Wood-effect porcelain stoneware: why choose it instead of wood flooring
Porcelain stoneware is a material that is characterised by great versatility, which allows it to reproduce with extreme precision the colours and textures of many different materials, including natural stone and wood.
The idea of using a ceramic tile as a replacement for wood flooring may seem, at first glance, unconvincing, but there are many excellent reasons that make porcelain stoneware a valid alternative to wood flooring: these are the most significant.
Textures and colours of wood-effect porcelain stoneware
Porcelain stoneware, thanks to special measures that are adopted during production, is able to perfectly reproduce the aesthetics of wood, as well as that of marble, granite or other natural materials. Through the use of special high-definition printers, it is possible to recreate the veins in an absolutely realistic way, generating tiles that reproduce with great fidelity the appearance of any type of wood, from durmast, to oak, to elm, obtaining stunning aesthetic results. Furthermore, porcelain stoneware is not limited to reproducing the colour and grain of the natural material, but also allows the texture to be replicated: it is therefore possible to obtain tiles that reproduce the characteristics of untreated wood, raw wood or – on the contrary – polished wood, with more or less evident grain, choosing from a really wide variety of options.
The laying of wood-effect porcelain stoneware
Just like natural wood tiles, wood-effect porcelain stoneware tiles can also be laid according to different patterns, which allow to achieve very varied results, suitable for any type of environment. The choice of the preferred type of installation can be influenced by many factors: the placement of windows and light sources, the size of the room, the style of the furniture, the colour of the walls and so on. When designing, it is important to take all these aspects into account and consequently choose the type of tile, knowing that you can count on a wide variety of colours, textures and sizes. It is possible, for example, to opt for long tiles to be laid diagonally, the perfect solution for large environments, or for solutions with smaller tiles that can be laid according to the classic herringbone pattern, or by creating frames, or even by choosing a square pattern. In this sense, porcelain stoneware guarantees the same creative freedom as wooden flooring, further expanded by the possibility of choosing from a particularly extensive catalogue of options and combinations.
Practicality and durability over time
Choosing to use porcelain stoneware tiles instead of traditional parquet flooring guarantees important advantages even beyond the mere aesthetic appearance. Porcelain stoneware, in fact, is an extremely practical material to clean, requires no special maintenance and is very resistant to scratching and abrasion. This makes it particularly suitable for use in all environments that are used intensively, with the guarantee of obtaining a beautiful result from an aesthetic point of view, but also capable of lasting over time. Imagine, for example, choosing wooden flooring for the flooring of a child’s room: the result will certainly be very beautiful, but even if the utmost attention is paid, it is really very unlikely that playing or running on the floor will leave no engravings or abrasions on the surface. Porcelain stoneware, on the other hand, resists this type of stress perfectly, can be cleaned daily without the need to use specific products and does not require periodic maintenance, which are instead necessary to allow wood to remain beautiful over time. Wood, precisely because it is a "living" material, does not stop changing and must therefore be periodically treated so that it retains its characteristics; stoneware, on the other hand, is waterproof, resistant and stable, and guarantees excellent performance in terms of durability.
Heat, energy saving and convenience
Natural wood is a material that immediately conveys an idea of warmth and protection from the cold, and in fact is widely used in harsh climatic contexts. The reasons for this choice are related to the fact that wood is a good insulator, so it is able to retain heat within an environment due to its poor conductivity.
This feature, however, also has some negative implications: the tendency to retain heat without transmitting it, for example, means that wood is not the ideal material to use in combination with a floor heating system. Porcelain stoneware, on the other hand, has a good ability to transmit heat by thermal conduction, and therefore allows to obtain a better level of domestic comfort in the face of a lower energy expenditure.
The greater capacity of stoneware to transmit heat, added to the fact that the cost of porcelain stoneware tiles is generally lower than that of natural wooden slats, makes this material particularly convenient not only from the point of view of aesthetics and practicality, but also of comfort and savings.
Do you want to know more about the types, sizes and colours of Tagina porcelain stoneware tiles? Check out our catalogue and contact us.
