Flooring ‘N Tiles

Every now and again, I like to take a break from reviewing tiles and looking into styles, or rather different types of flooring.

In contrast to the neutral tiles discussed in the previous post, let’s talk about colorful tiles today.

Colorful floor tile can make an extreme difference in a home. Naturally, the term “colorful” can mean any number of things, so let us go ahead and remove the barriers to our biases and consider them all. Wild and bizarrely beautiful things are going on in the glass, metal and ceramic world: intense colors, veined glazes rife with outstanding and amazingly bright color, swirls and hand-painted objects of art. There truly seems to be no limit.

High technology has provided tiles and tilings with a entirely new set of images and colorful possibilities as a functioning piece of beautiful and other-worldly artwork. Imagine walls and floors comprised of segmented pictures of creek bed rocks or forest floor images. The photographic end of this creative twist alone is enough to make a head spin.

Then you arrive at even weirder chemical shapes and oxidized configurations determined by crystal formations and dollops of original artistic color. Truly, all limits are lifted. It is left to the imagination from this point on because there are nearly no limits left.

Back to discussing tiles, today’s topic covers something that goes beyond tiles and into paving.

Brick paver tiles are a colorful and exciting cover for any driveway treatment. Placed on existing cement, they are grouted into place providing the same sort of sensibility as those brick veneers we see added to siding for the walls o houses and buildings everywhere. Durable, strong and colorful, brick paver tiles offer a fabulous look to the largest or even the smallest areas. They have a multitude of possible uses in a designer’s set of possibilities.

Many finished cement driveways may have these inset brick areas serving to break up the glaring color and the redundant monotony of large swaths of boring monolithic treatment. Breaking up the lines of a long and routine driveway can be a delightful use of brick paver tiles. As well, entire driveways of these warm, earth-toned tiles can produce an amazingly warm sense of welcome and of eye-pleasing complexity.

A variety of colors and styles of brick paver tiles are available, from the nearly “terracotta” simplicity of the clay-fired old fashioned Mediterranean stylings, to the adobe look so popular in the American Southwest, to the ultra modern new ceramics and hand painted and glazed brick tiles so easily adapted to paving, almost all things are possible in this marvelous application for a driveway, walkway or patio.

Sorry about the break here… time to get back to blogging, and I figured we should cover some basics today -

How to measure your room for tiling.

Wall tiles are a fascinating and rich option in the decorative possibilities of walls all through a home. Naturally, we see them most in bathrooms, where condensation and direct water affect other surfaces corrosively.  Wall tiles may also be a surface more amenable to more hygienic living, owing the a smooth surface which is easily wiped clean.  With so few pores, ceramic, glass, metal or any smooth surfaces tile does not have the crannies and indentations where germs can hide.  Thus, kitchens and bathrooms are almost always the typical locations for collections of wall tiles.

Other areas which can be natural locations for wall tiles are entryways, hallways and laundry rooms, for many of the same reasons as above.  But there is even an additional reason to consider wall tiles and they are all aesthetic.  Tiles nowadays are of riotous and diverse colors and possibilities.  Entering a home into a foyer where wall tiles define a brighter band of color within the framework of a painted or wallpapered wall is a classic way of introducing people to your home in a warm blaze of color and greeting.  Likewise, walking a hallway where a gorgeous band of wall tiles gives a glossy perspective, highlighting and making artistic something so apparently functional only adds to the overall beauty and ambiance of a home.

Wall tiles are an excellent addition to the decor of any wall in any home.  The diversity and the glossy surfaces make them a literal pleasure to see.

Sharing some thoughts about one of the most important tools of the trade. This isn’t any DIY stuff, really, but if you’re interested in flooring, you might find this a good read.

Professional floor sanders are among the most necessary tools in a flooring contractor’s arsenal. Belt driven and rotary sanders are used in combination as a rule, for the best possible sanding. The rotary sanders tend to be necessary for hard, out-of-the-way places like corners and edges, while the belt sanders are fabulous for the very major work of sanding the main areas of a floor.

Whether reconditioning an old floor is called for, or for a light tweaking and sanding of a brand new, freshly-installed wood floor, floor sanders are just an ideal tool for each. Naturally, the variety of grits available to a floor sanding machine determine the amount of consuming the surface a professional floor sander will undertake. Rough old floors require a grittier and more deeper penetrating grit for reconditioning. Eating away sometimes decades of wood surfaces can take place, removing thus all signs of aging and of pockmarked and etched surfaces. The result when reconditioned, can be amazingly attractive. It always amazed me how fresh an ancient floor can look after a through and proper sanding.

New floors can also require some sanding, but with a much finer grit rating and typically to roughen the floor enough to accept the urethane or varnish applications which will eventually protect and make the floor shine like new.

These can be very powerful machines which require the utmost care in use. Indeed, the deeper the grit, the more you have to watch how long you dally in one spot. It is entirely possible to overdo the sanding and thus create a gouged area. Amazingly, the rougher sandpapers can simply eat up the surface of a floor. Be careful with these remarkable machines however, and you will be totally delighted with the result. There are few machines indeed that can deliver so well on your intended result. Floor sanders are simply dream come true for almost anyone dealing with wood floors.