To install the wood look porcelain tile, first you layout to your tiles on the floor before they are installed. the layout must be in square shape otherwise you will endup with old shaped tiles at the walls. You have to make a proper floor plan to install the tiles on the floor.

Any decent Tile Mechanic can do this. The operative word is "FLAT." Particularly on an unflat floor, you WILL have lippage. The floor should have no variation over 1/8" in 10 feet. If you have that, a decent installer can do a good job of it....If not, he needs to be VERY good at adjusting height for you......

Be very careful who you hire! Get a picture of how you want it laid out. There have been some strange and unusual layouts posted by disappointed customers here when their installer made something up.

I have spent the last 2+ months researching wood-look porcelain tiles at the urging of my contractor. There are many choices out there, but in the last days I narrowed it down to a few. Personally, I only prefer larger, authentic "plank" sizes and did not consider many outside of 6" x 36" or 8" x 48" sizes. Lowe's actually sells MADE IN THE USA wood-look porcelain under their Style-Selections name. These are actually made by StonePeak Ceramics in Crossville, TN and are green, incorporating recycled glass into their product. I contacted the company regarding their 8x48 Cinnamon and can tell you that the pattern repetition is 1:21 in those tiles, but they can't control the actual packaging process, so you may end up with more repetition. Lowe's also sells another great rustic StonePeak product call Sequoia Ball Park. These tiles are super inexpensive per sq ft. ($3.70 here in Northern Virginia) and the quality is high. Lowe's website has customer pictures which have been uploaded & might be helpful. Home Depot does not have as large as a selection and although at one point they had Marzetti (also made in the US), they are discontinuing several of the tiles.

I have also considered Mediterranea's Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, as it is green and made in the US as well. It is stunning (to me), but is more costly (retail $10.95/sq ft - contractor price?). Florim's Pier line of rustic-wood look planks is also nice as are their Ecowood lines available in different sizes (more expensive). Italigraniti has a brand new wood look tile coming into stores this week called "Scrapwood". It is amazing and supposedly will retain around $7.95/sq foot.

Essentially, you never have to worry about your porcelain once it is installed & it will stand up to time (shoes, dirt, dogs and kids, etc.)

I have now made my final decision after realizing that tile, even here in VA, will require radiant heat (I don't like cold toes) and that has driven the cost up & out of my budget. Instead, I am using local reclaimed character walnut or hickory...the ultimate in environmentally friendly & recycling!

Hope this helps...

While warmed floors would be awesome, I don't think it's a requirement. My wood floors get chilly too. I wear socks around the house and the tiled areas feel as warm as the wood.

Wood in the kitchen is an impractical choice, imo. I am so glad I didn't get talked into it, as it would have ended up a stressful disaster.

Make sure the tile does not chip white, or another color that contrasts with the surface.

I have it in my home office, dark brown 6 X 24. Looks great, easy to maintain, we have two large dogs and a pool so wood would not work. No problems, we have had it for 1.5 years.

But now (actually got a quote today) I am working on doing our master bedroom. Things have really changed in 1.5 years. I am thinking of doing the 6 X 40 tile but it is supposed to be more difficult/tedious to install as the floor must be completely flat. Hopefully I will make a decision within a week (will get lighter tile in the master).

Also, one contractor-actually the wife who is more of a designer--said they used black grout in the very dark tile for a customer and it turned out great.

We used dark brown on ours and it still looks much lighter than our tile.

The negative is that it can look pretty bad (lippage) if your installer isn't good. IMO, the larger format and longer length tiles that are popular now require more skill to install properly. Ask whether they plan to use a tile leveling system to minimize lippage. Check the manufacture's specs for recommended grout spacing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lippage on wood-look tile

We had it installed on our entire first floor. We have 5 kids and a pool and I didn't want to worry about my floors. I would do it again and recommend it to everyone. Our builder actually used it in his own home after seeing ours and dealing with his dog and wood floors in their previous home. We get lots of compliments on our wood floors and see lots of stunned faces when we say it's tile. I've had all-tile floors in several homes so I knew what we were getting into.

In addition to the above advice, be very very VERY picky about the grout. Due to the tight joints, if they aren't out there with a shop vac sucking up the water as they clean, you will get haze/precipitate/lightened grout. It looks terrible, IMHO. Our tile guys came back once to try and fix it by cleaning, then again to stain the grout.

We chose Marazzi American Heritage in Saddle and the stain was saddle brown.

I think we're going with Lowe's sequoia ballpark woodlook porcelain. The price is now $2.99 per square foot too! Now if the rest of the choices for floors was as easy!

Almosttemp - do you have pictures to share or feedback on the tile you used? We are close to decision time on a small full bathroom renovation and the Lowe's Sequoia is my finalists so far! Love the rustic look.

@DEW24

I can't find it on the website, maybe it's an old product? Is that similar of one of these 3?

http://www.stonepeakceramics.com/products-collections-detail.php?coll=CRATE