Melissaki5, I just looked at your wood tile floors again and they really look real and are pretty. Can you look up the color for us when you have time?

SLAPPY07, We are installing an 8"x36" tile next week and my installer mentioned using a 1/8" grout joint. I'm wanting something smaller like 1/16" you've used because it looks more realistic. However I've been warned about the "lippage" factor and wondered if you notice a difference in the tiles when walking barefoot, like can you feel the side/lip of each tile?

Twizlstick, The tile that we chose is rectified and has a lot of texture. I believe because of the texture, the "lippage" factor is not noticeable. Hope this helps.

SLAPPY07, thanks this does help. My tile is also rectified but is mostly very smooth for easier cleaning. I think staying with a 1/8" joint will be better for me. The manufacturer recommends 3/16" but I think that's too large. I've read some people using a 3/32", which is between the 1/16 and 1/8, though I haven't asked my installer about it. Has anyone used that before?
When we talked yesterday about the pattern to use, he wants to offset each row every 9" or 12", which to me is too stairstep-y and would look like a fake wood floor (using 8"x36" tile). I'm going to push him for a random layout to replicate a real wood floor, and he'll be receiving a link to the picture you posted. Thanks!

Serso mahogany color from lowes. I put it in the dining room probaly would have put it in the kitchen if I knew about it before hand I think there great. Oh and its a 1/16 grout

This post was edited by madsic on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 10:13

Serso mahogany color from lowes. I put it in the dining room probaly would have put it in the kitchen if I knew about it before hand I think there great.

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madsic: I'm about to do my house in the Serso Mahogony from Lowes and am having trouble picking out a grout. What color grout did you use?

I used a espresso color grout but I think any dark color would be fine

I'm considering the wood "tile" as well. These posts have been very helpful. Here is my inspiration photo
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There is such a thing as "lippage" when tiles aren't totally flat. The edges can be raised just a tiny bit and depending on how much of a rustic look you want, you may or may not want this. I think "rectified" is a description for tiles that have flat edges that helps avoid lippage but check me on this. There are numerous kinds of ratings - here's a list of different "PEI" ratings which I think may be helpful - I didn't know these when we were shopping for our tile. http://lawtonfloordesign.com/cerfaqs.html#rating This is also where the color of the tile is the same all the way through, I think these are described as "full body" which means if they are chipped, color will be the same.

The rating for strong color/shade variations is the most important IMO since that was what caused the most problems for us. Rating info here at: HERE

Our background details regarding our wood-plank porcelain tile that may or may not be helpful to you (sorry this is so long):

I loved our wood-porcelain tiles more before the cabinets went in then after. Here's the full impact before cabinets: Note the strong pattern of striations.

Here's our floor as it was being put in before grouting:
http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/kitchen2/herringBoneFloor.jpg

Because it is a herringbone pattern (which I love), it became the "star of the show" in the kitchen, hence I have had to be very careful (which I don't love) adding anything else such as backspash or countertop that have a strong pattern. Also, the herringbone style is more traditional than I realized. Probably a good thing with our house but our kitchen is Ikea (in progress) so a traditional floor with modern contemporary cabs that had a strong striation pattern as well (see Sofieunder cabinets) didn't work as originally planned. Not so much fun. We had to swap out contemporary base cabinets at an extra cost for more traditional with the Lidingo style.
Here is the mismatch as shown after large window installed. I didn't check the "full light" conditions before deciding on the tile. I took a sample of my cabinet front to the tile store and it looked okay but didn't do well in the REAL kitchen lighting conditions. see

We're still in progress so don't have the pictures of what I'v done to fix this problem i.e. the Lidingo replacement, but I like the herringbone very much with the new change so far.

Couldn't find the tile brand we selected but the price was $3.19 / sq ft and we bought it at http://www.flooranddecoroutlets.com but I couldn't find it there now. It is great but if I had it to do overagain, I would bought one that I didn't "LOVE" so much, allowing me more choices with cabinets/countertop and backsplash. (We also chose a color tone that was close to adjacent hardwood which is nice but I'm not so sure it is as important to have this match as it is to have something that isn't going to be yet another focal point - that is our experience anyway.

I'm very glad to have gone with wood-plank. We had pine floors from previous owner. We had them sanded and polyurethaned several times - still looked pretty bad after a short time. Since we aren't good with mainenance, the wood-look porcelain is the absolute best. If I get back trouble, we can always put down a runner rug which I'm thinking of doing anyway in the main part where I do the most walking.

Madsic, I am in love with your Serso Mahogony tile wood floors! I love the color. I must pick up a sample at Lowes or buy a piece to see if this would be good for me as due to so many problems with one crisis after another, I still have not removed my damaged engineered wood floors and instead temporary put area rugs everywhere so my little dog will not have another large vet bill by getting her food stuck in the pieces of wood that separated.

