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

In a hot country it's a no-brainer.

In the UK climate, it depends.

I have concrete tiles throughout the downstairs hall/kitchen/utility, but they're only heated in the kitchen. I don't find them slippy (unlike the wooden floors when I'm wearing socks). They are fine all summer, but in winter I put rugs down everywhere outside the heated bit because I tend to walk around bare footed and they are freezing. I will say that the 'rustic' looking giant, lumpy concrete tiles I have are a pain in the bum when it comes to cleaning, I'd go for smoother ones if I was choosing.

I've had a tiled floor in an upstairs bathroom on (not great) floorboards, and I wouldn't do that again as they easily cracked, but in my current bathroom with a more substantial upstairs floor they're doing fine.

Some tiles are very hard to clean if too intricate

We’ve recently moved to a house with LVT in hallway, terracotta tiles in kitchen. The kitchen has likely been in for 20+ years, and is in great condition still, The tiles are “proper” terracotta not printed ceramic/ porcelain. They’re not particularly cold, but are echoey and everything breaks if you drop it.
The LVT has a good few scratches, a bit where it’s been bleached by the sun, and at some angles in natural daylight it looks like what it is - plastic tile effect. But it’s softer, warmer and not echoey.
In last house we had wooden floors. DH slipped on one when it was wet and broke his collarbone, so I’d not use in WC, entryway, etc.

Someone needs to invent the perfect floor covering!

What the thread highlights is that there are different types of tiles.

Some are smooth and become slippery when wet. Some are not.

Some chip easily, some do not.

Chips ruin the look of some (smooth styles) but not of others (slate and other textured tiles).

So... decide what types of tiles you're interested in and talk to people about experience of those, in particular.

The grout always discolours, I think the new way to grout is some resin mix thing.

We have tiles in the downstairs loo, awful, absolutely freezing. In the bathroom we have LVT, warm, soft and waterproof. Easy to clean.

Laying tiles is not easy, cutting tiles is not easy and I say this as someone who has installed bathrooms and tiled walls, tiled a kitchen and laid those tiles in the downstairs loo. Never again. Massive regret putting them on the floor.

It’s your house, it’s your floor, it’s your money, it’s your choice

It's perfectly usual to tile large areas.
A previous house of mine had a terracotta tiled floor in the kitchen. It was beautiful but it was quite cold (although it was lower ground floor in a Victorian gaff, which might have had some bearing). And if you dropped a mug or anything, it was a goner. I don't have kids so can't really comment on their safety, but a lot of people here seem to be saying it's fine.

In my house now we have an engineered wood floor, which I'm very happy with. They come in a massive range of woods/colours and it's hard-wearing and easier to clean than laminate (or tiles, where dirt and mop strings tend to congregate in the gaps!). Cheaper than solid wood but nicer than laminate.

Promise me you won't have barstools and tiles if you have small children. Just a recipe for disaster :(

Have you considered cork floor tiles? They are warm to the touch, a natural product, biodegradable when finished with, and because they have a natural mottled appearance they are easier to keep clean - i.e. don't show the dirt as much as plain ceramic tiles. I've had both and I'd go with the cork tiles for preference any time.

I have tiled throughout the downstairs of my house (hall, living room, kitchen / diner)
We are SW facing with a glass roof on the back and it's unbelievably hot so the coolness was welcomed this summer as usually it gets very stuffy.
I have carpeted one reception room downstairs for my play room and this winter we have put down a 13ftx12 rug in the other living room to cosy it up but only DH and I use that in the evening.
I have a baby (12months) and two older children we have had zero accidents. I didn't let the baby crawl through until confident and now he's learning to walk I am careful but it hasn't been an issue.
It has increased cleaning time as I hoover then have to mop but we don't have a huge house so it's not bad, and odours are minimal which I hadn't thought about initially but it's so much fresher.
We chose a matte tile which looks like planks of wood with grain and it's definitely none slip. I will do it again in future moves.

I have my large entrance hall, kitchen and dining room all tiled. We have large, cream, marble style tiles.

Downside, the attract cat hair like anything and get muck on them easily. Plus side, wipe clean.

I tiled my hall and it looked beautiful, but then I realised that mud in the grout is horrendously difficult to clean out and I would not tile a hallway ever again myself.

We have tiles everywhere downstairs except the sitting room. They are perfect! Bombproof (well DC and pet proof which is much the same!) and easy to keep clean.

Admittedly we do have underfloor heating, I agree they are very cold in winter without it. But lovely and cool in summer.

They should not crack if you prepare the subfloor properly. The subfloor needs to be very solid - concrete/screed or screwed down thick ply ideally - then with Ditra matting or similar membrane on top to allow for a bit of shrinkage and movement. You also need a good tiler and as a pp says, mid colour grout is good as it will discolour.

LVT is an option too, but most of the LVT I’ve seen looks and feels rather plastic. There are some that are much better though.

We have our large kitchen/ diner/ sitting area tiled but it has underfloor heating. I wouldn't get it otherwise as it's so cold.

Wood effect tiles? So do you mean vinyl tiles? I think the OP is talking about real porcelain or stone tiles.
No, porcelain tiles. Great for our dog as easy to keep clean. We would NEVER have carpet downstairs now.

My parents have tiles throughout downstairs. I really don’t like it.

It’s an hour’s job to clean them properly whereas other floors often a 5 minute vacuum will do the job.

They’re cold and make it feel very uncosy. I’ve had to buy DD slippers with thick rubber soles just for when we visit my parents. Their heating bills are enormous and I’m sure the cold tiles contribute to this.

When you drop a dish and it breaks, it doesn’t just break, it smashes into a zillion tiny pieces which is a nightmare if you have children or animals around.

Get underfloor heating and lay that first!

Don't get underfloor heating unless you have really considered the cost of the electricity

Wet underfloor heating is much cheaper to run than electric, it runs off your boiler.

It sounds like they've given quite a few reasons to me, all valid

I had tiles through hall kitchen and conservatory 30 years ago and I liked that, very practical, but I think there are warmer more practical alternatives for living spaces now .

Do not underestimate the breakages.
Honestly. Something just rolls out a bottom cupboard, smashed into a thousand pieces.
My family spend their entire time moaning about cold feet- they don’t I wear slippers. But I get through a lot of slippers. Small children will slip on it especially if they’ve got socks on to keep their feet warm.

Best house we rented had Lino, had most of the practicality of tiles, but warm and stuff bounces (including children)

We have tiles in part of the hall, breakfast room, downstairs loo and kitchen. Kitchen tiles were chosen by us, they are best we could afford floor tiles. In the main, they are not slippy and are easy to clean. We have one hole and a large chip where people have dropped things.
The other tiles were there when we bought the house. They are slippy, damaged and not brilliantly laid. Dd has slipped on the quite a few times. They are also a horrible design that still looks dirty after you've cleaned it. We don't have under floor heating but do have radiators in each area.

It really does depend on the tiles and how well they are laid.

Agree you do need the proper base and an experienced tiler or you’ll get cracking and alignment issues. Not really a DIY job for many!

@Yaya26

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.

This is the soundest advice! It’s the only decision I let myself be talked into. I was a worried the Frey would look murky but the tiler said “it will look worse when the white grout gets stained and dirty.”

Also we have wet underfloor which is much cheaper to run than electric.

Thanks so much everyone I didn't expect this much feedback. My decision has been made, as the fear of my kids slipping/ falling over on it and hurting themselves badly has put me off. (The teeth thing 😩)
Also the coldness, it would be really expensive to run underfloor heating in such a large area every winter.