Why am I being told not to like the floor?

[user1958493]

Please help me understand this.

I have moved house and am redecorating the whole house. I want to put tiles down through the entrance, kitchen, cloakroom and utility room. My parents (dad is doing a lot of the work in the house for me) are telling me this is a bad idea.
They aren't really giving me a solid reason why, just a few mentions of "people don't have large areas tiled", "will be cold", "if one gets damaged you can't replace it"

Is it a bad idea to tile an area like this? I dont know if this makes a different but I have 2 kids under 5.

Thank you

@user1958493

Please help me understand this.

I have moved house and am redecorating the whole house. I want to put tiles down through the entrance, kitchen, cloakroom and utility room. My parents (dad is doing a lot of the work in the house for me) are telling me this is a bad idea.
They aren't really giving me a solid reason why, just a few mentions of "people don't have large areas tiled", "will be cold", "if one gets damaged you can't replace it"

Is it a bad idea to tile an area like this? I dont know if this makes a different but I have 2 kids under 5.

Thank you

I have and it looks great! I have large, limestone (proper ones) in my hall, kitchen, utility & loo with UFH beneath. They aren’t slippy, they are warm, they are easy to clean, they are practical (dog, cat and visitors in shoes) and look fab with rugs on if you need a bit of softness in certain areas (we have a big rug at one end of the kitchen). They’ve been down for donkey’s years and still look fab, in fact they look better with age, I think that’s down to them being a classic shape and real stone. Yes, stuff smashes if you drop it but lvt and the like dents if you drop heavy stuff on it (we have LVT in bathrooms).

To add my youngest was 6 months old when we moved in snd is now 9. We never had any issues with young children and tiling.

Now carpets and young children different matter. We've had to replace the living room carpet 3 times due to young children and damage.

Concrete base and underfloor heating? Go for it! If not then listen to your parents😄

Our entire downstairs and first floor (both concrete base and with wet system underfloor heating) are tiled with Porcelanosa wood effect tiles. They look amazing, are always being mistaken for real wood, are not cold, or slippy when wet or impractical in any way. Neither dogs nor children come to harm. The only thing is that breakable items do break a bit more easily than they do on laminate.

They are incredibly easy to clean, don't show dirt particularly and haven't chipped.

We have a large thick rug in the living room, more for decor than anything else.

We don't use the heating much upstairs and the tiles are never particularly cold there either.

I would probably not lay tiles throughout in a cold or damp house with no underfloor heating though. I would however tile an entrance hall. I can never understand why so many are carpeted.

I would go for Amtico or Karndean. I had Amtico “tiles” laid through my last house in the hallway, study, dining room and cloakroom to replace a mish mash of poor quality laminate and carpet. It looked great, made the house feel bigger, they were easy to keep clean and withstood two toddlers! I have similar in my current house - although it’s a wood effect rather than tiles.

I would hate it, and would worry about the kids, wood is much more forgiving for falls. It's your house though, do whatever you want and stop asking for opinions if you don't want them.

The whole of our downstairs is tiled and I love it. It was like that when we moved in. Not sure what sort of tiles they are but they don't get slippy when wet and the grout is dark grey.
We have underfloor heating but they never feel cold even when that is not on. Yes glass breaks when you drop it but that has happened on any flooring I've had except carpet which I wouldn't dream of having in the kitchen.
It's been an absolute godsend with two dogs.

Personally, I wouldn’t. All the reasons everyone else has said really, especially the danger side with little ones running about in slippy socks or spills making it slippery. We have engineered oak all through, including utility, kitchen and hallway and although it’s not the easiest to maintain it hides any dirt and dings well, is fairly warm underfoot and works well.
If you really want it, look for a matt finish or slight texture, consider under floor heating, and go for a goo quality porcelain not ceramic, as it doesn’t chip as easily. Make sure it is laid well.

I’d go for a amtico or karndeen.

Both hard wearing luxury Lino type stuff which need specialised fitters to put down as it’s good and not actually lino, but you can get it in tile or wood effect.

@Silvershroud

After a house fire we had the chance to have the whole house renewed internally. As we have a dog, we chose the entire ground floor to be tiled, and have rugs. Best thing we ever did! Easy to keep clean, hard-wearing, no worries about carpet stains. We chose wood-effect tiles, so it looks like oak without the need to maintain it like real wood. I would never, ever, want to have a carpeted ground floor again.

Wood effect tiles? So do you mean vinyl tiles? I think the OP is talking about real porcelain or stone tiles.

X Post with bunsygirl

Great minds think alike

My whole downstairs (except lounge room) is tiled. It is very normal where I live (hot country). They're easy to clean and hard to damage. But they are definitely cold. I always have to wear socks or slippers except in summer.

It will be so cold, temperature and atmosphere wise. We have wood right through and lots of rugs which feels cosy.

