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Their innate water-resistance and long-lastingness have made tiles a favourite for homeowners looking for a functional and aesthetic flooring option to use for their bathrooms and kitchens.
It’s why most people believe that tiles in bathrooms and kitchens are no different. It’s easy to believe this, as they are both tiles and look the same, but there are some differences between them, which is vital to know, as there are times that you don’t want to install kitchen tiles in your bathroom and vice versa.
By understanding the difference between the two, you can make a more informed decision when choosing tiles for what you want to use them for.
To know more about the difference between the two, this article covers all you need to know so you can make the right flooring option between bathroom tiles and kitchen tiles.
What Are Bathroom Tiles?
If you’re choosing a flooring option for your bathroom, you need to consider that bathrooms can be slippery, which is why you need to choose a tile that has a good grip and is slip-resistant. With bathrooms often exposed to moisture and water flow, your tile choice needs to be one that’s suited to these conditions.
When looking for bathroom tiles, some of the better options that you can look at include ceramic tiles, marble tiles, natural stone tiles, and porcelain tiles. All of these are good options because they all have good grip and slip resistance.
One of the most important aspects of choosing bathroom tiles is getting one with good foot traction to help you avoid injuries caused by slip hazards. With most bathrooms having only limited space, consider installing small tiles diagonally to make the bathroom look bigger. Furthermore, with heavy water flow in bathrooms, you need small tiles to help with drainage, so your bathroom floor dries faster.
Also, using small tiles isn’t just about making it look bigger. Bigger tiles are harder to install and can lead to uneven tile flooring. Furthermore, installation can be so tricky that there’s a good chance that you might have to cut them around the fittings.
For aesthetics, if you want a clean look, go for plain and simple patterns. You can use simple colours like white, grey, and cream for a simple, clean, and elegant look. But, if you want it to look livelier and with more colour, there are many colourful designs that you can choose from.
What Are Kitchen Tiles?
Compared to the bathroom, the kitchen won’t have as much moisture and water flow. What’s going to be your opponents in kitchens are stains and spills. So, instead of going for water resistance, you need to look for tiles that have stain resistance and strong material. They also need to be easy to clean since the kitchen requires cleaning often.
Oil and food residue can build up in a kitchen, and they aren’t easy to clean. If you want to use kitchen tiles for your kitchen’s backsplash, you can use glass tiles because they don’t need much maintenance and are very easy to clean.
For the kitchen floor, some of the best options to consider are ceramic, porcelain, hand, and cork tiles because they hide stains and are long-lasting.
Unlike bathroom floors, it’s alright to use large tiles for your kitchen, as it’s not as small as a bathroom. It’s not just a matter of not having to make the room more spacious than it is; small tiles in a big room like a kitchen can look a bit odd. When using tiles for your kitchen floor, straight and windmill patterns are very popular.
For your kitchen floor, you have a bit more leeway, as they don’t handle as much work as the kitchen floor or backsplash. It deals more with aesthetics rather than function. It means I can be more creative in terms of design. Of course, your kitchen wall is still part of the kitchen, so make sure you choose tiles for your kitchen floor that are stain-resistant.
Lastly, the kitchen has much more traffic compared to the bathroom, so make sure to get a kitchen tile that can survive it.
What To Consider When Choosing Between Bathroom Tiles And Kitchen Tiles
Before spending any money on your tiles, first, you need to be certain that the tile you’ll buy will serve its purpose. Here are some things to consider:
- Traffic – Kitchens have more foot traffic than a bathroom, and you need tiles that can survive this. Since they get more traffic, your kitchen floor should have a high Porcelain Enamel Institute (PEI) rating, which means it has a higher resistance to foot traffic and abrasion. Aim for a tile with the highest PEI rating in your budget range, as you’ll get better quality. It also means your tile will be able to handle more applications than other tiles with a low PEI rating.
- Safety – Whether it’s the kitchen or the bathroom, you don’t want your floor to be a slipping hazard. For safety, get a tile with a high anti-slip rating.
- Size – It’s better to use smaller tiles for bathrooms to help with drainage. It also looks better due to the small size of most bathrooms. For the kitchen, you can use whatever tile size you want, but bigger ones usually look better.
Choosing a tile depends on many factors, and it’s costly when you get it wrong. To make a wiser choice, make sure to have a a bathroom renovations company by your side.
