, similar to LEED, focused on occupant and community health and well-being. Using the existing Innovation Center footprint, students should look at the entire space and identify areas of opportunity throughout the floor plan that can be redesigned to increase occupant health and comfort, on budget.

The grand prize winner will take home $10,000 and runners up will take $2,500. Additionally, a $10,000 grant is up for grabs for the school that has the most student entrants.

Entries will be accepted August 15 to September 29, 2017. An awards ceremony will be held in November at ASID’s Career Exchange Program at NeoCon East held in Philadelphia.

Learn More

Join with us in developing a passion for interior design in the rising generation! Spread the word to your colleagues and acquaintances at colleges and universities around the nation.

Cement Look Porcelain for Upscale Urban Industrial Design

Love the industrial loft look? It’s a sophisticated choice for offices, restaurants, boutique hotels, and even a unique home or apartment. Real-deal cement floors, exposed brick, metal walls, wood pillars, and the like can be a bear to take care of and keep looking pristine. While a bit of patina finishes the industrial look, you wouldn’t want to go overboard.

That’s why cement-look porcelain tile is the right choice to get easy care plus keep the urban look you want.

Benefits of Porcelain

  • Low porosity, especially compared to cement. This means that you won’t have to deal with the moisture issues the come with cement.
  • Colors! Cement look porcelain comes in many great neutral colors that don’t change over time. No dyes, no sealers, no mess.
  • Graphic technologies at Daltile offer you the rusty, brushed, cracked, or discolored sensation of aged cement without actually having any of the problems that come with those signature looks.
  • Easy cleanability that comes with porcelain makes it a must for commercial spaces that need constant and thorough cleaning.

Cement Look Porcelain You’ll Love

Daltile knows the demand for cement look porcelain tile and comes out with more and better options all the time. May we humbly suggest a few of our favorites?

 


Reminscent™ is a smooth, updated approach to the cement look. It has an unpolished finish that brings out the cement-like qualities of the tile. This contemporary industrial loft highlights the color variation of aged cement that hints at natural stone. Shown in Aged Beige on the floor and Memento White on the wall.


Classic cement look porcelain tile

This simple kitchen features Ironcraft™, a rough finished cement look with a slight metallic sheen. The unpolished finish brings out the texture of the brushed look making it feel a bit more industrial. The solid surface quartz backsplash in ONE Quartz Surfaces Mercer Grey, rounds out the industrial feel.


Industrial style open floor plan

This open floor plan takes the raw elements of industrial style and mixes it with the grandeur of classical design. The living room floor features Ironcraft in Casper Grey.

Find a Showroom

Extra-Large Format Porcelain Surfaces

A New World for Slab Countertops

Just when you think large-format porcelain tile couldn’t get any bigger, porcelain slabs appear. Introducing Panoramic Porcelain Surfaces™ – huge porcelain tile that can go nearly anywhere.

Think of everything you know about porcelain floor tiles. Now imagine having all those benefits on the countertop, the wall, or fireplace with very few joints and lots less grout—that’s Panoramic.

Panoramic (on the right) next to a regular sized natural stone slab

Roy Viana, director of Natural Stone and Slab at Daltile said it like this, “we all know what a great performer porcelain is; just translate all those capabilities to a slab and you’ll understand the value of these large porcelain surfaces.”

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Europe has already been designing with these extra-large format surfaces for a couple of years. Now they’ve hit the American market and they are making a huge impact. They increase the scale and style of porcelain tile on par with natural stone slab and that’s opening up a whole new world.

The Specs
  • Two giant sizes: 63 x 126 inches, 64 x 127 inches
  • 6 mm and 12 mm thicknesses
  • Can be easily cut to customize
What It Looks Like
  • Four marble-looks in matte and polished finishes
  • Four monochromatic colors in hot urban neutrals
How You Can Use It
  • Floors
  • Countertops
  • Vanities
  • Shower walls
  • Tub surrounds
  • Fireplaces
  • Large feature walls
  • Exterior cladding
  • Outdoor patios
  • Outdoor countertops
Cleanability
  • Easily cleaned with multi-purpose cleaners
  • Fewer grout joints to keep clean
  • Low porosity of porcelain makes it stain resistant
    Panoramic in Statuario on the walls and vanity
Other Perks
  • Withstands heat
  • Scratch and chip resistant
  • Stain resistant
  • Can be installed over existing solid surfaces (with the right preparation)

Get more details about Panoramic Porcelain Surfaces from a Daltile representative or visit a local Daltile Stone Center.

