Bright Veined Porcelain Floor

A glossy white floor with dark veining, laid wide through a bright room with a skylight and French doors. The polish catches the light and makes the room look larger, and the veins carry from tile to tile.

What to look at

A polished floor shows every flaw, including a lippage edge that would disappear on a matte tile. Leveling clips and a flat substrate keep neighboring tiles in the same plane. The floor register is cut into the tile with a tight, square opening and the French door threshold is set at the correct height so the door swings clear. Joints are narrow and the grout is matched to the field so the veins, not the joints, carry the eye.

How work like this is set

Set large floor tile over a floor that is not flat and the problem shows at the edges, as lippage. To avoid that we check the floor with a long straightedge, fill and grind before setting, and use a thinset rated for the tile size. Joints are held narrow and straight, and the room is laid out from the main sight line.

If you want something similar

Before you pick floor tile, find out how flat the floor is and what it is made of. A concrete slab, a plywood subfloor and an old tile floor each need a different approach. Send us a photo and the approximate size and we will tell you what we would do. We work in Long Beach and nearby, and the matching service is Residential Tile Installation.