Sunday, April 20, 2008

The 2x2 floor tiles

Most new houses are installed with 2" x 2" floor tiles nowadays. These large surface tiles make your floor having less lines, and bring the visual effect to make the room looks more spacious.

Workmanship is very important for 2x2 tiles flooring. The tiles should not have any hollowness, the lines between tiles should be very slim and straight, and all tiles must be evenly laid flat and smooth.

Here are a few considerations for choosing and laying the 2x2 tiles:

  • Feel the edges and corners of the tiles with bare hand or foot. The edges of good quality tiles won't give you much "cutting feeling".
  • Good quality 2x2 tiles are normally thick and firm. The thicker the tile, the less likely it is to crack or break. However, the actual robustness is determined by their modulus of rupture measurement.
  • The tiles should have satisfactory level of resistance to stain, abrasion and chemical.
  • Avoid too slippery tiles. Use only non-slip tiles in kitchen, washroom, etc.
  • Use light colour tiles for living room.
  • Use dark colour filling for the gap lines between the tiles. If you use the white colour filling, it will eventually turn black when dirts are collected in it, and that would make your floor looks ugly.
  • Most building materials contain minimal radioactive elements in them. Some poor quality tiles made in China have higher level of radioactive elements, which is bad to your health.
  • Insist to use contractor with good workmanship to install the tiles.

5 comments:

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

我针对这句作出点评:Good quality 2x2 tiles are thick and firm.

我的看法是:瓷砖的质量并不是由厚度来决定的。然而,我们应该向contractor了解该瓷砖的SPEC,强度方面我们该看的是M.O.R. (i.e. modulus of rupture)。

谢谢。

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

谢谢您的意见。

我的意思是,2x2 大面积瓷砖必须要有一定的厚度,太薄的话容易被坠物敲破。

Anonymous said... Reply To This Comment

您这样说就对薄的瓷砖不公平了。
因为每片瓷砖都有它的breaking strength和Modulus of rupture。
现在瓷砖工业朝向薄体化(在不影响砖块强度的情况下),以达cost saving目标。

谢谢。

Voyager8 said... Reply To This Comment

谢谢指教。

non slip floor coating said... Reply To This Comment

Thanks for this post, floors must not be slippery so they put people's safety at risk, even when wet, most slips occur when floor surfaces are contaminated.

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