I am confused on how to judge the quality of countertop tiles.
Any criteria on which I may judge??
Whats the best ones you think for kitchen purposes…
help me, Thx ..
Had them in my last house and would never never never do it again. Try wiping a counter with crumbs on it when you have tiles with grout lines. We had some kind of Mexican looking SW tile. Man did it look good. My wife cooks, and she hated it.
I’ve considered doing my counters DIY with granite or marble tile when the time comes. Not sure though, it looks great but the grout lines sure to act like crap magents and they stain like crazy if you don’t keep them treated and scrubbed.
To answer the OP’s question. I’m nto 100% certain myself, but I would tend to look at smooth, thick floor tiles in a natural stone (lke granite and marble for example). Basically anyhting thats floor rated is certainly going to be strong enough, but you probably want to avoid the textured ceramics commonly used for flooring since the textures will turn into millions upon millions of dirt and debris traps. The bigger the tile, the less grout lines you’ll have, whcih might help reduce the frustration d.n.f. experienced. Be careful with waterproofing and sealing as some of the products may be really bad to use in food prep areas...not sure if there are any that are ok for food prep, but read the labels at Lowes/Home Depot for abetter idea. Logically there must be a product for this purpose.
I’ve tiled a significant portion of my home since putting it up in 2003. I find it reasonably simple and very rewarding when you get to take a step back and have a look.
thx ..thats of great help ....i am thinking to get granite countertops....as it holds up to heat;
plus i also get to choose from a wide array of colors; assuming that it wud last a lifetime ..plus low maintenance for sealers..any suggestions on this pick ??? pls update/guide me ..
Granite is a good choice. I can say from a friend’s mistakes, avoid marble except for a baking area. Marble looks pretty when new, but is very susceptible to acid etching. That means the lovely surface gets mottled as soon as it sees a lemon, lime or tomato. Granite doesn’t have this problem.
Granite is porous, so be careful when choosing how you finish and seal it. It doesn’t suck it up like a sponge or anything, but I could see an errant coffee spoon left on the counter leaving a permanent mark.
Great with heat though...you can use it for chopping too, but it’ll probably wreck your knives pretty quickly. If you do alot of cooking you might want to embed a nice big 2x2 or so chopping block flush with your countertop.
If you go through with this, don’t forget to take lots of photos.
I tiled the counter top in my last home and both my wife and I were very pleased with it. My wife wanted to take it with us when we moved.
I used 12 x 12 floor rated porcelain tiles with a very slight texture. I think it was suppose to look like soap stone. I used epoxy grout. With porcelain tile and epoxy grout there is no reason to ever seal it.
I would second Guardguy’s advice to use porcelain tile. I’ve done two kitchen countertops using 8” porcelain tile (smooth with no texture). They’re inexpensive and bullet-proof in terms of staining and heat resistance. The ones I’ve used have a matte finish (avoid high gloss tiles uless you like finger prints and water marks). These tiles look somewhat like natural stone. There isn’t much choice in terms of color. All seem to have a sort of earth-tone color to them. I’ve just used latex modified grout since I’ve heard that epoxy grout is difficult to apply and repair (although Guardguy may want to chime in here). Yes, the grout will darken slightly over time but we’ve had good luck using gel bleach on the grout lines once or twice a year.
Chip
gel bleach...where do you get that? I did my countertops in 6"x6" tile...the green “railto” you used to be able to pick up at lowes. Very high quality, very heavy porcelain, and very nice looking. But, as mentioned, it has a texture and is a pain to keep clean. the upside is that I can’t see the crumbs as easily, and me being a neat freak, and the wife not, turned out for the best. However, I made grout lines too big (1/4") and too light, so they are nice and stained with all kinds of crap...including bacon grease. Would that gel bleach take care of that?
thx a lot guys ...thats really informative ..porcelain sounds a good enough choice ..just a last query, I discussed with a friend who had it, she too said it was very nice but said that it might chip easily; requires regular maintenance to keep bacteria out of grout ...is that correct? if so, how should I may avoid it ..
thanks!!
My grout had an admix that I bought with it to give it antibacterial properties.
Your dishes will break before the porcelain chips (I guess that’s another draw-back). Probably the only thing you don’t want to do is practice juggling hammers over it.
Epoxy grout is hard to apply. It sticks to everything and is hard to clean off the tiles. It is also difficult to get a nice looking grout joint because it sticks to whatever you use to smooth the joint. If I was to do another coutertop, I would use epoxy grout agian because it doesn’t stain or encorage bacteria growth.
We tiled our breakfast bar with porcelain, used the anti bac grout. What worked very well was using a spray sealant, stuff comes in a can and you spray the entire counter when done caulking. The caulk has held up great, I can get the name of the stuff if you want.
Heh, well I have no plans to play around with hammers. thanks a lot, I have noted down the tips ...in order to convince my hubby 2b, I need to have more details so GotzTheHotz, I will really appreciate if you can do so.
Thanks everyone ..appreciate it:)
thanks a lot, I have noted down the tips ...in order to convince my hubby 2b, I need to have more details so GotzTheHotz, I will really appreciate if you can do so.
