Things You May Want To Know About Marble Floor Tiles
If you're looking for luxurious flooring for your kitchen, living room, or bathroom, consider marble floor tiles. These natural stone tiles have unique color swirls that give them a glamorous appearance in your home. Plus, the tiles can be polished to have a deep sheen for a sparkling reflective surface. Here are a few things to know about marble floor tiles.
Marble Floor Tiles Are Good With Radiant Heating
Marble tiles can be cold on your bare feet, but you can get around that by installing radiant floor heating before you have the tiles installed. Marble is an excellent type of flooring to use with radiant heat since the heat passes through the stone easily and warms up your room. This leaves the flooring nice and warm on your feet so your kids and pets can play on the floor without getting chilly.
Marble Floor Tiles Require Professional Installation
Marble is a difficult stone to work with, so hiring a professional to install the flooring is a good idea. Marble is brittle, so the tiles can break easily as you try to install them. Plus, the tiles can be difficult to cut when you need to trim the tiles to fit. Otherwise, marble floor tiles are installed like other types of tile floors.
A cement board is put down first and then the tiles are stuck to that with adhesive. Then the joints are filled with grout. The final step is sealing the grout and tiles. Marble is porous, so it's important to have it sealed after the tiles are installed to keep it from staining and being damaged by water.
Leftover Tiles Can Be Saved For Repairs
There are different types of marble, and the swirl patterns from different slabs are unique. That makes it difficult to find replacement tiles that are an exact match. You'll want to save leftover tiles or buy an extra box to have on hand in case you ever need to pull out a tile and replace it. Your flooring installer will probably order more tiles than they'll need so you can have some left in reserve.
Marble Floor Tiles Are Easy To Keep Clean
You can use marble floor cleaner to keep the tiles clean and shiny, or you can just use mild soapy water. Be sure to rinse well to get rid of residue and dry the floors too. You can protect the floors with rugs, but be sure to buy rugs that have nonslip backing. You'll also want to seal the tiles regularly. The type of sealer you use and the amount of foot traffic the floor gets determine how often you should seal your new floor. You can ask the flooring dealer or installer for advice if you're not sure how often your new floor will need to be sealed.