Wood-effect tiles: the beauty of natural wood without the upkeep
Wooden flooring is a classic choice made by homeowners everywhere, as the natural materials offer a trendy and durable solution for the home. Apart from laminate and vinyl, wood-effect flooring is also another popular choice. Wood-effect tiles are on the rise and rapidly gaining popularity, as people note their durability and low maintenance aesthetic.
At Pentagon Tiles, we love our collection of wood-effect tiles, and in this guide we’ll explore what makes these a unique option as oppose to the real thing.
Wood Effect Tiles Vs Wooden Flooring
Wooden flooring is naturally stunning and certainly does captivate your walkways, but people tend to look pass their drawbacks.
- Expensive: compared to wood-effect tiles, wooden flooring can be considerably more expensive. With wood-effect tiles you can achieve the same durability, quality and lifespan as you would with wooden flooring, but for a much lower price.
- Discolour and sun damage: in areas of direct sunlight, hardwood flooring is prone to discolour over time. Wooden slabs nearer the window may become a lighter colour to those that are in the middle of the room, or those that are covered by furniture. This can create an uneven tone throughout the space, and make a noticeable difference.
- Susceptible to damage: grit and other debris from the bottom of shoes will easily create scratches on the floor. Even dropping an object such as cutlery or the TV remote can create dents.
The Benefits of Wood-effect Tiles
Here are the top three benefits of using wood-effect tiles as opposed to wooden flooring, vinyl or even laminate.
1. Easy Installation
Once you’ve chosen the style and colour of wooden flooring for your room, you eagerly await its arrival and installation. This is something that you may want done quickly and of course to a high standard, and with wood-effect tiles you are able to do just that.
With wooden flooring, more often than not the skirting has to be removed which could be damaged during the removal process. Flooring then requires measuring, cutting and adjusting to ensure that it fits your rooms dimensions. This requires a lot of work that is time consuming, not to mention most wooden flooring has to be left 48 hours beforehand to acclimatise to the temperature of the room.
On the other hand, with wood-effect tiles all you need is grout and adhesive. They are not only a lot simpler to lay, but can be cut easily to fit your room without the need to remove skirting. If you’ve purchased tiles that are in stock and ready to take home, you could even have the tiles installed that same day, as there is no need to wait for them to acclimatise as you would with real hardwood flooring.
2. Minimal Maintenance
Looking after your wood-effect tiles is straightforward, as they require infrequent cleaning unlike real wooden flooring that demands a lot more attention and maintenance. A simple sweep and vacuum are all that’s needed. You may decide to mop the floors to remove any dirt, which can be easily done as long as you don’t saturate the floor.
3. Durability and Lifespan
All our wood-effect tiles are made from high-quality porcelain and do not damage as easily as hard wood. This highly durable material is equally as beautiful as the real thing, but there will be no need to worry about potential sun damage, warping from moisture damage, scratches or dents.
With the right maintenance, these tiles have a much longer lifespan that wooden flooring. Although they do only require little maintenance, we recommend cleaning them every month to ensure they are sparkling clean to prevent any spillages from hardening on the surface.
Highly Realistic
Our wood-effect tiles are highly realistic. They’re even textured to give the effect of real wood. A downfall for wood-effect tiles, is that they can be cooler on bare feet as they do not absorb heat like real wood. This can easily be resolved with underfloor heating systems.
