Should You Use Ceramic or Natural Stone for Kitchen Floor Tiles?

When thinking about a new kitchen or a remodeling project, you have to start from the bottom up. The flooring color, design, and materials should be decided upon before thinking about the cabinets, countertops, wall colors, and appliances. The floor should set the tone for the rest of the project, and the surface material should be chosen based on form and function. Home chefs who anticipate frequent preparation of elaborate meals will likely think of materials that can withstand spills, dropped dishes, and significant foot traffic, thus ruling out absorbent materials such as hardwood and bamboo. For many homeowners, kitchen flooring choices boil down to ceramic versus natural-stone tiles, and the latter should always be preferred for the following reasons.

Property Value and Home Equity

Over the last few decades, kitchens have become focal points of residential properties. If you’re the kind of homeowner who believes real estate assets should be treated as an investment, natural-stone flooring in your kitchen is highly recommended because it’ll be a favorable factor when property appraisers conduct full appraisals of your home. When your property is listed for sale, it’ll be easier to justify a higher sales price with fancy stone flooring compared to ceramic tile. Want to know how to clean flooring made of granite or another type of natural stone?  

Durability

Some ceramic tiles are ideal for a busy kitchen. For example, porcelain is an advanced flooring material that improves upon ceramics with the use of sand, minerals, and glazing compounds, but now you’re looking at prices around $8 per square foot. Natural stone can cost around the same as porcelain, but you’ll be making a smarter choice in terms of durability and resiliency. Slate and Pennsylvania bluestone are two classic kitchen flooring materials often found in the New England regions, and you can see them installed in historic homes.

Designer Kitchens

Getting back to the concept of a kitchen as a focal point of your home, natural stone should be your only choice if you’re seeking the ultimate look. Unless you opt for hand-painted ceramic tiles arranged in a mosaic pattern, which would be very expensive, you’ll always be better off with natural-stone tiles selected from a nice batch. In homes with open floor plans where the kitchen transitions to a great room or lounge area, natural-stone tiles always look better.

Maintenance

While glazed ceramic tiles are generally easy to maintain, they’re more prone to discoloration and cracking than their natural-stone counterparts. Since stone flooring is an investment, a certain level of maintenance is in order, which means using a safe granite stone & tile floor cleaner such as Granite Gold Stone & Tile Floor Cleaner®. All stone floors require sealing, and some may need it more frequently than others, but getting into a regular routine isn’t at all difficult with Granite Gold Sealer®.

To learn how to seal natural-stone floors, reach out to the Stone Care Experts at Granite Gold®. Call us today at 1-800-475-STONE (7866). To find a store near you that carries Granite Gold® brand products, use our convenient Store Locator.