I like mine, but I don't love them. Nothing looks like real hardwood BUT the wood effect tile is very practical if you have kids and dogs. For example a nail polish bottle fell on the floor and smashed a few days ago. I was able to wipe it off with some acetone no problem. Real hardwood would have been ruined!

Here is mine.

lliN - Looks great in your kitchen! Can you tell us the brand and color?

I just had the Serso Mahogany tile from lowes laid and I thought I picked a dark enough color grout..bot was I wrong...I picked Mocha and it is stark white...I'm at a loss in what to do, it's a large room and thought about adding a grout colorant but tried a simple in a conspicuous area and not sure it will be durable, looks to much like painted grout...I also did a coffee stain area and it looks so much more blended but not sure that is something a professional would recommend using. I will check I to the espresso color or dark chocolate.

My grout color is fairly good for my porcelain plank tile but only "fairly". It doesn't detract too much from the overall look but this is my second round with porcelain plank tile. And in both cases, my final conclusion is that I wish I would have gone darker with the grout. (FYI - Used Pro Fusion the second time around - it is a fairly new type of grout and supposed to be VERY easy to keep clean.)
I don't have any suggestions to solve your problem about grout being too light. But wanted to post here for others to hear my advice which is to go a LOT darker than you think you should when picking your grout color for porcelain plank tile. The colors of my tile were taupe (rustic gray) and oak (tan tinted brown) in case that might make a difference.

TO: JLFields: Regarding your grout color....your contractor most likely mixed the grout incorrectly resulting in whitish looking grout. We had a similar experience. We bought dark brown grout and it turned out concrete color. Look up "efflorescence" to find out what happened. We have 970 square feet of the wrong color grout which we are stuck with.
~Sea~

We are building a new home, and have settled on a porcelain wood-look tile to do the entire house, except for, perhaps bathrooms. We have found one we like at Floor And Decor, called, "Old Navy Bianco". The PEI rating is 5, which is the best possible rating and even approved for light commercial use. The entire house is in very light tones, so this is pale gray, but a beautiful wood-look. It measure 6" X 40". Our problem seems to be that our builder says that we'll never get the floor (slab-we live in Florida) to be level enough to not have what he calls "toe-catchers". At Floor and Decor, they swear that they lay this floor all the time, and there are no problems. We took the information back to our builder and he says we're just looking for trouble. I'm still wanting this tile. He keeps leading me to a size of 6" X 24", saying that it's "more forgiving"--won't have "toe catchers" and the job will be perfect. Three questions: Have you any experience with laying tile of this size on a slab? What is the "random" look for laying the floor to get a natural wood-look? Any better sources available to get this or a similar look/quality for a better price?

Can't speak to the toe catchers, but I don't think the issue is that you're laying it on a slab. The real issue is that with long tiles it's hard to keep them completely flat as they are often manufactured with lippage. You achieve the random look by not laying them like tile (offset). You lay a course, make your cut, then use your cut piece, whatever the length, to start your new course. If you somehow have a geometric oddity (40" tile in a 120" space) you start with a cut that will keep things irregular, so instead of using 3@40" tiles, you'd start with a 9" piece and go from there.

In my experience you want as tight a space as possible between tiles, and a grout color identical to or slightly darker than the tile color.

Good luck!

DianaHag,
Good quality tiles will be pretty level. Your builder is telling you that he (or tile installer) doesn't have the skill/ability to lay this type of tile. It can be done, but they don't know how or are too lazy to do a job that requires attention to detail. Can you hire your own tile installer?

We did about 1600 sq,ft of wood-look tile in our guest house. We used 8" x 40" and 8" x 24" laid in a random pattern. No lippage. It was slow and steady work with several string level lines set up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cerdomus Tile, Barrique Collection

I realize this may come across negative but I find it interesting that with this new trend of wood look planks that there was only 1 person that posted concerns for the uncomfortable hardness that tile has and not one person mentioned the coldness on the feet nor the breaking of dinnerware.

When I was doing research on tiles in general, I read an earfull of negative comments about tile. Does having the latest trend somehow just dissolve these issues?

It doesn't dissolve the issue. It just a matter of what your preferences and tolerance are. Don't drop dinnerware problem solved. Wear slippers or socks or put a area rug down like I did. I found the problems miniscule really.

I love tile that looks like wood and if I lived in an area that was warm most of the year, I would have this in all of my house. But since I live on the cold Northern Eastern Coat (very coat in the winter time) and in a townhouse, I needed to do tile in my kitchen (or wood.... but mostly everyone in my townhouse is doing big tiles) and wood everywhere else as that is what is selling in order for me to think of resale as well as enjoyment.

