Tile durability question


  #1  
Old 04-11-04, 02:42 AM
Visser's Avatar
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Tile durability question

Hello all,

I'm just about to tile my kitchen floor with 12" tile, and my wife and I got into a discussion about the tile's ability to withstand breaking or cracking from dropped objects. We're tiling over concrete slab, so it goes without saying that as long as I have the tile solidly pressed down with no void underneath, we shouldn't have concern. I know ity may seem silly to be wondering about this at all, especially since the tile is made for kitchen floors AND we're just getting ready to lay it, but we actually got to wondering about this only becasue we don't know the true aspects of tile's durability. (We actually starting wondering about this after my wife's joking about how often she drops heavy metal pots on the floor and how we let our young daughter play with pots on the kitchen floor). This got us to thinking about how we, "know it's durable...but how durable? Or is it as dirable as we think??).
I'd apreciate any knowledge about tile strength!!

Thanks,

Visser
 
  #2  
Old 04-11-04, 09:24 PM
floorman
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Alot of variables to consider ,the main one being the quality of the tile.If this is some cheap glazed tile you picked up at the end of the tile isle at home depot then the chances of it chipping are pretty high ,if on the ohter hand this is a good porcelain tile then the odds are less,alot less.Also, if it were to chip ,the porcelain that is, then the color goes all the way through and would not be as bad as a glazed tile where the body of the tile was red or grey.

Keep in mind aslo the better the tile is set in the mortar will help things alot too.A friend of mine,a tile setter did his kitchen in porcelain and they dropped a cast iron skillet on one of the tile and did no damage at all to the tile.

There may also be a weak tile in there somewhere and you not know it until it chips,so there are alot of variables and one cannot really say with any kind of certanty which will break under what circumstances but the odds of it happening decrease with the quality of the tile you purchase
 
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Old 04-12-04, 09:40 AM
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Thanks Floorman! The tile that we purchased is pretty decent and has it's color all the way through, so I feel pretty good after reading what you had to say. Hopefully we won't ever have to worry about chipping, but if that were to happen, ss there anything that can be done to repair minor chips in tile? I know we would have to replace any tile that is severly damaged.

Visser
 
 

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