Do It Yourself Bathrooms

Wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor tiling may be easy to wash and practical but it can also be so, so boring.  A great way to jazz up the design of your haven of peace is to add decorative tile accents.  Purpose made bull-nose or raised motif mural tiles are on display at your local tile emporium.  Typically as wide as a tile but only one or two inches high, these details are designed to complement the design of a specific range of tiles.  However there are no hard and fast rules and you should feel free to mix and match.

Only a couple of words of warning; try, somehow, to assemble a running yard or so of the tile and the decorative tile accent as this may give you a whole different perspective on the choice.  Also go for contrast rather that matching colors since tiling has a reputation for variability batch-to-batch.

You may have seen different types of tile at your supplier and wondered what the benefits and drawbacks might be.  Most ceramic tiles are classified as Non-Vitreous, Semi Vitreous or Vitreous.  These names refer to their ability to soak up water.  Most wall tiles are classified as Non-Vitreous as they have a low density and they are only suitable for indoor use, Semi- Vitreous and Vitreous are stronger tiles and are used for indoor floors and some outdoor applications and some are described as Frost Proof.

Impervious tiles are generally made from porcelain which is a type of ceramic tile manufactured from a special mixture of clays and fired at very high temperatures.  This makes an extremely dense and strong tile that is exceptionally hard and resistant to water and staining.  Porcelain tile is tougher than granite and can be used in all outdoor applications as well as indoor applications.

A tiled bathroom floor is a joy to look at and a treat to clean but on a cold winters night it can be like treading on an iceberg.  There are currently two basic approaches to heated bathroom floors; cheap to fit electric mats or economical to run embedded hot water pipes.

The mats are low voltage units a little like large versions of heated car windows.  A sandwich of insulation, heating mat, a flexible adhesive and tiles finishes the heated bathroom floor. Embedded hot water pipe is an extension of your central heating system.  It works just like a great big radiator under the bathroom floor.  The preparation for this is more drastic as you need to bury the flexible pipe-work in 4 to 5 inches of concrete screed.
If you’re considering a tiled floor it’s worth finding a few extra bucks to install under-floor heating in your bathroom.