I LOVE lliN's Shiloh Inset cabinets in her kitchen with the gorgeous wood tile floors! If I did not buy the tile for my kitchen, maybe I would also see if this color would look good in my house and go with my home office color.s

After seeing Madsic's Serso mahogany color from Lowes wood tile floors, I think if I did not buy the tile for my kitchen, I would be tempted to do this floor everywhere and not think of resale as I love the color and it would go with my cherry desk in my home office.

llin, did you use a grey colored grout?

aloha2009,
People choose different flooring for many different reasons, taking into account their pros and cons. I am in CA now, so the cold factor is not an issue. I would have used all hardwood in my house, but part is on a slab, so tile made more sense for that area, but most of the living/sleeping spaces are real wood.

The guest house was all done in tile, although I could have used wood floors in part of the space. My choice was based on how the space was going to be used. The guest house is used more as a "man cave", with teen boys. I did not want to have to worry about the flooring at all, so the wood-look tiles were the best material for that space.

"I realize this may come across negative but I find it interesting that with this new trend of wood look planks that there was only 1 person that posted concerns for the uncomfortable hardness that tile has and not one person mentioned the coldness on the feet nor the breaking of dinnerware.

When I was doing research on tiles in general, I read an earfull of negative comments about tile. Does having the latest trend somehow just dissolve these issues?"

While the "wood-look" might be a trend, tile is not ... it has been around for a long time. There are lots of threads on GW that discuss the issues you refer to. IMO, the benefits of tile outweigh the negatives. I wouldn't use it for every room of the house, but prefer it in my kitchen and baths. The "hardness" of the tile has never been an issue for me, and in warm climates, the coldness is actually a benefit.

Aloha2009, you should also consider that the original post didn't ask about wood vs tile. The OP has already decided they are using tile and we assume they've researched the pros and cons. The question was about the type/style of tile and the replies have done a good job of staying on topic!

Slappy07, where did you buy the Ariostea porcelain tile floors(color Rovere Impero)? Also, what grout color did you use? Your floors look beautiful and that particular product would be perfect for my floor!

Do any of you porcelain wood tile lovers have actual hardwood floors in the rest of the home? We have all hardwood in our entire home except bathroom and laundry room right now (including kitchen) and building a new home we might consider using a product like this for our kitchen (would be easier to clean up messes and steam mop). However the rest of our home will definitely again be all hardwood and so not sure how you would transition from kitchen to other floors and not look mis-match.

Hope that is not off-topic, just hoping some of you with these type floors might post pictures of adjoining spaces as well. thank you.

We have hardwood flowers throughout the entire lower level of my home but did porcelain "wood" tiles in the kitchen. They are light gray so matching wasnt an issue. The kitchen floors are signum by coem. We love them . Not a great pic but you get idea of contrast

Do they just line up or is there a "transition" piece in there?

There is a stainless trim at end of kitchen tile. Originally plan was to add a wood transition piece (matching hardwoods) but we kind of like it as is so may just leave it

@alison0707, your kitchen is absolutely GORGEOUS! I must have those floors, I absolutely love them. Is the color you chose Larice Sbiancato or Rovere Grigio?
Thanks.

Thanks! They are the Larice. Were definitely a splurge but we love them!

Looks like this is a very old thread but I will leave a comment anyway. I own a flooring company and unfortunately I have seen a lot more BAD installations of the wood plank tile than good ones. Everyone would love to have a zero grout line, but due to expansion and contraction in your house, as well as the flatness of your subfloor and the tile itself, you can create all kinds of problems. Manufacturers typically recommend a 3/16" grout joint; if your subfloor and your tile are both very flat, you may be able to get a good result with a 1/8" grout joint. Layout is key to getting a good looking floor. Any large format tile should only be offset by a maximum of 33%. This means if you have a 6x24 tile, your largest offsets should be 8", although you can mix in some smaller ones to create a more random layout.

I love our wood plank tile. There are a few tiles that have a tiny bit of lippage going on but it looks so good I could care less. Our planks are 48" long so after reading up on all the problems with tiles that long I am pleasantly surprised at the lippage we do have. I looked a ton of places to find the perfect gray weathered looking tile. This was the most realistic we found. We bought these from Lowes-Style Selections Natural Timber Ash. $3.89 sq ft. Can't beat it.

Thanks so much for posting jloglow_25! That is exactly what I was looking for but everything I found was so expensive. I am trying to convince my husband to let me rip up our old large format tiles and place these down instead! I love the look of hardwood but years of living in a house with tile, I have grown to love the convenience and ease of care as well as the coldness under feet when its warm(we live in Southern Cali). I just want the hardwood look. These are simply beautiful!

cakelly1226- so glad I could help. I live in southeast Texas so I hear you about liking the coldness on your feet in the sweltering summers. It's upon us isn't it.