I am wondering how many people who say NO to tiles actually have lived in a house with tiles in the kitchen/entrance etc…

I have lived in a place with tiles on the floor in the kitchen and in a house wo them. (We had laminate instead … a whole different discussion there). And we have young children.
I’ve never seen any major difference in between the two houses. No more falling over, broken glasses etc…

Cold well yes maybe. But I never spend that much time in the entrance, cloakroom or utility room so 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️.
Kitchen yes. But again I’m always wearing slippers anyway (in a house wo tiles!) so I can’t say I’ve noticed any issue there either in the huse that had tiles.

As a PP noted, on a maintenance pov, they will need more work if they are clear white tiles (but who on Earth does that tbh?). It’s worth remembering though that it’s not because you can’t see the dirt on the carpet vs white tiles that the variety is less dirty. In some ways, it makes me MORE unconfortable about the carpet tbh.

@user33323, you can buy wood effect porcelain tiles these days like those from Porcelanosa described by an OP above, www.mystonefloor.com/wood-effect-porcelain-tiles/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA8vSOBhCkARIsAGdp6RRJOJ0fBJu9iUV-MJMNvNxhqW9gmBfjbDshZfnETT2swi4X1BGPoK8aAtjUEALw_wcB . We were going to go for them in our bathrooms but went for the Karndean planks instead to more easily cope with natural flex in the floor.

On another thread (bemoaning ripping out original features in older houses) a poster who self IS’d as south Asian noted that tiled/marble floors appealed to people in her demographic - affluent and aspirational. I have several lovely friends who fit that description who have tiled floors throughout. For them it’s all about the appearance - the more expensive the tile and the more of it there is, the better. Not least because it shows that you can afford to pay someone else to keep it clean! More than one has a live in housekeeper (from abroad) to clean and cook for them. Oh and they don’t care about cold floors if it looks good!

Btw I think a lot of the general comments are linked to ‘what we normally do’.

When I first came to the U.K., I had a bathroom with carpet on in the two first houses I rented. I don’t think anyone would do that now but this was considered ‘normal’ and a good thing then. I was told about how much warmer a carpet was vs tiles then too….

I have limestone flags throughout my huge open plan downstairs (entrance hall, kitchen-diner, utility and family sitting room). Off that we have other rooms with different flooring such as hardwood and carpet. But the big open space really works with the tiles. It’s light, bright, easy to clean, can be steam mopped and is just lovely. It works with our country home.

It’s your home, if you like it, do it.

Also not sure why tiles aren’t good for kids? We do have underfloor hearing though, so they’re always warm.

My brother built his own house and has the same tile the whole way downstairs with underfloor heating. It's 10 years old and looks great. Always looks clean and really airy and spacious. V cosy house. He had two kids grow up in it from birth and I have never heard any negative remarks. I'd be careful to go for a really strong, plain tile. Cheap tiles are crap and damage easily. If you wasn't to lessen the uniform look( which wouldnt bother me) you could break it up with cosy floor-rugs in front of fireplace etc. We're building soon and I hope to do the same. We have wood and I find it hard to keep and it doesn't wear well (unless it's laminate)

We have slate tiles in the kitchen and they are very cold. Very very very cold! BUT I do love being able to mop easily with spills - and with two small kids, there are a lot of spills. If I could possibly have afforded it, I would have had underfloor heating with my tiles - that would be the best of both worlds. My in-laws have underfloor heating beneath tiles and it is sooooooo nice!

PS I wouldn't have slate again either - they were already there when we moved in, so didn't change it, but oh my goodness they are quite hard to look after and they mark quite easily. If any lemon or lime juice gets dropped on them and not cleared up (which happens A LOT in my house), they get white blotches that you then have to sand down and oil to get rid of. Grrr! I had a mottled honey coloured travertine tile in my last house and that was much better - didn't show up dirt easily either.

Horses for courses. Everyone will,have an opinion. In the past I have been talked out of choices regarding window styles etc and to be honest I've always regretted changing my mind. When you think long and hard about things you know what it is you want.

Whatever you do don't go for rough tiles they are a pain to clean as fluff and debris seems to stick to them.

We will probably replace the tiles we have with LVT (a good quality hard wearing one with a thick wear layer) mostly because they are very dark and the area they are in is dark.

If you lay thermal insulation boarding underneath the tiles, they are not cold at all. Even better is underfloor heating. I have both, and it’s considerably warmer than my other, carpeted rooms.

Sorry one other thing. Whatever you do don't use white grout on tiles. Nightmare, impossible to keep clean and looks awful very quickly . Made that mistake once in a bathroom. Thank God the tiler was crap and the whole lot had to be replaced. We have cream tiles in the kitchen with mid/dark grey grout and it's great.