Wood Look Tiles: Growing In Popularity
Wood look tiles also called wood effect tiles and wood tiles are becoming more and more popular. They come in many different varieties of patterns, styles and colors and are made from different materials, too. Basically, if you have seen it as a wood floor, they can mimic it in a wood look tile. Bamboo, hand scraped, herringbone, minimal grout – you name it and there are wood look tiles for you to match your style.
Home owners like wood look tiles because of the low maintenance. You care for wood effect tiles as you would any tiled floor. It does not matter if you spill lots of water on your floors – they are tiles! They are usually porcelain or ceramic. They don’t need to be sanded, refinished or cared for like a hardwood floor but they have a similar look to a hardwood floor. There is no annual maintenance required for wood look tiles.
Don’t get wood look tiles confused with wood look vinyl. Vinyl is the plastic flooring that comes on rolls and is a photograph of wood floors – often with a noticeable repeating pattern.
Pricing Out Wood Look Tiles
Wood look tiles vary in price depending on what style you want and what company you buy them from. There is always going to be differences in quality from one manufacturer to the next.
There is also the installation cost. If you go to your local home improvement center, sometimes the installation cost is included. They may often tack on delivery cost, too. So it will appear that the price is really high but it is not actually as high as it looks. If you go this route, you will not be able to choose who installs your tiles.
The range for wood tiles is huge and it really depends on the style you want. Typically you can find wood look tiles that are in the range of $6 to $10 a square foot – of course you can always find clearance tiles for less and designer tiles for more.
Hire A Tile Layer Or Do It Yourself?
You may want to lay your tiles yourself. Cutting the tiles is usually done with a wet saw or sometimes a dry saw depending on the type of tiles.
If you are in an older house, you will need to level your floors. If you do not level your floors, as your house shifts ever so slightly with the seasons, your tiles will crack. You can replace them but it is an annoying job that you want to prevent.
There are many different styles to lay tiles and you want your tiles to be installed to mimic a wood floor. Also you can cut them in different lengths. I think longer tiles makes them look more look wood planks – more like a wood floor and less like a tiled floor. Often wood look tiles come in long lengths that do not require any cutting – just at the edge of the room.
Tips For Buying Wood Look Tiles
A tip for buying your wood look tiles or any floor tiles for that matter: always buy 10% more than you require to do the job. You may end up using your extra wood effect tiles. You may end up storing them for the future when you need to do a repair. Especially if you are buying clearance tiles, you will probably never see them again in the store. If they only have enough tiles to do your job with no extra, do not buy them!
Final Thoughts
Wood look tiles are an easy floor to keep clean. If you have pets, young children or live in a moist climate, wood tiles are for you.