We installed porcelain "wood" tiles in our basement remodel, including the kitchen. We went with porcelain due to a fear of water issues in the basement.

One thing our contractor recommended, wisely, is to look at the number of different patterns in the various tiles. We had originally selected a tile where there were only four differently printed wood grain patterns on the tile, and it would have looked less "real" became you'd see the same knot or grain pattern over and over on the floor. The tile we ended up selecting had about 12 different tiles, and we don't even notice repeats on the floor.

where can I purchase the Ariostea porcelain tile floors?

I'm trying to locate tile for my bathroom efforts. I have located similar tile but not the color (so my luck means it's probably not available any
more.) Any help would be appreciated. I saw them in the rooms and bath at the
White House Hotel in Biloxi, MS.

I think that we've finally decided to go with wood look tile in our entryway, dining room, kitchen, mudroom/pantry, and powder room. Now I've got an install question. We've gotten a few estimates and no one seems to be on the same page about laying tile directly over sheet vinyl. This is all first floor on a concrete slab and the sheet vinyl is everywhere where we will be laying the tile. There is currently laminate plank over parts of it that will be coming up but I'm guessing the vinyl under it is in good shape (the house is less than 10 years old).

obviously easier, cheaper to leave the vinyl but will this lead to problems down the line?

My good flooring contractors typically remove vinyl before installing flooring in homes. My subpar contractors lay on top of vinyl. I now mandate all contractors to remove vinyl to be safe.

I had my hardwood floors removed before doing my porcelain wood planks.

We didn't really have a choice. Were told it needed to be removed because of the way wood contracts/moves depending on the temperature. And yes, it gets expensive to remove.

Are there any issues with putting porcelain tile over vinyl?

I have them to hand for my new kitchen, but since they aren't installed yet, I don't have pics. But the tile laying guy loved them so much when he saw them, that he ordered a batch for his own home!

Keebe - what is the exact reason for not putting the tile over the vinyl? I was actually told that it was better for the tile to be on top of a vinyl and that it isn't commonly done because it costs more and the vinyl layer gets covered up. Their explanation was that the cement on the floor cracks over time in earthquake country and that the vinyl helped cover those cracks so that the tile on top did not crack.

We have a house full of boys and pets- love this practical flooring that is super easy to clean up!! We did a gray shade in our master bath as well. If you are looking for durability, I think it’s a good choice!

Can anyone comment if this was a trend that has peaked? Did the choice to use wood-look tile work out for you or would you have rather used something else? Any cracks? It's just so incredibly realistic looking that I just might try it.

https://www.fastfloors.com/tile/emil-ceramica/millelegni-12-x-48/abete-ossidato/

@Paul F., plenty of posters here will say that it is a trend, but if you like tile and like the look and color of a specific wood look tile, then you should go ahead and use it in your home. What is trendy is the gray look, so stick to color tones you would find in real wood floors. Can't go wrong with a light/medium brown for real wood or wood-look tile.

I posted on this thread years ago when we used wood look tile in our guest house. I've never regretted that choice. No issue with cracking and the house is in CA and has been through a few "mild" earthquakes. Most people didn't immediately notice that it was tile and assumed it was wood, as we had wood in the main house.

We had a very good tile person and he was able to lay 2 tile sizes in a random pattern that was repeated every 8th row, so it looks more realistic than your average tile laid in a set pattern. The tile was also good quality, straight and level.

I love having the weathered wood look tile floor in the kitchen. It is practical for me. The rest of the house (minus the bathrooms and basement) is wide plank pine, and impractical to run into a kitchen. I have this tile running perpendicular to the real wood (not weathered) in the house., which makes it look purposeful. It is a really good quality tile which did not cost all that much. Looking back a couple years ago, I understand (when I was researching for someone who wanted to us this himself in his own home) that the tile I selected was discontinued. (I do have additional slabs in case anything needs replacement - always order a bit more than you need so the tilers can cut as indicated...) It also helps me demark space in my home, as I am not really an "open space" aficionado - but am content with "semi-open". I bought my tile from a high quality supplier (South Cypress), and I did not pay an arm and a leg for the tile I chose.

Edit: This is a log home, and the wide plank pine fits into the home ambiance wonderfully. I just didn't want a soft wood floor in the kitchen... but I wanted something hardy but wood-like. Being "weathered" meant I wasn't trying to "fool" anyone, but going with the nature of my home. Absolutely love it, and love the supplier I bought from. It also has some brownish sections, which keeps me out of that monochrome area of décor I personally dislike.