Tiling & Polishing
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, or other objects such as tabletops. Another category are the ceiling tiles, made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood, and mineral wool. The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, meaning a roof tile composed of baked clay. Less precisely, the modern term can refer to any sort of construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games (see tile-based game).
Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Tiles are most often made from ceramic, with a hard glaze finish, but other materials are also commonly used, such as glass, marble, granite, slate, and reformed ceramic slurry, which is cast in a mould and fired.
In the past twenty years, the technology surrounding porcelain tile and glass tiles has become more efficient, allowing more mass production. Similarly, the invention of automated tile lines that use diamonds to cut and finish stone slabs into tiles has made stone tiles more available. This has allowed these tiles to move from being niche items into broader markets.
Perhaps because of the tenets of syari’ah, which disavow religious icons and images in favor of more abstract and universal representations of the divine, many consider decorative tile work to have reached a pinnacle of expression and detail during the Islamic period. Palaces, public buildings, and mosques were heavily decorated with dense, often massive mosaics and friezes of astonishing complexity. As both the influence and the extent of Islam spread during the Middle Ages this artistic tradition was carried along, finding expression from the gardens and courtyards of Málaga in Moorish Spain to the mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Floor tiles are commonly made of ceramic or stone, although recent technological advances have resulted in glass tiles for floors as well. Ceramic tiles may be painted and glazed. Small mosaic tiles may be laid in various patterns. Floor tiles are typically set into mortar consisting of sand, cement and often a latex additive for extra adhesion. The spaces between the tiles are nowadays filled with sanded or unsanded floor grout, but traditionally mortar was used.
Natural stone tiles can be especially beautiful. However, as a natural product they are a little less uniform in color and pattern and require more planning for use and installation. Since stone tiles are mass-produced, they have very uniform width and length dimensions. Stone tiles such as those of granite or marble are sawn on both sides and then polished or finished on the facing up side, so that they have a uniform thickness. Other natural stone tiles such as slate are typically "riven" (split) on the facing up side so that the thickness of the tile varies slightly from one spot on the tile to another and from one tile to another. Variations in tile thickness can be handled by adjusting the amount of mortar under each part of the tile, by using wide grout lines that "ramp" between different thicknesses, or by using a cold chisel to knock off high spots.
Some stone tiles such as polished granite and marble are inherently very slippery when wet. Stone tiles with a riven (split) surface such as slate or with a sawn and then sandblasted or honed surface will be more slip resistant. Ceramic tile for use in wet areas can be made more slip resistant either by using very small tiles so that the grout lines acts as grooves or by imprinting a contour pattern onto the face of the tile.
The hardness of natural stone tiles varies such that some of the softer stone (e.g. limestone) tiles are not suitable for very heavy traffic floor areas. On the other hand, ceramic tiles typically have a glazed upper surface and when that become scratched or pitted the floor looks worn, whereas the same amount of wear on natural stone tiles won't show, or will be less noticeable.
Natural stone tiles can be stained by spilled liquids; they must be sealed and periodically resealed with a sealant in contrast to ceramic tiles which only need their grout lines sealed. However, because of the complex, non repeating patterns in natural stone, small amounts of dirt on many natural stone floor tiles do not show.
Most vendors of stone tiles emphasize that there will be variation in color and pattern from one batch of tiles to another of the same description and variation within the same batch.
Stone floor tiles tend to be heavier than ceramic tiles and somewhat more prone to breakage during shipment.
Tiling and polishing are specialized areas now usually undertaken by independent or small businesses. They often are sub-contracted by main contractors for the finishing of real estate construction projects.
Ceiling tiles are lightweight tiles used in the interior of buildings. They are placed on a steel grid and, depending on the tile selected, may provide thermal insulation, sound absorption, enhanced fire protection, and improved indoor air quality. Also frequently called ceiling panels, or drop-ceiling tiles, they offer the advantage of easy access to wiring and plumbing above the ceiling grid, and can be easily changed, removed, or replaced as needed. They are fabricated from perlite, wood, mineral wool, plastic, tin, aluminum, and fibers from recycled paper. They frequently have patterns comprised of holes, to improve their sound absorption properties, though many have a molded surface providing a textured, sculpted, or pressed-tin look to the ceiling.
Some tiles are available with decorative photo/transfer surfaces, some are approved for installation under fire suppression sprinkler heads so the sprinklers do not show, some are approved for use in food preparation areas, and some are certified for indoor air quality by the GreenGuard Institute in the U.S. Tiles are available that resist mold and moisture damage, that have enhanced acoustical properties, and that can be easily trimmed with household scissors. Recycling old tiles depends upon the material used to make them, and some landfills no longer accept traditional mineral fiber tiles, so they must be recycled to the manufacturer.
The commonest finish for tiles is polished. A polished finish is one having a surface with high luster and strong reflection of incident light (almost mirror-like). The rougher finishes are bush-hammered, honed, sandblasted, and thermal. A bush-hammered finish is one with a rough uniformly patterned surface produced by an impact tool. A honed finish is one with a superfine, smooth, satin like, no reflective surface. A sandblasted surface is one with an irregular pitted surface produced by impacting sand particles at high velocity against a stone surface. A thermal (or flamed) finish is one with a rough no reflective surface with only a few reflections from cleavage faces, produced by applying a high-temperature flame. This finish may change the natural color of the stone.
