Flooring for hall and kitchen - tavertine tiles?

[m0therofdragons]

We need to replace our hall and kitchen flooring. Currently it's tavertine style ceramic tiles that I love (have to be replaced through building work that needs doing - would happily keep if we could). Can't find anything similar other than real tavertine.

Is it hard wearing and easy to maintain? Do you have to do anything special? Any other suggestions?

Only other thing I like is polished porcelain mottled with beiges. Worried about constant smeary look.

Needs to be light

[123rd]

No ideas sorry. But don't you fine tiles cold? Or easily damaged? We are in the process of deciding on new flooring. You seem very keen of yours.

[PiratePanda]

No, they will rapidly get filthy. Travertine marble is pocked with little holes that fill up with grime.

How about marble effect tiling? Or terracotta tiles? Bit dark for some maybe.

[m0therofdragons]

It's a long hall with little lighting so need to be light tiles. What about the honed and filled ones?

123rd we live in a newish house (11 years so not brand new) and it seems to be a hot house. We have carpet in the living room but the hall and kitchen are matt tiles. I walk around barefoot most of the time. I sometimes put slippers on and have tonight as it's a bit colder here in general and I have tonsillitis which always makes me feel cold. I hate having hot feet though.

We have one chip in one tile from when something fell off the fridge freezer but being mottled beige and cream I just put a tiny bit of paint on it that we had and you can't notice it now.

It is currently badly cracked but that's because the insurance company didn't do the work they should have and by cutting corners 5 years on we have cracks. If we hadn't had tiles we wouldn't have known the floor underneath was collapsing.

I've read many things on here about how rubbish tiles are but in 5 years we've dropped and smashed 2 plates and one bottle of wine (although technically that hit the door handle so smashed before hitting the ground). We have a cat and 3 young dc so it's easy to clean.

I hate lino and to me kardean just looks like lino tiles (expensive ones but still lino). I visited Germany years ago and loved the tiles in their houses.

[PigletJohn]

I can't see the point in buying special stone with holes in it, which have then been filled up.

[MillyMollyMama]

I have ceramic tiles but they look like limestone. Fools most people! They came from a small supplier near me but I would google ceramic limestone and see what you get. My tiles are several different sizes which looks a lot better than a regular pattern. (The Mandarin stone brochure has the patterns to follow). We have underfloor heating, so they are actually cosy. Real travertine is ok for bathrooms but you really will have a problem cleaning it in a highly trafficked area like a hall. Honed and filled is best for limestone but again the sealing is critical. The grout can get a bit grubby so leave a recess for a good quality door mat. We had a large one cut to fit. I have limestone in our holiday house and ceramic at home. The ceramic is significantly easier to manage.

[MillyMollyMama]

tiletown.co.uk has 3 sizes of Italian ceramic "limestone" tiles just like mine.

[haggardoldwitch]

We've got tumbled Limestone from Mandarin Stone. It was well sealed on installation and, so far, is very easy to maintain.
All the fossils & specks hide the dirt.

[FunMitFlags]

We have them in our kitchen. They are a pain to clean and never look properly clean IMHO.

[LucyPie]

Have a look at Minoli Everstone Everbeige - porcelain tile but look really nice.