Stone tile for bathroom: features of choice

A bathroom in an apartment or house is one of the most important rooms for human life. Its peculiarity is a humid microclimate. Therefore, the finishing materials that must be selected for such a room must withstand a large amount of water.

Natural stone in the decoration of the premises of a residential building or apartment looks great as an expensive and presentable material. It does not wear out for a long time, it looks beautiful, in the interior design it gives a sense of the reliability of the home. But natural material has natural pores and a certain composition.

Under the influence of excess moisture and modern household detergents, it can begin to tarnish and deteriorate. Its operation in the bathroom has its own difficulties. When decorating a room with stone, where a high level of humidity remains almost all the time, special care is needed for it, which can cause certain inconveniences for the owners. In addition, sawn natural stone is heavy and difficult to install. This is an expensive material that an ordinary consumer cannot afford.

Tile, which is used for interior decoration, has much better performance properties than natural stone. It is fired at high temperatures and practically does not absorb water, is inert to household detergents, and comes in a variety of colors and textures. It is lighter in weight, which is important when decorating walls, ideal in shape, easily assembled into a canvas and much cheaper than natural rocks. If you want to have natural materials in the bathroom, they can be replaced with tiles that imitate stone. Thus, the bathtub will look like it is finished with natural material, but at the same time, the care of the surfaces and their operation will be much easier than in the case of natural materials.

One of the most popular stones in interior decoration is marble. Delicate shades, beautiful texture allow you to create an exquisite interior and combine such finishing material with any other. But marble is a very fragile stone. It wears out easily, degrades under the influence of acids, therefore, when using it, careful care is required for them. But manufacturers from different countries have created many tile collections that include marble imitation.

Tiles imitating this natural material are of such varieties as:

• imitation of white marble with oblique lines of texture;
• imitation of gray marble with vertical lines of texture;

• imitation of marble, reminiscent of reddish sandstone with a varied texture of lines;
• imitation of marble of any shades. At the same time, the tile retains the beauty of the texture of the stone, but the colors can be very diverse - pink, lilac and any other that are not found in the natural environment.

Tile manufacturers successfully make imitation of other stones as well. As a rule, stone tiles can be divided into large groups. These are tiles with a rough embossed surface, a rough surface and a smooth shiny surface. Each of them has its own advantages, excellent performance properties and beauty.

The rough surface of the tile shows the image of a medieval castle or estate. Smoother but rougher tiles can be used for the floor, as splashing water can periodically appear in the bathroom downstairs. If the floor tiles are polished, the person will start to slip, fall and be seriously injured in the room.Smooth shiny tiles with imitation of stone patterns fit perfectly into any interior, combined with ornamental compositions, picturesque panels, small mosaics. In a bathroom of any style, some of its surfaces can be finished with stone-like tiles. This will give her beauty and a certain zest.

The stones that most imitate in tiles are onyx, granite and crystalline formations. There are tiles with patterns in the form of malachite. Imitation of onyx is performed in gray and black shades with angular patterns. Imitation granite can be in different colors in accordance with the variety of this type of stone. It has a complex texture.

Crystal is the surface of a tile that refracts color. Such a surface does not recreate a certain type of stone, it imitates crystalline formations as a whole, but only in a more regular, ordered version. And there are also many fancy options that do not represent a certain type of natural stone. In such a tile, the wrong texture is combined, which appears on a cut of stone with a wide variety of shades. Thus, the designer's imagination allows you to decorate the bathroom not only with tiles in the form of one of the stone rocks, but also with any fantasies on the theme of mountain finishing and building material.

If you want to make repairs with stone-like surfaces, you need to take a closer look at the different types of tiles. Each species has its own characteristics. Today, matte ceramic tiles are quite popular. Clinker tiles can be glazed and unglazed. Porcelain stoneware is particularly durable and practically does not absorb moisture. It is great for damp areas such as a bathtub.

Majolica is a painted tile. Among its variety, one can find the most beautiful examples of marbled painting. And also recently, tiles with a 3D effect have appeared, which, when looking at them, give the impression of depth to the tiles. This tile looks very attractive and much richer than the usual one. There is an option to imitate a wild stone, if you can be injured from the stone, then the torn surface of the tile will never cause cuts to a person.

Finishing material with imitation of stone in the bathroom should be not only beautiful, but also suitable in terms of its characteristics for use in a humid environment. There are types of tiles that do not tolerate such a microclimate and are suitable only for dry rooms. These are gypsum tiles, so you shouldn't use them in the bathroom. It can quickly deteriorate. Be sure to take into account the influence of moisture when choosing a finishing material for a bathroom.

For the features of choosing tiles for a stone for a bathroom, see the following video.