See Panoramic Slabs

Which Type of Grout Is Best for My Tile?

Easy Answers for All Things Tile Grout

Grout may play second fiddle to tile, but when it goes wrong, it can become all you see. There are so many types of grout to choose from. So which one should you use?

It all depends on what’s important to you and what grout failures you’ve experienced in the past. Let us fill in the gaps for you (see what we did there?!)

Jim Whitfield, manager of Technical Services at Mapei, spoke to industry professionals associated with the National Tile Council of America recently to answer pressing questions about grout. There are two basic types of grout and several sub-categories of grout within each. Here’s the break down.

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Cement Grout

This is grout that has been used for many years and it hasn’t changed much, although there are some high-performance types available.

Sanded & Unsanded Grout

Sanded grout is classified as a cement grout that has 1/8” or larger grit to it. Unsanded grout is a cement grout with less than 1/8” grit.

Generally, unsanded grout is used for tile applications with narrower grout joints, from 1/16” to 1/8”. The additional structure of sanded grout is needed for wider grout joints from 1/8” to 5/8” and some even can go as wide as 1”.

Sanded and unsanded grouts are usually sufficient for residential uses but many homeowners and builders are moving completely away from it. There are so many options available now that remove many of the difficulties that come with traditional grout–it’s worth it for most people to go with at least a high-performance or epoxy grout.

High-Performance & Polymer Cement Grout

Grout designed for more demanding spaces, like basic commercial or high-traffic residences, must meet higher standards for shrinkage, water absorption, and strength. It is available in both sanded and unsanded.

Cement grout is now also available with added polymers, which does all the things high-performance grout can do but with the added benefits of what plastic can offer grout. The polymers are activated once the grout is mixed with water. The chemical reaction increases this grout’s water resistance and strength compared to traditional cement grouts. It also adds abrasion resistance and chemical resistance, which grouts that aren’t high-performance may not offer.

High-performance grout also offers better color consistency and resistance to efforescense (the salty look that sometimes comes along with cement products) that is a common problem with cement grouts.

types of grout for the tile floor
Epoxy Grout

Epoxy grout is becoming the new standard in grout. It answers many of the concerns you might have with traditional grout. Epoxy grout must meet standards in water cleanability (how long water can be left on grout before it leaves a residue), shrinkage, sag, bond, strength, thermal shock, and chemical resistance.

The real strengths of epoxy grout are water absorption, strength, and chemical resistance. Epoxy absorbs about 50-times less water than traditional cement grouts, has double the strength, and chemical resistance that stands up to even the toughest environments.

You do have to clean epoxy grouts, but when you do they return to their original color rather than looking darker or keeping a grey-ish, dirty look.

Jim Whitfield, manager of Technical Services at Mapei told industry professionals, “Because epoxy grout is so tough, it wears extremely well. It doesn’t wear down over time and become a tile gutter—like cement grout can—where all the dirt and liquid and junk collects.”

Epoxy grout is a reactive grout. It comes in two parts that, when mixed together, begin a chemical reaction that gives epoxy all its best qualities. Mixing also starts the grout setting up so it has to be applied quickly in small batches, especially in the summer in hot temperatures. Even tile contractors can have difficulty with epoxy grout so it’s best to get a pro with experience installing with epoxy for best results.

100% Solids Epoxy

For extreme environments like commercial kitchens, dairies, meat processing plants, etc. where harsh chemical are used sometimes multiple times per day and left on the floor without rinsing, there’s an epoxy with enhanced performance. It does everything better plus it is fast curing, unlike regular epoxy and is resistant to high temperatures.

Single Component Grout

The name “single component” implies that this is an epoxy grout that doesn’t require mixing of two elements. However, it is not an epoxy. Technically, it is a urethane or an acrylic-silicone resin grout.

It shares many of the benefits of epoxy grout: it has excellent color consistency, doesn’t need to be sealed, resistant to breakage and chemicals, resists mold and mildew, is stain resistant, and doesn’t effloresce.

