Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Tiles in Home Construction

There is a reason behind the enormous popularity tiles have attained in the world of construction. Today, one can hardly imagine building a home without tiles, in fact. From our kitchen to our bathroom and from our flooring to our walls they have not left uncovered any part of the building process. For the affordability, variety and ease they provide, tiles are going to retain prominent place in the world of construction for a very long time to come.

Here are five reasons why they would remain builders’ and homebuyers’ favourite in equal proportions:

Affordable: Tiles are as affordable as it gets. The starting price of a tile starts from Rs 25 per square foot in Indian markets and can go upwards in several hundreds, depending on its quality, variety and type. You could regulate your budget according to your pocket. Tiles also act as the more affordable substitute of expensive materials. If you love marble, but don’t want to use it as your flooring option for its disadvantages, tiles will come to your rescue. Simply pick the ones that look like marble floors. The same is true of wooden-floor look-alike tiles too.

Variety: There is hardly anything else that offer a builder so much in terms of variety. You will find them in all sorts of colors, designs, textures and types. Depending on your specific needs, you could pick the most suitable ones. Tiles meant for bathroom, for instance, are quite different from the tiles meant for flooring. You enter the market and you find a huge variety.

Application: The process to install other building materials is quite long and cumbersome – the same is not true of tiles. It would take approximately two weeks to install marble flooring in a house measuring 500 sqft. If you went for tile flooring, the job would be done in a matter of 4-5 days or even less. Also, the wastage would be much less when compared to other materials.

Cleaning: One has to utterly careful about how they clean a concrete wall or a wooden floor. Too much exposure to water and the material will spoil. Once they get spots or dirt patches, cleaning them would be quite a task, too. Not tiles! They are one of the easier to clean.

Water resistant: This is possibly the best feature tiles have. They are almost impervious to the effects of water, hence widely used in bathrooms, kitchens and even floors. No other building material in the same price range and in the same aesthetic category can boast the same. Even marble is porous!

Our understanding of tiles would not be complete without knowing their disadvantages fully well, too.

Short life span: Tiles typically last four to five years.

Fragile: These being light is wonderful. But, that advantage has its disadvantages attached. If anything hard fell of what is a tile floor or wall, it would break upon impact. If you floor or wall loses even a couple of tiles, you might have to change the entire floor or wall because finding the exact tile after some years is not all that easy.

Easily dirtied:  Even a small spec of dirt would be visible on tile floors and walls.

Slippery: Since they do not absorb water, wet cleaning keeps them moist for a longer period. This makes them slippery. Even otherwise, even the best of tiles slip.  

Hard surface: The hard surface makes it hard for the residents to stand on tile floors for a long time.

Cold surface: While they do not go cold as marble, they are quite cold generally. In cold conditions, they might not be ideal.