In my role as an equity mortgage lender, I coincidentally have on my desk an appraisal of a modest 1970s suburban home in which the main floor is entirely ceramic tiles. The appraiser notes that this is a "negative feature." If, perchance, the loan goes sour and I end up with the house, I'm factoring in the cost of covering the tiles in carpet or laminate.

Indeed, in a house I partially gutted and renoed a few years ago, I replaced the tile with laminate.

Porcelain tiles, especially those that mimic stone, can be very impressive. Still, I'd be very careful.

One of the big complaints I've heard of my own home now on the market is that the breakfast area and living room continue the polished slate flooring of the kitchen. Why didn't I put in wood (like everybody else)? ask the prospects.

what was your reasoning behind continuing the polished slate flooring of the kitchen into the living room?

There didn't seem to be any "natural" dividing line between the kitchen and the adjacent areas. Plus, we didn't want to be doing the same old thing everyone else was. Once you've seen one luxury spec house around here, you've pretty much seen them all. And since we weren't thinking of selling this one, we were less inclined to follow the crowd.

By the way, the formal living and dining room floors are in 5" "character" oak plank. Our overall idea was to make this somewhat resemble an older established house. I'd love to live in a centuries-old British manor. But mechanically updated!

Here is the ceramic flooring I mentioned above that decreases the value of a home, according to the appraiser.

Is it me, or wouldn't Colin and Justin like to get ahold of this one? (Of course, the same would go for our style. Not bright and cheery enough, I know. Remember, we like "ye old castle.")

New oak can always be stained to match the existing floors. Consider, too, vinyl plank flooring for the dining area. Colin and Justin are big on it. (See "before and after" 17 in the link above.)

worthy, I agree with you about the ceramic tile pictured in the family room. Awful. Your slate, however, is magnificent, and an inspiration to us.

castiron: You didn't say whether you wanted our thoughts on how it would look or our thoughts on resale value. The answers above all address the latter, but if you're going to live in the house for a long time, resale matters much less than what you like.

But then it sounds like you're wanting to put in tile because you can't figure out how to do the wood right, not necessarily because you love the thought of tile in your dining room. If you'd really prefer wood, then you should be able to figure out a solution that works. As was said, you should be able to stain oak to match what you've got. Which way do the planks run in the adjoining rooms? If you turned the planks perpendicular to the existing, or did a border around the edges that butted up to the existing, then filled in with the rest, the visual break might make the dining room not look so "added on."

BTW, my thoughts on resale are that tile in a living area is most likely a detractor (especially if it's the 70's pattern above), but not necessarily in a dining room.

weedyacres, I do appreciate your response. To clarify:

In our kitchen, we ripped out a pretty little Creda gas cooktop and its accompanying "recirculating" OTR and put in a BlueStar slide-in rangetop and a Kobe hood because we value function first and foremost.

The only way we'll leave this beautiful house is feet first. At that point, resale is somebody else's problem.

So I guess I'm looking for any practical caveats, house-flipping aside, that might militate against using slate or porcelain flooring tiles, such as worthy pictured, in a Mediterranean-styled formal dining room. Such considerations as how well chairs slide, whether tiles would be too cold, whether groutlines would be difficult to clean--considerations such as that.

That is one ugly tile job!!! What were they thinking! I have 100% tile. I would replace it with new tile.

At least it's consistent.

I am still thinking that the right tiles, be they slate or porcelain, could be striking and appropriate, given that ours is a Mediterranean-style house.

qwertyui, could you describe your tiles, please? You seem happy with them. Got a pic, maybe?

In those pics above, it's the patterning that kills the floor. Worthy's tile job, however, is stunning, imho.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Veronica Webb and George Robb Fashion a Moorish Oasis in Key West

Kitchen dining and hall are 12" mottled tan beige. very neutral. the rest of the house is 4 x 16 wood look tile. "Pamesa Teslin coral" medium brown textured to look like wood. installed with 1/16 grout line. Wouldn't fool anybody who takes a close look, but close enough so a casual glance won't catch it.
There are quite a few wood look tiles available, but you have to look on the internet. Tile stores don't seem to carry many of them. There are two types, some look like a very good photograph of wood, others are textured and colored to look like wood.

