Learn me tile grades, please

Well, I got almost enough of our chosen floor tile (150 sq/ft), and suddenly noticed I was purchasing wall tile.

I still have receipts, and can return it, but we do like the design. It is a ceramic mosaic, grade 1.

Some interweb sources say it is not good for floors, some yes. 

This is what it looks like. 

Tile works anywhere if it's installed correctly.  

However, are you going to slip and fall every time you step on it?

Grades 1-5 is softest to hardest.  I've always heard you want a minimum of a PEI 3 for a normal floor, 4 for a shop floor, 5 for a loaded shop floor.   Looks like this random website backs that up.

According to that site:

1. No foot traffic. - Wall use only in residential and commercial applications. This type of tile should never be used underfoot. Shower surrounds are a typical PEI-1 tile.
2. Light traffic. - Both wall use and flooring areas that receive little traffic, such as residential bathrooms.
3. Light to moderate traffic. - Countertops, walls, and floors that receive normal foot traffic are best suited for PEI-3 rated tiles. This is a good, general purpose tile for all residential (but not commercial) uses.
4. Moderate to heavy traffic. - All residential applications, as well as medium commercial and light institutional, work with PEI-5 rated tile.
5. Heavy to extra heavy traffic. - All residential and heavy commercial and institutional foot traffic. Typically this is used only for flooring and is rarely attractive enough for interior residential applications.

I'd return it and get something rated for the application, you'd hate to scratch the tile because you got a rolling shelf or something.

^Yeah, based on that, even though 2 is rated for residential bathrooms, I'd probably still want to step up to 3.

What about indoor/outdoor/slip-resistancy in water or snow? Are there ratings for that too?

(Piling on with more questions).

According to this, that's generally just rated with a coefficient of friction both in static and dynamic, like any other surface.    I've also gotten results by searching for "tile surface roughness average"  or "tile RA," and papers that site what's required such as this:

The problem is that I don't believe a tile will tell you that unless it's designed as a non-slip surface.

I did find results conflicting the above-maybe in part, because I wanted to. 

Too big a risk to put down a product that may not be durable. They're going back.

Thank You All!

It's all about the point loads. 

In reply to pinchvalve :

Claw foot tub going in, so I have to be careful. I will build a custom pedestal to spread the load, but still, I have to be careful.

Wow, so, like any wormhole, this one goes deep. 

We found a marble basketweave mosaic we really liked ($8.99 sq/ft). The salesman was unaware of grades.

This compares to $2 and change sq/ft for the ones we just returned. 

So the jump from $320ish in tiles to near $1500 stopped us in our tracks. So, we're on hold. 

Something like this:

Seems to me that marble will be about as strong as we can get, and basket weave was our first choice, but that's a bit of a dusie.

In reply to wheelsmithy :

Is that the DAtile stuff from depot/Lowes?  I put it in a powder room and it was fine.. 

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

This was from a flooring store, LowesDepot sells very similar for a bit more.

Unless you are talking the ceramic stuff from the top of the thread, which, right, or wrong, I have deemed insufficient.

Marbe is pretty soft, not strong at all. We have one bathroom and one powder room with marble tile and it's pretty scuffed up after being down for a while. Ceramic, granite, and porcelain are all harder than marble. Mohs hardness of 3-5 for Marble versus 7 for granite and 7-9 for porcelain.

dculberson said:

Marbe is pretty soft, not strong at all. We have one bathroom and one powder room with marble tile and it's pretty scuffed up after being down for a while. Ceramic, granite, and porcelain are all harder than marble. Mohs hardness of 3-5 for Marble versus 7 for granite and 7-9 for porcelain.

Well crap, more questions.

Thank You for the input.

Now, I'm in to PEI ratings(Porcelain Enamel Institute).   

0 is for walls only.

5 is industrial, heavy traffic floors.

Why does marble have a PORCELAIN rating of 3? 

Man, this got stupid quickly.

I wouldn’t put marble on a bathroom floor, too much potential for staining around the toilet area. 

But my opinion is based on having 10 and 15 year old boys, so your situation and results may be different. 

In reply to No Time :

Valid input, appreciated.

We used an approx 6”x24” tile from Lowe’s that had good traction. Price was reasonable and it cut cleanly  

The installation was done over Ditra since and I used the Lash system to ensure the edges of the tiles were even. 

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