DH installs carpet and wood. He has seen a trend in people moving away from the natural stone and using porcelain stone-look-a-like. I was 100% sure I was going with travertine in my bathroom remodel. My mother has travertine in her bathroom, I have it in my entry. After much consideration, I ended up with porcelain that looks like travertine. I'm very happy with my decision. Too many things in a bathroom environment that can stain natural stone. My porcelain is impervious to everything. I did use tumbled travertine as part of my border on the wall tho.
Good luck :)
Monica

Every tile store I visits recommends porcelain over real stone.

For bathrooms or flooring surfaces, they're right. There are some very real looking porcelain facsimiles, and they bring with them none of the maintenence issues or cautions that come with natural stone. That said, though, there are some for whom a lookalike just won't cut it. I'm one of those. Probably this summer I'll be gutting my master bath and doing it up, and when that happens, it'll be real stone.

Is ceramic out of the question????

Not by a long shot. The big thing to watch out for when picking a glazed tile is what's called the "PEI rating" (Porcelain Enamel Institute). It's a scale that rates the hardness of the glaze from 1 to 5, with 1 being something that could only be used on walls to 5, being something you could drive a truck with tire chains over. For residential use, I'd recommend nothing less than a 2 for walls and nothing less than a 3 for floors, and that will be more than sufficient. Is porcelain better? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that conventional glazed ceramic can't still be safely used. I install it in homes just about every day.

One other thing I might suggest to you-- I've put a tile FAQ page over on the gallery side of this forum. I think alot of your questions might be answered there. :-)

Thank you both for your helpful replies. Bill was not aware of the PEI rating. I will check out your FAQ page next. Monicakm do you rememeber the name of your travertine look alike porcelain? I like to see what other people are going with! Thanks so much.

We've just had all of our tile surfaces finished (or almost!) for our new home. We used porcelain throughout after much discussion and debate. While I haven't lived with it yet, I must say it looks fantastic in person. I think the manufacturers have done a great job of mimicking travertine. We had a harder time finding slate look-alikes, but think we found the best - I hope!

Garda - Pine Cone (trying for a slate-like in our mudroom, everyone loves this tile - in this picture it is quite dirty - sorry)

American Olean - Catarina - Coliseum White (guest bath)

Sonesta - light taupe (laundry room)

Egyptian Stone - Ramses White (girls' bath) I think this is a great looking tile in person!

Indian Slate - Ardesia Dorata (masterbath). This picture doesn't do it justice. it's a very pretty, sandy textured porcelain that looks like the lighter autumn-like slates

Best of luck...I know how difficult this is - it was so hard!!

Hi!So a little about me.I work in Bathroom stuff store,so we sell tiles.What I can say usually people buy ceramic tiles to the Bathroom floor cause there is not to much traffic in it.So,porcelain,its good but ist easy to work with ceramic tiles,easy to install and cut.
If you also use glass mosaic tiles let me know we stock a lot of them.www.discobath.com

Thank you for the pictures! They are really great! The Garda slate looks really awesome. I will try to see if my tile shop carries this. I really love the accent tile that you used in the girls shower! You are right, it is really hard. I never thought at the beginning of our home renovation project that I would be agonizing over tiles the way that I am. The tiles you chose are very very nice, I know that it will be worth it in the end. Are you completed yet?

He vjay-- welcome to Gardenweb! :-)

Avignon, I used the Magica Akoya Bone in my two small foyer areas with Latricrete Mushroom grout and it looks to me so much like real Travertine. As soon as I find someone to put transition pieces between the tile and the carpet, I will post pictures. I can't believe I paid him in full despite him not finishing the job. I guess I was happy the tiles were installed on a diagonal and despite him not doing the clean up or the transition pieces as promised, he did a nice job and I love the tiles.

I was something easy to remove when I do engineered wood floors or laminate wood floors next year in my two room home office.

Dal's slate look tile in Brazilian Green.... I love the way it looks, really similar to the slate I wanted, even a bit better! Color body porcelain too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Continental Slate

2nd pepperidge's vote & whatever Bill V says - gospel here!

he helped w/my small mud/powderoom flooring

Continental Slate in hopscotch pattern

I am by no means an expert, just a homeowner who looked around a lot and ended up very happy with the result I got Marazzi tile, presidential series, "Monticello." I couldn't be more pleased with tile.

Avignon, I also wanted a travertine-look porcelain, and I think I visited every tile store in NYC to find the right one! The linked thread has pictures of some great tiles that were under consideration... I finally chose Ilva Pietre Travertine (which is porcelain) with a real travertine random brick border. Very happy with the result.

Here is a link that might be useful: Too many tile choices!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Bill I can't locate your facts page in the Gallery section. Can anyone let me know how to get to it? JEJVTR: Is your contintental slate _Brazillian Green? Thanks for the pictures, everyone! I did see your too many tile choices thread, Charlikin. It is great, lots of great pictures and advice there too! Thanks again!

Here you go:

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile FAQ

Jejter, What stain is on your oak floors? Is it Auburn? What brand are your oak floors since they look very nice. I love your slate floors.

avig - Yes mine are Daltile continental slate in brazilian green - i have other pics if you'd like - hats off again to Bill V for helping me on this one. His words I believe this stuff is "bulletproof" and that is just what I wanted for the application - another bonus is reasonable pricing and easy cleaning!

lynn -
Thanks for the comment on my oak floors they are original to the house built in 1930 - we had them all refinished in 2006 - Minwax stain I'm not sure if it's provincial or early american - Funny when the flooring guy came I opened a closet to find a finely patina'd floor & said that's the color I want

jejvtr-- Thank you-- you only say that because it's true. :-)

(I know-- I'm modest to a fault.)

Jejvtr- yes, I would love more pictures of tile! pictures are extremely helpful to me.

I read through Bill V.'s facts link, WOW! it was so informative. I am so glad this website exists with such helpful people like you all! I noticed that jejvtr put the tile in the powderroom and this looks really nice. I have the same exact mudroom layout, where the powderroom is in the mudroom, and I though I was going to have them lay the hardwood in the powderroom and the tile in the mudroom. My mudroom is enclosed and there will be hardwood throughout the rest of the house. A wetbed will be needed to tile the mudrroom because the cement slab is extremely uneven.

Bill vincent, would you transition to a different floor in the powderroom or would you just keep it all the same? Not sure what makes most sense?

avig

Busy area in an older home (1930) w/lots of traffic & doorways this floor never looks dirty! Only I know it is ;)

Bill vincent, would you transition to a different floor in the powderroom or would you just keep it all the same? Not sure what makes most sense?

Aesthetically speaking, it could be done either way and look great. I've done it both ways many many times. however, your comment about the slab has me thinking it might be better if you mudset the tile into the powder room, as well, only because you'd have to do something with the slab in there, anyway, if you were going to do hardwood, and the problem would then be having to wait 28 days for whatever you used to cure, otherwise the moisture content would be too much for the hardwood.

avignon, below is a link to my bathroom remodel. On the last page you'll see a list of all the elements used. You can find the tile info there.
mary_md7, we used Marazzi's Presidential line too. Springwood and Hermitage. Springwood in the kitchen, small bath and laundry room. A checkerboard (on the diagonal) of the Springwood and Hermitage in the dining room.
Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: Master Bath Remodel