Porcelain tile that looks like wood: opinions, please!

I love wood floors and was planning to do them for our kitchen renovation. Then, at a tile store, I saw some beautiful porcelain tile made to resemble wood. It's clearly not wood but it really is nice looking. Now I'm torn. We are having a baby and soon enough, he will be riding toy cars across that floor. I am also the kind of person who noticed scuff marks--not an issue with tile. Then there's the durability factor; at some point, we'd have to refinish the wood. We will incur added costs of getting tile because we'd want radiant heating, so not too cold in winter...... OK, if you have porcelain tile that resembles stone, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it

In a kitchen? Absolutely. I love that wood-look tile. Are you sure you'd need radiant heating? Our kitchentile seems to be a pretty good insulator.

My parents put it into their powder room and it looks very nice, but apparently it was hellish trying to get the grout out of the wood "grain." Crumbs and stuff getting stuck in there would be my only hesitation.

Many of them don't have any grain - just the coloring, not the indentations

We had to use a grout release prior to grouting and clean as we went. Also,latex fortified grout and high temps make for a flash cure which adds to the difficulty. My job was black tile w black grout so you can imagine the mess.Would have been better off w a grout bag in order to direct the grout into joints rather than floating it across face of tile into indentations.

We did it in two different bathrooms, our basement and our back porch and we really like it. Ours was not the kind where grout got stuck in any grain. I will say that in one bathroom, we did a very dark color and it is a bit annoying because all the dirt really shows up (but that issue isnt unique to wood grain tile). We did a weathered gray wood tile for one bathroom and I love that one. Looks great and the dirt doesnt show up too much. You wont regret it. But if you are having it meet real wood floor at a doorway, you have to make sure you get a very similar and convincing wood tile.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of tile floors in the kitchen, at least not in our climate. As you pointed out, they are cold in the winter. In addition, they are hard on your feet if you cook a lot, and drop one heavy pot and they become an expensive repair. I would be more inclined towards engineered wood, cork, or linoleum (not vinyl, real linoleum).

max_weisenfeld said:
Personally, I'm not a big fan of tile floors in the kitchen, at least not in our climate. As you pointed out, they are cold in the winter. In addition, they are hard on your feet if you cook a lot, and drop one heavy pot and they become an expensive repair. I would be more inclined towards engineered wood, cork, or linoleum (not vinyl, real linoleum).

Real linoleum is great. Check out Marmoleum brand.

People get confused because if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's and ask for linoleum, they take you to the vinyl. They don't know the difference.

I love the wood-look porcelain tiles especially that aged grey/brown color. Looks beautifu

I did those tiles in a few rooms I worked on. They look great with grout that is a close match. But, personally, I love wood in a kitchen since I have a bad back.

I am a big fan of real wood, but not in bathrooms. And I am dying to put that faux wood ceramic tile in a room in our new house. Maybe when we change out the basement rug...