Floor for new build house, Limestone or Porcelain?

[Water Wheel]

Went to look at natural stone flooring for a new build house we are planning, but they tried to convince me porcelain was better, have to say it looked good.

Real world experience please.

It’s for a large kitchen, dining, living area , UFH ,GSHP etc.

Will natural stone probably limestone get stained , be hard to clean etc ,I’m not very good at taking my wellies off?

Will the porcelain chip from heavy knocks and look tatty after a few years?

My instinct is the natural product with a slightly rustic look. The farm house we are in now has quarry tiles that have been down for 130 years and look fine to me. Intend the floor we put down to be there forever , not changed in 10 years to suit the next fashion.

 

[B R C]

I think both would be ok. I have some natural flooring in a bungalow which was done up for myself and looks fantastic, even had fossils in it. Also have porcelain tiles in farmhouse where I live now and they look good and relatively easy to maintain clean. The main thing is too treat properly. The natural tiles had to be sealed before grouting, sealed again and then a wax type seal on top of that, I dare say they should be done again. Porcelain tiles I guess were sealed but can’t remember.

 

[milkloss]

I’d say it would depend how you live! We have limestone flooring and once we got the initial sealing right it’s been easy to live with. Some let it work and never wash it. All they do is run a brush over it once a week and have the now black grout steamed and the whole floor sealed again.
Oil (fat) stains can be a huge issue to a pristine limestone floor so proper sealing is a must. Bin areas and leaky food containers from the Ocado man are then main culprits. You can extract some of the stain but it’s a long process.

Other point to note is do not accept delivery of wet tiles and do not let them get wet while waiting for laying.

 

[Uggman]

Im a builder and I think you should seal the whole of the natural limestone slabs before you even start putting them down though never done this as boss never gives us enough time or sealer not on site before . But check with people who your buying the limestone off of and the tin of the sealer you use. And make your builder fines it some forget.

PS well done for trying too plan the little things the more decisions you can make now the more the job will flow go faster it's not always the builder's fault if job overruns time and budget people make the decisions don't help.

Good luck with your house.

 

[br jones]

you dont get the natural look with porcelin,i preffer lime stone,sealing is the key

 

[milkloss]

Lithofin is the sealer we used after a false start with fila satin. The fila leaves lovely finish, really enhances the stone, but isn't a very good sealer at all.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Went to look at natural stone flooring for a new build house we are planning, but they tried to convince me porcelain was better, have to say it looked good.

Real world experience please.

It’s for a large kitchen, dining, living area , UFH ,GSHP etc.

Will natural stone probably limestone get stained , be hard to clean etc ,I’m not very good at taking my wellies off?

Will the porcelain chip from heavy knocks and look tatty after a few years?

My instinct is the natural product with a slightly rustic look. The farm house we are in now has quarry tiles that have been down for 130 years and look fine to me. Intend the floor we put down to be there forever , not changed in 10 years to suit the next fashion.

Limestone is naturally porous. If you can seal it then fine but beware of yellowing. Being a farmhouse I'm assuming there will be dirt at all times and on that basis I laid 600 x 600 slate rather than a pale colour. Dennis Ruabon red or black & red tiles used to be a favorite. Beware of things that really should be in a bathroom and not in the busiest room on a farm. Don't be suckered in to the London look!
There are good paving slabs out there too. My tack room has black and yellow 400x400 slabs as it is Suffolk colours. Bomb proof.

NB I acquired 100 m3 of random thickness slate but very accurately cut to 600 x 600 so nice thin joints. Fudging hard work to lay but over the under-floor heating screed they look FAB! Individual bedding, no slurry bed.......Roughneck mortar gun pointed after two days. A whole wheelbarrow of black mortar mixed to 4:1 and then carefully rubbed with a Marshalltown steel pointing tool. FYI
SS

 

[S J H]

I took a long time choosing ours, and went for this in the end. It doesn’t look to modern, but is easy to keep clean. I think I sealed it 3 times.

The grout needs scrubbing but I think they all do unless it’s black.

Garrowby Tumbled Limestone

Our Garrowby Tumbled Limestone has been a firm favourite for a long time now, proving itself to be a hard wearing material while still retaining plenty of style and character. Suited to both traditional and contemporary settings its on trend styling sits wonderfully with hand painted shaker...

www.naturalstone.co.uk

 

[milkloss]

Limestone is naturally porous. If you can seal it then fine but beware of yellowing. Being a farmhouse I'm assuming there will be dirt at all times and on that basis I laid 600 x 600 slate rather than a pale colour. Dennis Ruabon red or black & red tiles used to be a favorite. Beware of things that really should be in a bathroom and not in the busiest room on a farm. Don't be suckered in to the London look!
There are good paving slabs out there too. My tack room has black and yellow 400x400 slabs as it is Suffolk colours. Bomb proof.

