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kitchenmum

tile safety question...

6 years ago

I have finally found a beautiful tile for my tiny bathroom reno. The bathroom floor area is 4 ft x 6.5 ft. Each tile is large (2 ft x 4 ft) and the photo shows the floor installation at the showroom. The tile is polished as you can see from the light reflection (the white line across the tile is from the lighting, too). We are planning very thin grout lines. I have had a couple of comments that it is not safe for the bathroom because it would be slippery when wet. Hubby and I wear Crocs in the house so they are not slidey, and we put a bathmat down when showering. Does anyone have actual real-life experience with polished tile in their bathroom? I have looked for ages for the floor I will love and don't want to change this on the basis of someone's opinion...I want to hear from experience!

Comments (14)

  • PRO
    6 years ago

    If it's slippery, you could use an anti-slip like invisatread or liquid traction on the floor. Get a sample tile and test the stuff out to see if there are color changes you aren't happy about. There shouldn't be changes, but I don't know what kind of tile you are planning on using.

  • 6 years ago

    Is that your real life experience? I am so sorry to hear that, how awful. I hope you have recovered! I live in Canada and all that would be free, but that's not the point, safety is the point.

  • 6 years ago

    Sorry, the photo I thought I had attached isn't showing up, so I am including it here.

  • 6 years ago

    ...and my condolences were to live_wire_oak.

  • PRO
    6 years ago

    Pretty tile... ask the tile shop about anti-slip.

  • 6 years ago

    I’ve stayed in hotels that had marble bathroom floors and I’m alive to tell the tale.

  • 6 years ago

    live_wire_oak, you're right, it would be the star of the show if we choose it. The photo doesn't do it justice.

    Sammy, that's a good point...but you may not know whether they used an anti-slip treatment on it.

  • PRO
    6 years ago

    The only real measure is the coefficient of friction, not online opinions. You'd be surprised. Lots of things you think are slippery aren't.

  • 6 years ago

    Thanks, Joseph! I will find out the COF for this tile.

  • 6 years ago

    I think you on the right track, looking up the CoF, but I have questions about the floor tile layout. Will you have a floating vanity and wall-hung toilet? If so, spending extra for 4 ft x 2 ft floor tiles may make sense. Do you have an installer with experience with such tiles who has okayed the existing floor for such large tiles? Don’t you need almost perfectly level floors for such large tiles? I am guessing that you will buy four tiles and lay them lined up along the 4 ft dimension. Three tiles with one 6 inch piece along the front or back edge. If you have a vanity and toilet sitting on them, you will be wasting a lot of money for a tile effect that cannot be seen. As a matter of fact, has the installer even okayed having to cut a toilet flange hole into such a tile (if toilet is not wall-hung)?

  • 6 years ago

    Hi Nancy, the vanity is floating but the toilet is not. The toilet is next to the back wall so most of the floor will be on view. I will ask our installer about cutting the toilet flange hole! He is very experienced and did not seem phased when I showed him the tile, he just commented on how he would lay them (as you described). Thank-you for your input!

  • 6 years ago

    Sorry, I was incorrect about the floor tile layout. The installer is going to lay them so that they are lengthwise from front to back, not widthwise. So the flow of the tile pattern looks like it does in the photo.