Many of us choose the floor based on its appearance and cost. But the floor tiles, as well as other types of finishing materials, have a number of important technological features that will have a direct influence on the duration of the operation and the surface resistance to various types of impacts. In order to pick up high-quality tile for particular spaces, and in our case they are hallways and corridors, it is necessary to define the technical requirements to the coating. It is important to understand of which stress types and with what intensity the flooring is subjected to when choosing floor tiles for entry and hallway, what would be the temperature and room humidity indicator, whether the surface need to be cleansed by means of chemically active substances.
Having defined the criteria for the choice of flooring for complicated, in terms of traffic and types of mechanical and other influences, hall space, you can go directly to the designer’s decision. As a rule, technical documentation for the tile of any type specifies its technological performance. In addition, the packaging is provided with special markings, also able tell a lot about the “character” of the cladding material. Let’s try to understand what floor tiles to purchase for repair in the hallways, lobbies, corridors and other ancillary premises.
Floor tile features
The porosity of the material
This is a very important characteristic of tiles – other indicators of strength, durability and wear resistance of the material depend on it. The porosity of the tile indicating the amount of water product is able to absorb. It is expressed as a percentage, indicating the increase in weight of the tiles after two hours immersion in water. Obviously, the tile, which will protect the floors in the hallway, should have a minimum porosity, because the surface will be exposed to moisture (snow, mud) from our shoes and umbrellas. To obtain low porosity high firing temperature of products is required. As a result of this firing, the material undergoes a greater shrinkage, its flexural strength increases. Non-glazed tiles increase their wear resistance.
The floors at the entry are being washed more often than in other rooms of a private house or apartment. Experts recommend purchase floor tiles with porosity lower than three per cent for private households, and at least six percent for apartment buildings.
Hardness and wear resistance of the tile
For halls, hallways and lobbies of apartment houses it is recommended to use tile with high class of abrasion as a floor covering. The material of class 3 or 4 will be suitable for lining the corridors and hallways. And at the entrance to the premises can be put unglazed tile or ceramic granite. Also, you should considered the surface quality of the products – hardness, resistance to chemicals, cleanability.
When choosing tile for hallway floors, it is also important to take into account other factors, such as the color, “chromatic structure” and shine. With the wear and tear of products increases their contamination disposition of the surface. Spots conspicuous on the light and monochromatic surfaces and are less visible on the dark, grainy ones, or products with a colorful pattern. On the glossy, shiny surfaces scratches are visible very well. This factor should be taken into account by housewives, who often wear high heels shoes.
Mechanical properties
All the mechanical properties of tiles are related to the ability to resist various loads – starting with the weight of the furniture and to the movement of bags on wheels. Most often people pay attention to the following two types of characteristics – resistance to bending and bending strength. The resistance to bending depends on the index of material hygroscopy – the higher the porosity of the tiles, the lower is the index. For example, porcelain tiles moisture absorption value is of 0.5%, while the single-fired tiles – 10%. Resistance to bending index distributes accordingly. Bending strength depends not only on the porosity of the product, but also its thickness. The thicker tiles, the higher are the tensile strength.
The most intense (and frequent) impact on the surface of the tiles comes from the soles of our shoes, which can be made of different materials, including metal taps on the heels. In addition, the more dirt is on the shoe soles of ours, the quicker wears the floor covering.
The durability of the tiling can be easy characterized by two parameters – the Mohs index surface hardness and wear resistance of ceramics. On a scale of surface hardness minerals can be positioned in the following sequence:
- talc – 1;
- gypsum – 2;
- calcite – 3;
- fluorite – 4;
- apatite – 5;
- feldspar – 6;
- quartz – 7;
- topaz – 8;
- corundum – 9;
- diamond -10.
The wear resistance of ceramic tiles is measured in standard units from 1 to 5 on P.E.I scale. Group (1-5) of either particular tile’s model is specified on the packaging. In order not to load you with information about each of the five groups, except to say that the hallways, the corridors and halls, characterized by a high enough traffic rate, average Abrasion surfaces suitable articles belonging to the fourth group (in a pinch, you can use material from the collections of the third group).
