Wood Effect Porcelain Tiles
Tiles are extremely easy to maintain as compared to other flooring or wall choices, making it the best option for a simple life without giving up any aesthetic qualities in your home.
Wood Effect porcelain tiles especially are a great solution for individuals or families who want the warm touch of wood flooring, without the high costs of installation and upkeep.
What Is Wood Effect Flooring?
Wood Effect Tiles are a type of tile created to look exactly like wood. Just as with actual hardwood flooring, these tiles come in a range of different colours, hues, and grains to suit any room.
They can also be cut to just about any size to fit in any pattern or floorplan. Most customers stick with the classic offset parallel patterns, but complex herringbone, brick-bond, and grid patterns are easy to accommodate with these tiles as well.
Wood tiles are a relatively new invention today, but they’re already gaining a ton of traction with homeowners, businesses, and contractors.
How Are They Made?
Wood Effect Tiles are surprisingly simple and cost-effective. All of our wood tiles are made out of porcelain. Porcelain is resistant to impacts, scratches, chipping, and water damage, making it a perfect material for tiles in your bathroom, kitchen, living room, conservatory, workplace, and just about anywhere else!
First, the porcelain tiles are cut to the size and shape you want. Additionally, they can be textured to your liking, whether it be to add depth to your interior kitchen walls or to create non-slip flooring for your business.
After the tiles themselves are finished, the wood texture and colouring are added. Most tiles are painted over with ink-jet printing and digital imaging. These technologies allow for just about any wood grain pattern, colouration, and shading that you could ever dream of.
Advantages of Wood Effect Tiles Compared To Traditional Wood Flooring
So if you could just buy hardwood flooring, why would you use wood effect tiles?
Durability
Actual wood or vinyl wears out much quicker than wood effect tiles. The porcelain materials in the tiles are better at enduring the daily wear and tear necessary from your flooring. In heavily trafficked areas like your entryway or kitchen, wood will start to grow duller and slowly chip away where porcelain tiles will stand strong. Plus, durable porcelain is much harder to scratch or otherwise mark as compared to real wood flooring.
Fading
Over time, wood that is exposed to sunlight will gradually fade or darken, losing it’s original luster. The same can be said for vinyl, which can be left looking cheap within years. The inkjet wood effect designs on tiles won’t, keeping your walls and floors looking realistic and beautiful just like new.
Cleaning
Porcelain tiles are extremely easy to clean and free from regular maintenance. In fact, most messes can be swept or mopped up in a few seconds. Real wood flooring gets you down on your hands and knees scrubbing for hours to rid your floor of stains, and if they haven’t been correctly sealed it ends up doing more harm than good anyways. Tiles are smooth and simple to clean, saving you time and effort without sacrificing aesthetic.
Waterproofing
This is often a big issue with real wood floors. You have to know how to correctly seal and waterproof your floors and how often you have to reseal it. You even have to make sure you use the correct chemical treatments for your type of wood. Of course, if you miss anything, the next thing you know you’ve got swollen beams and warped wood to deal with. Wood effect tiles are inherently waterproofed, saving you from worry, stress, and resealing issues.
Underfloor Heating
One popular addition to a tile floor is underfloor heating. These systems operate like a hotplate, using a heated coil to warm up your floor. In places with bitterly cold winters, underfloor heating can be a lifesaver. No more frozen feet when you roll out of bed in the morning.
Easier to Replace
If anything goes wrong with wood flooring, it’s a pain and a half to replace any planks or pieces. Wood effect tile replacements can be ordered at the click of a button and sent to your door in a day or two. Plus, they’re even easier to install.
Different Material, Same Aesthetic
Even though the wood designs on wood effect tiles are really just wood images painted onto porcelain, the technology used to create these can reproduce just about any type of wood with complete accuracy. You’re not limited to simple patterns either. You can reproduce rare and exotic woods, complete with knots and irregularities, for a fraction of the price.
Anti-Slip
Interested in using hardwood flooring in your workplace? Unfortunately, regulations often require that your flooring be non-slip. Although wood flooring can’t be made non-slip, the same type of wood effect on tile can easily be made non-slip. Plus, its cheaper, saving your business money without compromising style.
Great Ways to Use Wood Effect Tiles on Your Walls
Don’t think that wood effect tiles are just limited to flooring, these high-quality tiles make excellent additions to your walls in just about any room. Here are some great ways to use wood effect tile walling in your home.
Rustic Bathroom
If you’re looking for a calmer, luxury design in your bathroom, why not try the wood look? The knots and irregularities painted onto these realistic wood effect tiles will grant a sense of naturality to your bathroom. This connection to nature will invigorate you each morning as you get ready for your day, and bring you a sense of calm as you wind down each night. Try using wood effect tile walls along with the same flooring, mixed with some natural stone and marble designs to reach that perfect balance between antique and sleek.
Porches and Patios
When you have a few friends out on your porch or patio, the hardwood look can help everyone relax and feel more connected to nature. If you live in the countryside, the hardwood will enhance the beauty of all the nature surrounding your home. If you’re living in the city it will create an oasis of calm amidst all the hustle and bustle of city life.
Zen Bedroom
If you’re looking for a sense of peace as you sleep, what better way than to use direct wood effect tile flooring? Combine complex patterns of floor tiles with simple earth or oak colors on your walls for a sense of groundedness. The natural beauty of wood effect tiles will bring peace to your room, as well as your life.
Countryside Kitchen
If you’re tired of your kitchen feeling like a cold sterile place, add some more wood to give it a more oak like, organic feel. Brighter wood colours can really warm up a room. Pair this flooring or wall design with some other luxury rustic and earthy designs to make your kitchen a warm and welcoming place for people to gather.
Shop Wood Effect Tiles at Atlas Ceramics
Atlas Ceramics, Hampshire are proud to offer the Naturae range of wood effect tiles, providing perfect natural look wooden flooring designs on durable porcelain tiles. We offer a selection of 5 colours and 3 sizes to buy, and all are designed to be suitable for use with Warmup Underfloor Heating.
Stop wasting time and money on hardwood flooring when you can get the same aesthetic for lower prices and less upkeep. We offer tons of samples on many of our ceramic, porcelain, natural stone and mosaic flooring options. Details of delivery, tile sizes, current offers, variation choices, and prices should be available throughout each collection. Stop by Atlas Ceramics for all your tile flooring needs to start using one of the most popular tile providers in the entire U.K.