NB I acquired 100 m3 of random thickness slate but very accurately cut to 600 x 600 so nice thin joints. Fudging hard work to lay but over the under-floor heating screed they look FAB! Individual bedding, no slurry bed.......Roughneck mortar gun pointed after two days. A whole wheelbarrow of black mortar mixed to 4:1 and then carefully rubbed with a Marshalltown steel pointing tool. FYI
SS

we had to have a decoupling mat and then use a pallet of latex with our pug to lay our floor. It is on a suspended concrete floor so she's got plenty of bounce...... but no cracks.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Samples. 400 x 400 Black & yellow tiles with hand built second-hand kitchen unit. 600 x 600 black slate Wickes kitchen.
SS

 

[Water Wheel]

Samples. 400 x 400 Black & yellow tiles with hand built second-hand kitchen unit. 600 x 600 black slate Wickes kitchen.
SS

Leaving behind acres of yellow /black 9x9 quarry tiles been down 130 years laid on sand , still fine, did disscuss doing new build in the same but it would be expensive to get the area of matched reclaimed that we need. Time for us to move on with retiement.

 

[Water Wheel]

I took a long time choosing ours, and went for this in the end. It doesn’t look to modern, but is easy to keep clean. I think I sealed it 3 times.

The grout needs scrubbing but I think they all do unless it’s black.

Garrowby Tumbled Limestone

Our Garrowby Tumbled Limestone has been a firm favourite for a long time now, proving itself to be a hard wearing material while still retaining plenty of style and character. Suited to both traditional and contemporary settings its on trend styling sits wonderfully with hand painted shaker...

www.naturalstone.co.uk

Looking at similar , perhaps would like a bit of variation in coulor which seems to push us towards Travitine rather than limestone, but prefer the hardness etc of limestone, life is never simple, as with everything else there is just too mucc choice these days.

Thanks for all the replies its all a great help.

 

[Jaja]

We put pporcelain tiles down 18 months ago in a large open kitchen and living area. We have chips and cracks, one from a knocked over beer bottle that was on the floor! We thought we were putting something down that would take some knocks but are disappointed. Keep us updated with your results, we are just about to move into property that we will demolish and rebuild next year, already thinking about the flooring, will not choose porcelain again.

 

[milkloss]

Not the best pic as it looks a bit washed out........ didn't notice until the pic but I see some tiles are getting 'character' from spilt tea and general crud!

 

[Water Wheel]

We put pporcelain tiles down 18 months ago in a large open kitchen and living area. We have chips and cracks, one from a knocked over beer bottle that was on the floor! We thought we were putting something down that would take some knocks but are disappointed. Keep us updated with your results, we are just about to move into property that we will demolish and rebuild next year, already thinking about the flooring, will not choose porcelain again.

Want to put a like down to your post but doesn't seem quite right, so thanks for the post.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Not the best pic as it looks a bit washed out........ didn't notice until the pic but I see some tiles are getting 'character' from spilt tea and general crud!

I like the randomness.
SS

 

[SilliamWhale]

I’d say it would depend how you live! We have limestone flooring and once we got the initial sealing right it’s been easy to live with. Some let it work and never wash it. All they do is run a brush over it once a week and have the now black grout steamed and the whole floor sealed again.
Oil (fat) stains can be a huge issue to a pristine limestone floor so proper sealing is a must. Bin areas and leaky food containers from the Ocado man are then main culprits. You can extract some of the stain but it’s a long process.

Other point to note is do not accept delivery of wet tiles and do not let them get wet while waiting for laying.

How did you steam clean it?

 

[bobk]

Went to look at natural stone flooring for a new build house we are planning, but they tried to convince me porcelain was better, have to say it looked good.

Real world experience please.

It’s for a large kitchen, dining, living area , UFH ,GSHP etc.

Will natural stone probably limestone get stained , be hard to clean etc ,I’m not very good at taking my wellies off?

Will the porcelain chip from heavy knocks and look tatty after a few years?

My instinct is the natural product with a slightly rustic look. The farm house we are in now has quarry tiles that have been down for 130 years and look fine to me. Intend the floor we put down to be there forever , not changed in 10 years to suit the next fashion.

Under floor heating ? otherwise I wouldn't touch it

 

[Bill the Bass]

We put a limestone floor down on over 80 square metres of open plan kitchen, sunroom, dining room and a porch. Foolishly I went for an ivory colour grout, I would do grey if doing it again. As mentioned the key to keeping them looking smart is in the sealing I think. The tiles in our kitchen got a bit grubby around the cooker but it’s not noticeable too much. I have just bought a Karcher steam cleaner and it cleans things up nicely, much easier than a mop and/or brush.

No underfloor heating here, had it in my old house but I don’t miss it to be honest, not sure I would put a wet system under an expensive stone floor.

 

[br jones]

a couple here