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Flooring Design Dilemma Bathrooms

Matte porcelain vs. glossy porcelain for bath + shower walls and floor

last year

last modified: last year

We are trying to decide whether to use matte or glossy porcelain for our master bath and shower. The tiles are white, and will be on the walls and maybe the floor (different design, but the same material) as well. Opinion? They are tiles with marble look.

The matte ones are better looking than the shiny one; but I worry about the performance and cleaning. We have always had glossy tiles and we haven't had to do anything.

Also while I am here, are mosaics a bad idea to put in the entire bathroom (kids baths). I heard that it provides traction, on the other hand we have lived with smooth/vinyl tiles with no traction for years with no problems. However, this is for our new home that is significantly bigger.

Also, how do I select porcelain for durability and low maintenance? Should I go with glazed vs. unglazed, etc? We are a family with kids, so I would like my house to be functional and durable (and beautiful lol) but low maintenance. I don't want to create a fragile museum.

Thank you!

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Comments (3)

PRO
Beth H. :
last year
last modified: last year
porcelain tiles, matte/shiny, all clean the same. not a bit deal.

tiles on the shower floor (mosaics) can go up to 4". the grout provides traction. you can do larger tiles on the floor if they are suitable for wet areas and are a matte. but using larger tiles on the floor is difficult w/a slope.

ifi you have a great tile guy, you can try something like this, (it's a honed basalt)

but using a mosiac is easier.

always look at the specs on the tile you're considering. it will plainly tell you about usage (wet or dry) , cleaning, and how to install

mosaics are fine w/kids. look back into the bathrooms from 100 years ago. they always had mosaics. the grout provides all the traction.

using a larger honed or matte tile is also fine. I have a 4x16 marble (honed) in a chevron layout in my bathroom and it's not the least bit slippery

In my shower I did a 3" marble hex tile. also not slippery

floor I did for a client. 12x24 charcoal porcelain outside, porxelain mosaic in the shower

you could also go w/a larger, textured type of tile if you don't want a mosaic on the outside.

Ivy Hill Artmore Venecia is a good one. it's porcelain that looks like a terrazzo.

it has some 'bite' to it so it's not slippery.
Anon Fromca thanked Beth H. :
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I like 12 x24 matte porcelian tiles for both bathroom floors and shower walls with the same color but smaller for the shower floor If you want an accent then a vertical strip in the shower and use the same tile for the backsplash IMO the fewer tile styles and colors the better for a look you love for a long time It also allows for a change in accessories color
Anon Fromca thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
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Very macho conversation guys, & all the numbers & decimal points are very impressive, especially to a math-challenged gal like me. Hey Stinky-gardener-- It has nothing to do with math, or trying to be impressive. If you go into a tile showroom, and ASK about how slippery any specific tile is, that is how they will be rated. If you want to understand what the salesman is trying to tell you, those are the numbers you will be dealing with. It's a rating system, not the quadratic equation. Claire-- I had a discussion with the VP of Laticrete about 2 weeks ago about those non-slip coatings, because he'd heard I'd recommended them to someone. He told me that they don't last, and that they end up making the tiles look pretty nasty, because they tend to catch the dirt in areas where there's not quite as much traffic, and then in the high traffic areas, it wears off, which means either stripping off the coating from the rest of the floor, or recoating right over what's there already, and you can imagine what that starts to look like after a while. I can't say one way or another from personal experience. But I trust this guy from Laticrete. He's seen a whole lot more tile situations than I have, from all over the world, and I've known him personally all my life (our families were close), so I know he wouldn't steer me wrong.
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Personally, I would use a larger matte tile on the floor of the bathroom and stick with the 2x2 just on the wet floor. Stepping out of the shower onto a dry floor will not cause to you slip. It's when there is present moisture on the floor that you could slip. So the thought of having more grout joints in the shower for traction is more ideal. If you're still stuck on using 2x2 for the entire floor of the bathroom, I'm not going to fight you...it's your money and 2x2 is way more expensive than the larger format tiles. For grout, use an epoxy or single component grout. These grouts have built in sealers and are moisture proof. Cleaning of the products is as easy as using vinegar and water.
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kculbers
last year
last modified: last year
I have matte Italian porcelain wood look tile flooring: lighter colored tiles in my bathrooms and darker tiles in my hallway. They are easy to clean too. I use Murphy’s Oil Soap.
Anon Fromca thanked kculbers

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