Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, clay, stone, porcelain, metal or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, or other objects such as tabletops. Another category are the ceiling tiles, made from lightweight materials such as perlite and mineral wool. The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, meaning a roof tile composed of baked clay. Less precisely, the modern term can refer to any sort of construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games (see tile-based game).
Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Tiles are most often made from ceramic, with a hard glaze finish, but other materials are also commonly used, such as glass, slate, and reformed ceramic slurry, which is cast in a mould and fired.
In the past twenty years, the technology surrounding porcelain tile has increased, moving it from a niche marketplace to a place of prominence in the tile community.
Roof tiles
Roof tiles are designed mainly to keep out rain, and are traditionally made from locally available materials such as clay or slate. Tiles are rarely made from unavailable materials.
Modern materials such as concrete and plastic are also used. Some clay tiles have a waterproof glaze.
A large number of shapes (or "profiles") of roof tiles have evolved. These include:
- Flat tiles - the simplest type, which are laid in regular overlapping rows. This profile is suitable for stone and wooden tiles, and most recently, solar cells.
- Roman tiles - flat in the middle, with a concave curve at one end at a convex curve at the other, to allow interlocking.
- Pantiles - with an S-shaped profile, allowing adjacent tiles to interlock. These result in a ridged pattern resembling a ploughed field.
- Mission or barrel tiles are semi-cylindrical tiles made by forming clay around a log and laid in alternating columns of convex and concave tiles.
Roof tiles are 'hung' from the framework of a roof by fixing them with nails. The tiles are usually hung in parallel rows, with each row overlapping the row below it to exclude rainwater and to cover the nails that hold the row below.
There are also roof tiles for special positions, particularly where the planes of the several pitches meet. They include ridge, hip and valley tiles.
Floor tiles
- For more details on the installation of floor tiles, see tile installation.
These are commonly made of ceramic, clay, porcelain or stone. Clay tiles may be painted and glazed. Small mosaic tiles may be laid in various patterns. Floor tiles are typically set into mortar consisting of sand, cement and oftentimes a latex additive for extra strength. The spaces between the tiles are nowadays filled with sanded or unsanded floor grout, but traditionally mortar was used.
Natural stone tiles can be especially beautiful. However, as a natural product they are often less uniform and require more planning for use and installation. Stone tiles described as "gauged" have very uniform width and length dimensions; "ungauged" stone tiles may vary from their nominal dimensions. Stone tiles such as granite can be sawn on both sides (and then polished on the facing up side) so that they have a uniform thickness. Other natural stone tiles such as slate are typically "riven" (split) on the facing up side so that the thickness of the tile varies from one spot on the tile to another and from one tile to another. Variations in tile thickness can be handled by adjusting the amount of mortar under each part of the tile, by using wide grout lines that "ramp" between different thicknesses, or by using a cold chisel to knock off high spots.
Some stone tiles such as polished granite and marble are inherently very slippery when wet. Stone tiles with a riven (split) surface will be more slip resistant.
The hardness of natural stone tiles varies such that some of the softer stone tiles are not suitable for very heavy traffic floor areas. On the other hand, ceramic tiles typically have a glazed upper surface and when that become scratched or pitted the floor looks worn, whereas the same amount of wear on natural stone tiles won't show or will be less noticeable.
Natural stone tiles can be stained by spilled liquids; they must be sealed and periodically resealed with a sealant in contrast to ceramic tiles which only need their grout lines sealed. However, because of the complex, non repeating patterns in natural stone, small amounts of dirt on many natural stone floor tiles do not show.
Most vendors of stone tiles emphasize that there will be variation in color and pattern from one batch of tiles to another of the same description and variation within the same batch.
Stone floor tiles tend to be heavier than ceramic tiles and somewhat more prone to breakage during shipment.
Wall tiles
While ancient Roman building bricks were broader and thinner than modern ones and are therefore usually called tiles, the term wall tile is normally applied to finishing tiles. These are usually ceramic, but other materials such as mirrored glass or polished metal can be used. Wall tiles are usually glazed, and are often patterned by painting or embossing. Pictorial tiles, consisting of many tiles that the installer assembles like a jigsaw puzzle to form a single large picture, are available.
