Porcelain bathroom floor tiles – a buying guide

The size of tile you choose can have a dramatic impact on your overall design. That is mainly due to grout lines. For bathrooms, which tend to be some of the smallest rooms in our homes, size of tile is a key consideration. Porcelain bathroom floor tiles come in a range of sizes and generally you will find the same design of tile available in 3 or 4 different sizings from smaller format to larger options. The larger the tile, the less grout lines.  Sometimes it is tempting to think small space, so opt for smaller tiles. But opting for a larger format tile with fewer grout lines can actually make your space feel larger. There are a few things to consider if you are loving the large format option so read on!

Tiles come in all shapes and sizes with square and rectangular the obvious front runners. <With square, there are less things to consider regards installation. Whereas with rectangular tiles, particularly for floors you will want to consider whether you stack or brick bond tiles into a pattern. You will also want to think about which direction you run the tiles in. It is also worth noting that if you do go rectangular, then for tiles with a length longer than 600mm you don’t want your overlap to be more than 33%. Even the best porcelain will have a very slight curve for longer length tiles and offsetting by no more than 1/3 of the tile length will help reduce any lippage so where your porcelain bathroom floor tiles meet they are flat.

Every bathroom and every bathroom project is of course, different and we would always recommend employing the services of an expert regards your tile installation. It is always worth checking with your installer before you go ahead and purchase your tiles to ensure they are suitable and to consider things like room access, the substrate you are adhering to aswell as the complexity of the room ie are there lots of cuts, corners etc. If access is restricted into the bathroom or there are tight corners and stairways then it may be a squeeze trying to manoeuvre extra large porcelain tiles – those 1200 x 1200mm giant tiles are also very heavy and the recommendation is having more than one person to lift. It can also be tricky trying to lay really large formats in small spaces so always speak with your installer before committing to a tile size. Floors are likely to be more flexible in a bathroom due to their make up (unlike ground floors which may be concrete) so again, check with your installer if you are wanting to go for extra large porcelain tiles. Some of these larger formats can be thinner (to make them lighter for handling purposes) so you may find them at 6mm or 8mm thicknesses. Essentially the porcelain tile will be fine as long as it is installed correctly. But that’s not to say you can’t have that stunning large format tile you always dreamed off to create the wow factor.  Just check it out first!