Bisazza Mosaic Tiles Shown Above

Recently, I discovered a couple of items that I had not fully considered when I specified a Dal Tile ceramic floor tile for some restrooms that I designed. These restrooms are public restrooms, and therefore the tile require some special consideration. Here are the two items that came up:

• Slip Resistance- The various codes across the United States require a certain coefficient of friction (COF) for the floor tiles for any public restrooms. The higher the COF, the more slip resistant the tiles are. What you want is a very slip resistant tile because you don’t want people slipping and hurting themselves easily in you building. When you use glazed ceramic tile, like the Dal Tile I had specified, you want to make sure that you can get a abrasive component added into the tile glaze or the tile will notwork because you can slip too easily. Dal Tile and any other manufacturer can easily make the tile slip resistant to the standard you need, but there is one problem that brings me to the next point
• Lead Time- When you order a tile that is not completely standard or out of stock, then the lead time, in the case of this particular tile, is six weeks. This is not an uncommon lead time at all. By the way, lead time is the time it takes from when you place an order until you actually get the product ready to put into a building.

So, What do you do if you can’t wait the six week lead time? You have to find a alternative:

Glazed Ceramic Tile versus Quarry Tile: If you can’t find a suitable ceramic tile that meets aesthetics and slip resistance, then it is time to turn to a different type of tile such as a quarry tile. Quarry tiles have several differences from glazed ceramic tiles which we don’t need to go into, but the most important differences are:

• Porosity- glazed ceramic tiles are impervious and therefore water resistant and suitable for bathrooms and such. Quarry tiles are porous and therefore would need to be sealed with something like an AquaMix Sealer’s Choice Gold which is a great water based sealer.
• Slip Resistance- As mentioned, quarry tile is by nature more slip resistant and need no special modifications.
• Thickness- The quarry tile assembly is much more thick than the ceramic tile assembly which might affect floor transitions. This needs to be checked by drawing a section detail at the transition.
• Choice of size- Quarry tile is available in 6″ x 6″ and that’s about all you get. Ceramic tiles are available in a multitude of sizes and shapes.

For more information on specifying floor tile, check out:

•  Bisazza: my favorite tile to use
• Dal Tile
• Aqua Mix
• National Tile Contractor’s Association
• USG Durock Tile Installation PDF (maybe one of the handiest resources)