Modern wall tiles are fixed to a wall using a synthetic bonding agent tile adhesive for dry areas, or a cement-based mortar for areas prone to moisture, such as bath or shower walls. The spaces between the tiles are filled with a fine cement called unsanded grout. The excess grout is scraped off with a hard rubber block called a float immediately after applying; further, the grout is wiped again with a moist sponge before it completely hardens. The sponging provides added moisture to strengthen the grout as it cures. Finally, a cloth is rubbed over the wall tile to remove any haze which may remain from residual grout.
UK History
Mathematical tiles were wall tiles shaped to look like bricks when attached to the wall. This was both cheaper than real bricks and also a means of avoiding the 'Brick tax' which used to exist between 1784 and 1850. [1] The building was built with a wooden infrastucture and the panel gaps in-filled with mathematical tiles. Mathematical tiles were also used to 'modernise' the appearance of an older building without the cost of rebuilding a structural wall. Also they were used on upper floor bay windows where weight was an issue.
Ceiling tiles
Ceiling tiles are lightweight tiles used in the interior of buildings. They are placed on a steel grid and, depending on the tile selected, may provide thermal insulation, sound absorption, enhanced fire protection, and improved indoor air quality.
Also frequently called Ceiling Panels, or Drop-Ceiling Tiles, they offer the advantage of easy access to wiring and plumbing above the ceiling grid, and can be easily changed, removed, or replaced as needed. They are fabricated from perlite, mineral wool, plastic, tin, aluminum, and fibers from recycled paper. They frequently have patterns comprised of holes, to improve their sound absorption properties, though many have a molded surface providing a textured, sculpted, or pressed-tin look to the ceiling. Some tiles are available with decorative photo/transfer surfaces, some are approved for installation under fire suppression sprinkler heads so the sprinklers to not show, some are are approved for use in food preparation areas, and some are certified for indoor air quality by the GreenGuard Institute. Tiles are available that resist mold and moisture damage, that have enhanced acoustical properties, and that can be easily trimmed with household scissors. Recycling old tiles depends upon the material used to make them, and some landfills no longer accept traditional mineral fiber tiles, so they must be recycled to the manufacture. Some plastic tiles can be 100% curbside recycled.
Decorative tilework
Decorative tilework typically takes the form of mosaic upon the walls, floor, or ceiling of a building. Although decorative tilework was known and extensively practiced in the ancient world (as evidenced in the magnificent mosaics of Pompeii and Herculaneum), it perhaps reached its greatest expression during the Islamic period.
Some places, notably Portugal and São Luís, have a tradition of tilework on buildings that continues today.
In the United States, decorative tiles were in vogue, especially in southern California, in the 1920s and 1930s. Prominent among art tile makers during this period was Ernest A. Batchelder.
Islamic tilework
Perhaps because of the tenets of Moslem law (sharia) which disavow religious icons and images in favor of more abstract and universal representations of the divine, many consider decorative tilework to have reached a pinnacle of expression and detail during the Islamic period. Palaces, public buildings, and mosques were heavily decorated with dense, often massive mosaics and friezes of astonishing complexity. As both the influence and the extent of Islam spread during the Middle Ages this artistic tradition was carried along, finding expression from the gardens and courtyards of Málaga in Moorish Spain to the mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
The mathematics of tiling
Certain shapes of tiles, most obviously rectangles, can be replicated to cover a surface with no gaps. These shapes are said to tessellate (from the Latin tessera, 'tile'). For detailed information on tilings see the tessellation page.
History of tiles
Tiles were developed as a product of earthenware pottery, either as an alternative use for fragments of broken pottery (called potsherds) or as an independent invention. Tiles have been used in construction for at least 4000 years, by the Romans, Persians, Greeks, Babylonians, Phoenicians and many other cultures.
See also
