21 June, 2023 | News
In today’s market, there are tons of different options when it comes to designing your home. For flooring alone, homeowners can choose carpet, laminate, vinyl, hardwood, engineered materials, tile (of course!) and more.
All these products come in a variety of styles and are available with a wide range of prices to meet the needs of any homeowner.
But along with style and cost, it is important to take into consideration how any product we put into our home will affect our health and hygiene and even the effect that it will have on our planet.
We know that tile is extremely versatile in terms of style and comes in all shapes and sizes, but how does it compare to other materials in terms of health and hygiene?
Tile is top notch when it comes to health and hygiene. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the properties of tile that make it a great choice for our family’s (and our planet’s) health!
Although tile has long been considered a hygienic choice for both commercial and residential spaces (demonstrated clearly by the rise of subway tile over 100 years ago!), most homeowners don’t know why exactly tile is healthy choice for their family. So, our goal in this article is to stop and ask: why?
Tile is easy to clean, doesn’t contain harmful irritants or toxic substances, doesn’t emit volatile organic compounds, and is made from naturally occurring materials.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at:
1- Tile as a hygienic choice
2 – Tile as a healthy choice
3 – Tile as a sustainable choice
4 – Additional Benefits
So, let’s jump right in.
Let’s start by taking a closer look at what makes tile standout among other flooring materials when talking about hygiene.
As anyone who has installed a new floor knows, it doesn’t take long to get that pristine new floor dirty! Kids, dogs, or even just a spilled cup of coffee…life seems to always find a way to keep things exciting!
So what do you do when your floor gets dirty? Well, if you have tile, it is extremely easy to clean! You can clean up any dry mess by sweeping or vacuuming and you can wipe tile clean with soap and water – no need to use harsh chemicals. If desired, you can use a light sanitizer or neutral cleaner made specifically for tile.
And what else is great about cleaning tile? It is stain resistant, water-resistant, and scratch resistant too! Tile is a great product for the dirt and mess of everyday life.
Not only is tile easy to clean when it gets dirty, it is also an inhospitable material for bacteria, ensuring that there is no mold or mildew buildup. Plus it is made from naturally occurring materials and it doesn’t contain harmful or toxic substances that can pollute the air around you!
And that brings us to our next point: if you care about your health, and specifically about breathing good high-quality indoor air in your home, tile is a great choice for your floor!
We spend more than 90% of our time indoors; if the air around us is polluted or contains harmful substances, we’ll feel it in our eyes, our nose, our throats, and also through a variety of unpleasant symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and dizziness!
It’s important that the air around us is clean (make sure to open your windows for circulation and use an indoor air purifier if you can!) and the materials we use in our home have a huge effect on the air around us.
So how does tile affect indoor air quality? It has a minimal effect on the air around us – and that’s a good thing!
First, tile contains no VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which are harmful to our health and can irritate our bodies, causing headaches and nausea. These chemicals are found in many building products and are emitted by nearly all other types of flooring.
Tile also doesn’t contain formaldehyde, found in other building products and flooring materials and one of the most common pollutants found in our homes. Formaldehyde can cause respiratory problems and asthma, especially for those who are particularly vulnerable such as children and the elderly.
Tile also doesn’t contain PVC or plastics. Plus tile is naturally hypoallergenic, inhospitable to dust, bacteria, fungi, mold, and other irritants.
All this to say that tile is a great choice to ensure that the air you breathe in your home is as clean as possible and that your flooring isn’t adding hidden risks to your health!
Along with the benefits to our own health and hygiene, tile is a great choice for the health of our planet too!
Tile is made from natural materials and with eco-friendly manufacturing processes, including the ability to reuse recycled waste material for production. There are plenty of options on the market for tile made from recycled material.
Plus, tile is extremely durable, meaning that once it’s installed, it lasts for a long time as compared to other flooring materials. This means that, along with having a lower cost over the course of its life, it also has a much lower impact on our planet.
Tile can even be considered energy efficient, in that it can reduce the need for both heating and cooling by helping to keep temperature swings in check.
Oh, and remember how we don’t need any harsh chemicals to clean our tile? Well, that’s another way that tile is beneficial to our planet – no toxic chemicals in our cleaners, less waste from cleaning products, and overall easier maintenance.
What else makes tile a great choice for your next interior design project? Well along with its benefits for health, hygiene, and sustainability, one of the biggest benefits is that it is extremely versatile and can match any type of interior design!
Whether you’re working on a Scandinavian style bathroom or an industrial style bathroom, using wood look tile or large format tile, tile is a great design fit in any space.
Well, all that’s left is to get started designing and find out!
We’ve seen that tile is a hygienic choice that is easy to clean, a healthy choice that doesn’t emit harmful chemicals, and a sustainable choice through recycling and durability. With tons of variety available, tile will match any space you are designing.
If you’re having a hard time imagining what a space will look like, don’t forget that with DomuS3D, you can easily generate high quality renderings which give you a sneak peak of what a room is going to look like!
If you’re interested in trying it out: let us know here!