Once exposed to the air, it begins to set up. It comes in a bucket with a lid that seals when closed. That means that the whole bucket doesn’t have to be used at once as epoxy does. It is a favorite because it is easier to use than epoxy.

Pros & Cons

Cement Grout Pros

Cement Grout Cons

Suitable for most applications: indoors, outdoors, residential, commercial, dry, wet, submerged

May be vulnerable in high-impact, high-traffic environments

Easy to work with

May deteriorate when exposed to acid or alkali compounds

Suitable for just about any width grout joint

Susceptible to inconsistent color due to inconsistent drying

Very forgiving, most installers are very familiar with it, good choice for DIY

Subject to efflorescence (salty look can be a part of any cement-based product)

Sets up faster than epoxy but curing takes longer

Not highly stain or chemical resistant

Costs four-times less than epoxy

Requires more equipment like tools and sponges because it the grout is hard on them

Can be sealed to offer better protection from water, chemicals, mold, mildew, bacteria

Porous material that can allow water to seep down into the grout and cause mold, mildew, or bacterial growth under the surface of the grout

Epoxy Grout Pros

Epoxy Grout Cons

Low porosity so mildew, mold, or bacteria cannot get beneath the surface

Sealer can compromise safety and effectiveness of epoxy grout and should not be used

Resistant to stains, abrasions, breakage

Epoxy must be mixed and used appropriately or it will not offer benefits like easy cleanability and strength

Easily cleaned, best choice for light colored grouts

Limited working time once the grout has been mixed and must be mixed in small batches

Resistant to chemicals; good for commercial, industrial, and heavy commercial

Light colors can yellow if exposed to sunlight

Best choice for environments where harsh chemicals are used such as healthcare, commercial kitchens, schools

Costs more than cement grouts

Consistent color

May take longer to apply than cement grouts and is more difficult to work with

Less costly maintenance than cement grout

Can degrade when in contact with chemical substances

Single Component Grout Pros

Single Component Grout Cons

Low porosity so mildew, mold, or bacteria cannot get beneath the surface

Sealer can compromise safety and effectiveness of single component grout and should not be used

Resistant to stains, abrasions, breakage

Not for use with irregularly shaped tile such as pebble type tile

Easily cleaned, best choice for light colored grouts

Not for use in steam showers or submerged conditions like pools, fountains

Resistant to chemicals

Is sensitive to both cold and hot temperatures during installation

Easier to work with than epoxy grout

Costs more than cement grouts

Consistent color

May take longer to apply than cement grouts and may be more difficult to work with

Less costly maintenance than cement grout

Can degrade when in contact with chemical substances, not for industrial uses

With the right tile grout, you’ll love your tile! There’s a type of grout for every situation. It’s just a matter of finding the right one.

Get more advice about grout at your nearest Daltile location.

Find a Daltile Location

Get the Look: Authentic French Style

by Nelly Reffet

As an interior designer born and bred in France, I have quite often been contacted by potential clients who want me to create a French style for their home. At first, I was dumbfounded. I never knew that “French style” existed, and I certainly didn’t know what people had in mind when they referred to it. I quickly learned that in most cases it meant lots of whitewashed pieces, some antique-looking items, many candles and hurricane lanterns, with the
occasional glitzy crystal chandelier, linen towels, cute white lace and silver trays.

Meet the Daltile Interns

Summer Programs for Students

Summer 2017 Interns visit the Daltile Design Studio in Dallas

Education is important, but there’s nothing quite like life experience. At Daltile, students are getting both. Students in the Dallas area and nationwide get the chance to learn what their future careers might be like on site at Daltile’s Dallas headquarters.

Using Mosaic Floor Tiles To Add Modern Sytle To Your Bathroom

Modern mosaic floor tiles can revitalize your bathroom floor. Traditionally, mosaic designs are made using small tiles that are three inches or less. If you like the look of mosaics, updated shapes and on-trend neutrals allow you to aim for a more modern style. Today’s latest lines of tile provide a great deal of design flexibility, giving you the opportunity to create something truly fresh and original. Here are some suggestions for a newer mosaic tile design for your bathroom floor.