What Many Homeowners Ask About Concrete Tiles

Concrete tiles in a home may not sound very attractive, but one advantage of concrete is that the surface can be stamped to look like stone or a mosaic tile, as well as painted, stained, or buffed to a high gloss. This ensures that concrete tiles used inside a home look nothing like an exterior driveway! If you're looking for a new flooring option for your home, note a few questions that many homeowners ask about concrete tiles, and this can help you make your choice.

Are they heavy?

The weight of concrete tiles themselves will depend on their thickness. The total weight of your home's new flooring will also be determined by the entire square footage to be tiled; the larger the area to be tiled, and the thicker the tile, the greater the weight of your new floor overall.

Whether or not your home can support the total weight of concrete tiles will then depend on how much flooring you want covered with these tiles, their individual thickness, and the strength of your home's structure. In some cases, these tiles might add up to too much weight for an upstairs area. Otherwise, concrete tiles shouldn't add significant weight to the overall structure of the house, or be too heavy to use in most areas.

Do the tiles crack?

Outdoor concrete is known to eventually crack or chip, and need repair and patching. While there is no guarantee that indoor concrete floor tiles won't crack in the same way, note that humidity and heavy weights on concrete are both major contributors to how often it gets damaged. In your home, your concrete floor tiles won't be exposed to as much humidity as an outside driveway, and certainly not to a car driving over them! Your interior concrete floor tiles may then last for many years, if not even decades, before they ever need any type of repairs.

What maintenance and cleaning do they need?

Your home's interior concrete tiles will need sweeping and mopping, just like any other tile surface. Over the years, the gloss of tiles may wear down, and the floor may need some buffing. Paint and stain may eventually fade and need a touch-up. However, this maintenance is typically needed far less often than the maintenance needed for ceramic and porcelain tiles, and even less often than the cleaning and repair needed for timber floors and carpeting. For floors that are virtually maintenance free and very durable even in the busiest of homes, concrete tiles can be the best choice.