Floors Or Walls:

The first priority to consider is , are the tiles to be walked on? You can always use a floor tile on a wall but most wall tiles will not stand up to the stresses associated with floors.

The glazes and strength of the tile body are normally much stronger on floor tiles than they are for walls. Part of the reason for this is to keep the cost of wall tiles down and concentrate on the cosmetic aspect by offering an enormous selection of fancy designs, patterns and colours. Floor tiles tend to put more emphasis on the function aspect. Floor tiles still offer a very large range of colours and patterns but incorporated with most surfaces is the wear factor designed not to show traffic patterns, etc. Properly made floor tiles will look nice be easy to maintain and stay that way for many years. The term light duty floor tiles should be taken into consideration. A bathroom floor for example, would not have the same requirement as tiles on front steps. Some tile Manufacturers have better quality control and put more emphasis on a high quality product rather than going for a cheap price. This cost factor vs. quality should be considered. Obviously there are exceptions but usually the higher priced tiles are better quality and have improved performance.