Tiles tilt the customer-preference scale

Jagvir Goyal.

Advertisement

Two decades back, use of tiles in flooring of the houses was unknown. Marble - Italian or Makrana or lower quality - was the unanimous choice. Before that, terrazzo flooring was considered as premium flooring while simple cement concrete flooring was the normal choice. Terrazzo flooring was provided in the drawing room, kitchen and bathrooms while cement concrete flooring was laid in the bedrooms and corridors. At the most, pre-cast terrazzo flooring tiles were used in selected areas whenever a quick job had to be accomplished.

The presence of porcelain and vitrified tiles was felt in the Indian market around two decades back. Ceramic tiles were there but were hardly used for flooring. The largest size of ceramic tiles remained restricted to 12 x 12 inch or at the most 16x16 inch while the porcelain and vitrified tiles, too, were available in smaller sizes only, the largest size being 2x 2 ft. The quality of tiles, too, had a lot of scope for improvement.

Present scenario: Tile production has undergone revolutionary changes in the last decade. The improvement has been gradual but promising. Today, almost everyone is familiar with the word 'vitrified' that once sounded so strange. While choosing flooring materials, vitrified tiles and marble are given equal consideration by users now. During the past 10 years, the demand for vitrified tiles has generated a fair competition among the manufacturers who have strived to produce better quality and finish of these tiles to make a better hold on the market. 

Quality content: In case of marble, Italian marble has been considered as the ultimate choice by users though Italian marble is much porous, frail and costlier than other varieties of marble. Many varieties of marble are available in the market. However, the user has to depend much on the word of the supplier about the quality and strength of marble lot chosen by him. On the other hand in case of tiles, one can easily know which tile is better than others. There are soluble-salt vitrified tiles, double-charged vitrified tiles and full-body vitrified tiles. Double charged tiles are costlier than soluble-salt tiles and full-body tiles are costlier than double charged tiles. So one can make his choice on definite grounds in case of tiles while he has to believe whatever is told to him in case of marble.

Finish factor: In case of marble, the tendency of the common user is to choose the whitest possible marble, free of streaks in black, green or grey. Yes, while choosing Italian marble, he may go for light-coloured marble. In case of tiles, a mind boggling range of finishes is now available. Different methods of printing of tiles have been adopted. There is flat screen printing, Roto colour printing and digital colour printing of tiles. Tiles are available in many colours, though mostly light colours are preferred by people to make the rooms look bigger and shining. The finishes available in tiles include marble and granite finishes and polished and unpolished surfaces. Perfect finish of vitrified tiles often doesn't allow one to differentiate whether tiles have been used in the flooring or granite or marble have been used. Rather the uniformity in colour and finish helps in concluding that tiles have been used in the floor and not the natural stone. 

Grinding & polishing: While marble has to undergo many operations of grinding and polishing before the floors are ready to use, no such grinding or polishing is required in case of tiles and floor is ready for use as soon as it is laid. Grinding and polishing of marble flooring is a messy job and often interferes with the activity of paint finishing of walls. Using tiles results in saving of time and labour cost that grinding and polishing of marble or granite floors require. Diamond polishing is quite costly and people don't want to settle for less. In case of tiles, all finishes such as high gloss, semi-gloss and matt finish are readily available and the user can take his pick.  

High performance: Marble needs to be polished again after some years while the glazing and finish of tiles remains intact even after years of use. Vitrified tiles have high dimensional accuracy and good resistance to stains and abrasion. For scratch resistance, their Moh value can be checked from the charts and it should be more than 6. Vitrified tiles also have zero water absorption property. In full-body tiles, wear and tear of the tiles is not visible because the design and colour extends to full depth of the tiles. That's why these tiles are ideal for high-traffic zone or commercial areas. Any scratches don't become visible in them.

Cost considerations: Cost wise also, vitrified tiles score over marble. These are much cheaper than Italian marble and granite. There is tough competition in the tile market now as many manufacturers have launched a wide range of tiles. This competition is proving beneficial for the customer. Even bigger size tiles are now available at unbelievably low prices. Morbi (also called Morvi) in Gujarat has many tile producers who are adopting revolutionary marketing strategies to sell high quality tiles at lesser rates.

Future problems: Marble is a natural material and its behaviour is unpredictable. The lot looking fine today may begin to show signs of pitting and discolouring after few years. Its polish also fades away after a few years and re-polishing is required to give it a new and shining look. Tiles are produced in factories under controlled conditions and undergo rigorous testing before being dispatched to the market. They perform well for years without any discolouring or pitting problems. The latest variety of large sized vitrified tiles have put the 'ever green marble' to shade.

Thickness: In case of thickness, marble scores over the tiles which are generally produced in 9 mm to 10 mm thickness. Now, the thickness of tiles has increased to 12 mm. Some manufacturers produce fully vitrified tiles of even 16 mm thickness. Fully vitrified tiles of 16 mm thickness are obviously highly durable as well as costlier than other tiles of lesser thickness but are extremely strong. Morbi tile producers are producing 9 mm thick tiles and selling them at low price in the market. Marble slabs are generally 15-16 mm thick. In case of tiles, care has to be taken that the tiles are provided with a good base and no voids or cavities are left below the tiles as such voids may lead to breakage of tiles under loads. 

Quick to install: Everyone wants to complete his house in shortest possible time today. An 'impatience' sort of thing has taken over the house builders. They want to use 'ready to use' items instead of losing time in preparing things at site. Use of tiles in flooring is helping them in saving of time, effort and money. Avoiding all the mess of grinding and polishing is another major factor. And then unpredictable behaviour of marble also goes against it. Result is that the tilt today is in favour of tiles. The only negative point while using tiles is that one has to take extra care in ensuring that no voids or air cavities are left below the tiles while laying them. So the mantra is to make some extra effort during the laying of tiles, lay them well and save your precious time and money.  

— The writer is HOD and Chief, Civil Engineering Department in a Punjab PSU