WOODEN TILE: COME FROM NATURE, BEYOND NATURE
With the development and progress of society, people’s concept of home is no longer just a shelter from the wind and rain, but a harbor that can provide us with warmth and comfort.
Nowadays people pay more and more attention to the decoration of the house, not only from the basic needs, but also the pursuit of visual effects. And one of the most basic decorative materials should be tiles. Then wooden ceramic tile also can be one of the popular tiles used for decoration.
What is wooden ceramic tile?
As the name implies, wooden ceramic tiles are ceramic tiles that look similar to wood and the material can be ceramics or porcelain.The factory imitates the texture and structure of the wood surface to do some wooden designs to enrich the colors of the tiles.
When the inkjet technology become a normal production tool but not the advantage for only a few manufacturers, then it will be a common thing that wooden ceramic tiles come out of the antique ceramic tiles,being a new category of the ceramic industry.
As one of the types of glazed tiles, wooden tile fits the trend of industry and it will be more popular with the personalized demand. Especially with the development of the technology of imitating wood,achieving the effect of real wood is easier and easier. Under the joint promotion of these factors, imitation wood ceramic tiles becomes a trend without any doubt.
Now T&A CERAMICS can produce matte, rustic, lappato, polished and soft polished surface for wooden ceramic tiles.
How does wooden ceramic tile develop?
As early as more than 20 years ago, wooden tile was produced already. But because of the limitation of the technology, the wooden tile can only achieve a simple imitation of the surface texture of the wood grain, the concave and convex surface of the product can not be produced, the product texture is not comparable to present. But it was still hot sale tiles for some time even though that time the tile looked not very natural and the surface also looked not that clear. Later the suppliers used another technology named roller printing to make the texture and structure like real wood more. And finally inkjet printing was born and it was used until today.
Thanks to the more and more advanced technology, which makes the wooden ceramic tiles have a qualitative leap, especially under the popularity of inkjet technology, combined with dry grain, spray glaze and other technologies, the tile factory has produced wood ceramic tile wih better texture. And the sizes are also from 60x60cm,80x80cm to 60x120cm,75x150cm and even larger sizes 80x160cm,120x240cm now. And they can be also cut to smaller sizes and we can even mix and match different colors or type of wooden design on one tile which make the tiling more flexible and fashionable. The wooden tiles can be used in more spaces which highly improve the consumer acceptance.
What are the differences between wooden ceramic tiles and solid wood flooring?
Both wooden ceramic tiles and solid wood flooring look similar from the look but why now more and more people use wooden ceramic tiles instead of solid wood flooring?
Wooden ceramic and porcelain tiles are an environmentally friendly building material with the advantages of flame retardant, non-corrosive, environmentally friendly, long service life, wear-resistant, etc. It does not require periodic waxing maintenance like wooden products and other characteristics.
Color variation :
Ceramic wood look tiles are easier to make different colors to match the varies needs of the clients. The colors can be white, black, light and dark and even more colorful. But the solid wood flooring is hard to add colorful elements and sometimes it makes the rooms look dull.
Price difference&lift of using :
As we know the high quality of natural solid wood is very expensive and also it cost more for maintaining. But the wooden ceramic tiles has the same price as the normal ceramic tile. And there is no need to pay more attention after tiling the tiles. Usually you just need to clean it in the normal way and you don’t have to worry to scratch the surface. As long as we use the wooden ceramic tiles normally then it can be lasted for 20 to 30 years.
Place of using:
Both wooden ceramic tiles and solid wood flooring can be usually used on the floor of the sitting rooms and living rooms especially at home. Bsides, we can put wooden ceramic tiles on the floor and the wall in the bathroom and kitchen. But solid wood flooring cannot be used in the wet environment.
How to choose wooden ceramic tile?
Since there are so many designs of wooden ceramic tiles, then how should we choose?
Firstly, pls check the design if it looks natural. And choose the designs with more variations.
Secondly,choose the size of the wooden tile as per the area size. If you use it in a small room, pls choose smaller sizes ,such as 15x60cm,20x60cm. But if you put it in the big area like public places, then you can use 60x120cm,40x80cm,30x90cm,etc.
Thirdly,choose polished or matte surface? For living rooms, usually we can choose polished surface because it makes rooms brighter and also easier to clean. And for bedrooms,we can choose matte surface on the floor and it can make people feel warmth and comfort. For bathrooms, we definitely should put matte wooden ceramic tiles on the floor to avoid slipping; and for the wall,usually we use polished surface since you can clean it easily and combining with matte floor wooden tile which makes the bathroom nice.
How to make tiling for the wooden ceramic tiles?
Step1: “determine the tiling method”. In addition to the traditional ceramic wall tile well-shaped in the middle, horizontal and vertical paving method,the normal tiling method of wooden ceramic tile still have other ways such as herringbone, I-beam, oblique diamond line and others. Since there are so many types of tiling ways, you’d better to choose the way you like before tiling so that it can give you the effect you want.
Step 2: “leveling”. The so-called leveling, instantly before laying wood tiles, should be paving the building floor or wall surface treatment. Such as the ground, interior walls, exterior walls, etc.. Eliminate the adhesion of the surface, with semi-wet cement sand mix paving.
Step 3: “bullet line”. Play line means a long thin line, coated with white ash goods ink, determine the axis of the brick, and then pave according to the line.
Step 4: “Choose the wooden tile”. To see the variety of brick planned to lay, pick out and put in different categories. For example, pavement wood grain tiles, wood grain tiles on the wall, wood grain tiles on the floor, etc. should be distinguished so as not to lay up mixed up.
Step 5: “soak the wooden tiles”. Wooden tiles and polished tiles, antique tiles to soak water, to use tap water or clear water, not muddy water or dirty water, not to use oil sewage; soaking time does not take too long, that is, soaking wet can be. (Porcelain tile must be soaked through before paving).
Step 6: “Mixing slurry”. Cement sand should be mixed in the ratio of 1:2, should use the standard 325 cement, the standard is too high cement will be formed on the wood grain tile internal should pull, serious will pull crack wood grain tile.
Step 7: “Apply the mortar”. Take out the soaked wooden ceramic tiles, dry the wooden tiles water stains, the cement paste evenly coated in the back of the wood grain tile, mortar thickness in 2-3 cm, followed by the wood grain tile to the ground cement sand surface pavement, with a wooden hammer gently knock wood grain tile brick surface, until paved flat and level, alignment neatly so.
Step 8: “tiling”. Pls pay attention to the wood grain tile texture order, and pay attention to the wood grain tile bottom marking arrows, etc.; Make wooden hammer knocking to avoid empty knocking, power to balance, force to avoid too large or too small. The best application of tiling tiles is to use plastic cross, so that you can fix the position for the tiles which you have finished tiling. Wooden hammer knocking wooden ceramic tile seam overflow cement paste with a sponge or rag can be smoothed. High-grade wooden ceramic tiles are generally less than 1 mm gap, there is not need special caulking.
Step 9: “adjusting”. When you finish tiling, the cement is not completely dry, you can observe with the naked eye or measured with a level, in accordance with the standard to make adjusting if there are some tiles not in the correct position. Check the flatness, straightness and so on. If you find any problem, pls adjust it immediately and take out some tiles and tiling them again until you think the tiling is perfect.
Step 10: caulking. After the cement got dried and you can use the grout to caulk the seam and make your floor or wall more beautiful.
Are you interested in wooden ceramic tiles from T&A CERAMICS manufacturer? Welcome to contact us for any enquiry and we will be your best companion.