Wood is a wonderful material. It has warm color tones, characterful grains, and it stands for pure nature. Whether with a playful interior or a modern, design-oriented interior: With its disarming naturalness, the look of wood harmonizes with all styles of living. However, a floor made of real wood has downsides. Wooden planks require a lot of care and have a problem with moisture. The advantage of wood-effect tiles is that they offer the natural look of a wooden floor while providing an easy-to-clean and hard-wearing floor covering.
Wood: a key resource for naturalness look
Wood looks in floor coverings have been around for a long time. Laminate, linoleum, and vinyl flooring have a variety of looks to choose from that more or less mimic the look of wood. Relatively new are wood-effect tiles made of porcelain stoneware, which inspire with an authentic look in addition to excellent technical properties such as robustness and thermal conductivity. It is important to differentiate here because there are also quality differences in porcelain stoneware tiles. High-quality wood-effect tiles have the advantage that on the installed surface you will hardly find any patterns that recur. This gives the tiles a natural and authentic design and structures that create a deceptively real image of wood surfaces.
Thermal conductivity of tiles
Wood-effect tiles have an enormous thermal advantage. On one side, tiles feel cold, a great advantage when it’s hot in summer, but not necessarily a plus in cold winter temperatures. However, since porcelain stoneware, like natural stone, has excellent thermal conductivity, this material is ideal for underfloor heating systems. When it is cold, a floor made of tiles combined with a modern underfloor heating system is much more pleasant than a floor made of real wood. Real wood floors have poor thermal conductivity.
Everyday care: Wood floor vs. tiles
When it comes to cleaning and maintenance, wood-effect tiles are a real blessing with many advantages versus real wood floors. Porcelain stoneware is a robust and resistant material that is fired at high temperatures, which gives the stoneware a real hard structure. Wear and tear are therefore virtually non-existent with porcelain stoneware tiles. The surfaces are the opposite of delicate and can be wiped clean very easily, without having to worry too much about cleaning products.
Another plus point in terms of easy maintenance is that porcelain stoneware tiles can be perfectly structured to the floor plan, and hence cover even the smallest of joints in the room. The disadvantages of wood tiles are obvious: Real wood is very sensitive to water, hence needs very carefully cleaning with the use of special products. Also, wood tiles tend to wear out much faster than porcelain stoneware tiles.
A great choice for outdoors as well
Warm wood tones with natural textures harmonize particularly well with natural terrace concepts. The authentic look of wood that porcelain stoneware tiles offer cannot be matched by other planks with a wood look. Porcelain stoneware tiles optimally withstand the effects of weather such as rain, heat, or frost. Hence, the robust structure of porcelain stoneware makes wood effect tiles a great choice for outdoors as well.