Thanks for the response, qwertyui. Your tile floors sound most intriguing.

Our breakfast nook is tiled with porcelain, and the chairs slide fine, it is cold in the winter, and I used epoxy grout, which doesn't stain. We put radiant heat under many of our tile floors, so that takes the cold edge off.

I would worry that slate tiles, which are by design irregular in height, might result in wobbly tables and/or chairs. No personal experience there though.

Dont know about formal or not but here in los angeles, I am seeing entire great rooms done in stone or porcelain tiles - 24x24 marble/travertine/porcelain looks very elegant. My second choice would be hardwood.

W2W carpeting is out of my vocab :)

pharoah, that's what my antennae were telling me. Travertine would be fabulous, and not out of the question for us, but I found a high-end porcelain paver that I can get excited about. Again, I just feel that our house's being Mediterranean is the trump card.

weedyacres, as a result of your tip, we're now looking at putting radiant heat under our porcelain tiles in this dining room. Any recommendations on type? Brand?

We've used Warming Systems wire (not mats). You tape it to the floor with aluminum tape, then tile over it. It's much cheaper than the mats, and we've used it in 4 rooms over the past 2+ years.

Here is a link that might be useful: Warming Systems

weedyacres, that is very intriguing! Thank you for posting the link. Unfortunately, their website says that at present, Warming Systems doesn't serve Northern California. Sure wish they did. We'd definitely have them come make a bid. Radiant heat sounds like the way to go for the dining room, even in our relatively mild climate.

They just sell & ship the product to anywhere (including NoCal). Your tiler and/or electrician should be able to install it. There are other manufacturers as well, though they're more expensive: go to the bathrooms forum and search for "heated floor" to find some threads.

Yay! Thank you!

Here is a model floor display of the tiles I'm looking at, a high-grade, slip-proof porcelain. Hubbest feels that this particular display is too "busy." I think he'd prefer sticking to one shade, one size. If we did that, I'd want to go with the apricot-toned, veined pair adjacent to each other in the immediate foreground. That color would go best with the adjoining oak floors and the oak cabinetry in the dining room.

Thoughts, anyone?

I agree with hubby. This tile has two variations - color and size. Either keep the pattern or the color but not both. I would keep the color variation but not the pattern. Then do the entire floor in the largest tile you can find. remember that larger tiles make a space seem larger.

Thanks, pharaoh. Excellent advice. I agree with you about keeping the color.

For heaven's sake, worthy, that's like saying carpet decreases a home's value in a living room because one particular carpet started out a violent shade of teal and then was vomited on my 40 cats!

(Okay, in SOME living rooms in expensive enough neighborhoods, it would decrease the value when something nicer was expected, but you know what I mean...)

slate tiles, which are by design irregular in height, might result in wobbly tables and/or chairs

Good point. But polished slate is level.

that's like saying carpet decreases a home's value in a living room because one particular carpet started out a violent shade of teal and then was vomited on my 40 cats!

So you saw the last home I repossessed! Where, indeed, the carpet after high-powered steam cleaning did turn from brown to grey.
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The colour variations in the patterning above may very well appear different to the eye in their natural setting. Viewed with a flashlit pic two feet from the surface is not one's usual view of flooring. Uma Thurman, I'm guessing, might not look so enticing under a magnifying glass as on screen slaying the Crazy 88. (Though I'd be willing to give it a try strictly for scientific curiousity.)

worthy, I applaud your altruism, being willing to inspect Uma Thurman for us. ;-)

Just got a quote for radiant heat under the tile floor we plan for the dining room: $2,780. (That's a mat version.) Sure seems high to me, considering they quoted somewhere slightly over $900 for the tiles, less installation.