Tile: An Excellent Choice for Floors, Walls, and More

As timeless as it gets, tile continues to be enormously popular as a commercial and residential choice for stunning floors, walls, backsplashes, bathrooms, and fireplace surrounds. Its versatility cannot be understated, and its contribution to homes around the globe cannot be undone.

Why Choose Tile?

Tile checks many of the building supply boxes that many homeowners and trade professionals alike. The durability that can last for years combined with the style and material options available at ProSource Wholesale® makes tile a mainstay in home and commercial design.

• Tile is Healthy: Whether the tile is being placed on the walls or floors, it does not contain any dangerous toxins, chemicals, or materials that may lead to serious medical conditions. Because of their ability to be naturally resistant to dust, bacteria, mold, fungi, and other allergens, tile contributes to the clean air, vital to the health of those in the space. It emits no volatile organic compounds (also known as VOCs, this is the harmful gases that contribute to irritation and headaches) and polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs).
• Tile is Safe: Textured or slippery-resistant tile is a safe, non-flammable flooring option in moisture filled rooms, such as the laundry room or the bathroom. Tile is a worry-free choice for backsplashes, fireplace surrounds, and kitchens.
• Tile is Earth-Friendly: The tile options at ProSource Wholesale® care about creating sustainable tiles adorning walls, backsplashes, floors, bathrooms, and fireplace surrounds. Whether it is unused powders making its way into raw bisques or the reduction of emissions, tile brands are seeking to bring transparency and action to the industry.
• Tile is Easy to Maintain: Tile’s moisture resistant nature makes it easy to maintain, easily cleaned with water without extra chemicals or cleaners. It is stain-resistant, water-resistant, fade-resistant, scratch-resistant, and fire resistant, allowing for user-friendly flooring for the whole family.
• Tile Adds Value: Affordability is a huge factor for any remodel project, but with tile, it adds a beneficial level of value with its long-lasting, easy maintenance nature.

Where to Use Tile

No matter where it is installed, tile continues to be a worry-free popular choice around the home and in commercial buildings. Their versatile nature offers opportunity to match the design of the space without compromising the vision.

Kitchen
The kitchen often can be considered as the hub of the home. With spills and moisture being ever present and foot traffic being consistent, tile is the natural selection for a durable, long-lasting, and fashion-forward flooring. Just as often, it is used to create stylish countertops and eye-catching backsplashes that complement the concept and bring the space together. It emits no toxic fumes to interfere with cooking and eating, and its solid surface is immune to unpleasant odors, allergens, and bacteria.

Bathroom
Tile is an excellent option for areas of your home that should remain as hygienic and sterile as possible, such as the bathroom, where both floors and walls can offer a canvas for the design vision. Being unaffected by liquids and moisture, tiles provide opportunities to add a splash of color in the room without it fading and repels the germs that are required within the space.

Living Room
The foot traffic in the living room makes it necessary to select a durable flooring option, making tile high on the list of choices. Tile can create a sleek focal point to the motif of the area, offering unparalleled heat-resistance around the fireplace. It is a low-maintenance choice, ideal for homes with children and pets.

Outdoors
Creating a stylish, pool, patio, or outdoor wall does not have to be complicated or dull. Whether the design requires a mosaic accent wall aligning the outdoor kitchen or solid tiling providing durability under the foot on the patio, tiling feels right at home when used outdoors. Its moisture and liquid resistance stands up to rain and other elements, and it can be painted and pieced together to fit the motif of the area.

Commercial Spaces
Commercial spaces seek products like tile that handle the foot traffic and offer the durability that they need. Its practicality makes it the ideal selection for floors, walkways, walls, countertops, and exteriors.

Tile Materials

The characteristics of each type of tile are different and are due to the desired style, scale, and budget of a new or remodeled space.

Ceramic
Ceramic tiles offer a myriad of possibilities with their expansive array of colors, patterns, shapes, textures, and sizes, manufactured from a mixture of different types of clay and fired at high temperatures. Ceramic sports a long-lasting durability and scratch resistance regardless of size or patterns. It can be made to look like brick, stone, hardwood, metal, and even fabric.
• Glazed: Creating a seal over the clay, the majority of ceramic tiles are manufactured with glaze. This adds waterproofing and stain resistance, while eliminating the need for other sealers or protective finishes.
• Unglazed: Unglazed ceramic tiles offer a subdued appearance without the shine of their glazed counterpart. The natural, rustic exterior of unglazed ceramic tiles is ideal for non-moisture spaces, as the lack of glaze makes the tiles more porous and susceptible to staining and moisture absorption.
• Terra Cotta: Manufactured from red clay, terra cotta tile promote the warmth and natural beauty from their unglazed state. However, they required sealant, in order to prevent liquid absorption and staining.

Porcelain
Ideal for both indoor and outdoor living areas, porcelain provides a durable choice for those looking to make design decisions with their walls and floors. Porcelain tiles are ceramic tiles fired at high temperatures, making them hard and dense and can be found in a wealth of colors, textures, shapes, and sizes.

