How to choose the flooring for each room in the home

Modern manufacturing technology within the ceramic industry makes it possible to create surfaces with technical and aesthetic characteristics suitable for every intended use, from residential to commercial spaces. When choosing the flooring and cladding for the various spaces in your home, it is very important to take into consideration the mechanical, chemical, and thermal stress that the surfaces will be subjected to in the years to come.

The most delicate spaces in the home, where one should pay particular attention, are:

1. The entrance

The entrance is the area in the home with the most intense concentration of foot traffic, but the conditions of use of the floors are different depending on the context. If, for example, the entrance is on the ground floor of an independent home with a gravel driveway and direct access to the outside, the floors will experience considerable abrasive stress due to the residue under our shoes. So the choice of tiles must be oriented towards those with greater resistance to abrasion. In these cases, we also recommend avoiding very light, solid-coloured surfaces (dirt is more visible) and to favour darker colours with more shading.

2. The bathroom

The floors and walls of the bathroom come into contact with chemical and staining agents (for example, products used for personal hygiene, cosmetics, perfumes) and must be easy to clean and sanitise through the use of moderately aggressive cleaning products. So the choice must be oriented towards tiles with heightened chemical characteristics (and in particular, resistance to acids and bases).

3. The kitchen

Kitchen floors are subjected to the most frequent and vigorous cleaning as this is the surface in the home that is most often exposed to dirt. It is also the floor onto which the most things fall. The choice of tiles must therefore be oriented towards those with a surface featuring heightened mechanical and chemical characteristics.

4. The exterior

It is important to select tiles with clearly-stated and certified frost resistance. Exterior tiles must possess certain fundamental characteristics, like frost resistance, resistance to changes in temperature, and slip resistance. For this reason a “textured” surface is preferable, one that is rough to the touch.