• Matte (Unglazed): Matte porcelain tiles are baked, fired, and left otherwise untreated, offering a natural look available in numerous patterns, sizes, and designs.
• Glazed: Glazed porcelain is a glaze finish added to matte porcelain, in order to protect it from moisture and strengthen its construction.
• Polished: Polished porcelain tiles provide a unique look with a higher level of stain and moisture resistance, while still offering the durability and the low maintenance of other porcelain tiles.
• Full Body: With unglazed porcelain tiles composed of natural types of clay, full body porcelain tiles promote its color and texture throughout the tile, making scratches to the surface less visible.

Glass
Available in countless colors, shapes, and sizes, glass tile provides elegance and grace to the backsplashes of kitchens and bathrooms alike. They brighten rooms with their light appearance, effortlessly providing a low maintenance option for any room motif.

Stone
As one of the most stylish and versatile material options available, as it can be used both indoors and outdoors, stone tile provides a natural appearance in contemporary and rustic designs. Often requiring sealant treatments, in order avoid damage in moisture-prone spaces, stone tiles still maintain a bucolic complement to the vision of the space.

Terra Cotta
Creating a rustic look to your home does not have to be complicated. With terra cotta tiles, that natural appearance in spaces like the living room, kitchen, porch, or patio, can last for years, due to their durability and ability to resist bacteria and mold. They will require a sealant against liquid, but their ability to complement a stunning, earthy design is unmatched.

Quarry
The durability and hardness of the ceramic tile of quarry tiles cannot be understated. It is a combination of natural ingredients, in addition to clay and shale, and it often is styled for commercial spaces. This tile is perfet for heavy traffic application and protects against spills and moisture.

Metal
Often made from aluminum, stainless steel, copper, and tin, metal tiles enhance the visual senses that inspire wonder within a room’s design, as the shapes and tones offer endless opportunities for self-expression. They can be used virtually within the room and are easy to maintain when sealed properly.

Mosaic
The design possibilities when using mosaic tiles are only limited by the imagination of the person stylizing the space. They are colorful, durable, and waterproof, ideal for a bathroom. Mosaic tiles may be a challenge from an installation perspective and may not be suited for high traffic spaces.

Decorative
Images or patterns can be embossed or digitally placed onto the surface of the tile, creating the decorative patterns necessary for the design. They can be made of glass, ceramic, stone, or other materials.

Terrazzo
Perfect for areas that wish to highlight marbled detail, terrazzo tiles can be utilized in both residential and commercial spaces with its durability and choices in texture and tone. Terrazzo tile can be tricky when it comes to slippage, so it may be beneficial to apply non-slip additives to the surface.

Faux Wood
Also known as wood look tile, faux wood tiles create the appearance of wood without the type of maintenance that the real thing entails. Made of porcelain, faux wood stands up to high levels of traffic and moisture, allowing for the stylized look sought after.

Tile Sizes

Complementary Sizes
Mixing and matching tile sizes can draw the eye and create a stunning piece of visual interest. Whether on the wall or the floor, complementary sizing forges greater attention to the concept of the space than those utilizing the same proportions between tiles.

Large Tile
Bigger tiles on walls and floors that exceed twelve inches and reach sizes of six feet or more create opportunities for greater design options for the space, making it appear larger than it is. It also maintains fewer grout lines that can interrupt the flow of the tile.

Dense, Durable, Digital

Digital printing technology, working in conjunction with the tense and durable porcelain, presents a myriad of opportunities to stylize the space.

Keeping Up Appearances
From the moment that the tile is properly installed, maintaining the appearance of a stylish tile concept requires keeping each tile clean and each crevice of grout, free from the dust and dirt that can spoil a pristine design. The size of the tile can affect this process with the smaller the tile, the more grout required, requiring more grout to clean, maintain, and potentially replace over time.

Tile Shapes
Any shape that the design demands is available with tile. The creativity of the shapes is only boxed in by the requirement of how they fit together, creating the desired aesthetic within the space. Whether these tiles are contrasting to be used as a focal point or to establish borders, or mixed to create herringbone, chevron, or parquet patterns, tile offers nearly limitless possibilities.

Square
The simplicity of a square tile cannot be understated, allowing for ease of installation and measurement. Mosaic square tiles typically are 1-to-2 inches, and decorative and accent square tiles typically are found in 4- or 6-inch increments. The most popular large format squares often are found in 12-, 18, and 24-inch options.

Rectangle
With 3-inch by 6-inch subway choices, rectangular tiles are the most recognizable option in the subspace. Field tiles, large format rectangles of 12-inches by 24-inches, currently find themselves in demand, particularly in marble or porcelain.

Hexagon
Hexagon tiles often are found in smaller sizes, due to the capabilities and demands of the design. With six equal sides, they can be found on mesh backing for quick and easy installation.

Penny Round
Mesh-backed penny round tiles offer simplicity and charm for kitchen backsplashes, bathroom floors, and fireplace surrounds.

Basket Weave
Basket weave tiles are Victorian-inspirated and available in a myriad of materials for use in projects ranging across a given budget.

Ogee (Specialty) Shapes
The variety of nontraditional tile shapes inspire a wealth of design possibilities. These specialty shapes include, but are not limited to diamonds, pickets, triangles, fish scales, and arabesques.