What to look for when buying and installing wood look plank tiles.

What to look for when buying and installing wood look plank tiles.

1. Align to the light: Always align the tiles with the direction of the primary light in the room. This accentuates the grain design and adds to the wood-look.

2. Randomise and rotate: Firstly there will be pattern repeats, even with a series with as many as 12 different faces so make sure to mix the tiles and rotate the orientation of the tiles often to help break up the overall look. Doing a dry trial layout can really help.

3. Rectified edges: Choose a tile with a rectified edge rather than a pressed edge. You can get much tighter grout lines with tile that has more exact edges so the wood-look tiles will better resemble wood planks.

4. Longer is better: Generally wood tile planks should be at least 90cm / 36" long, but 1,2m / 48″ is better. Shorter planks can be a give away and make it harder to trick the eye into thinking the tile is actually wood. 

5. Use a darker grout: Select a the darkest color in the tile and chose a grout a shade darker. This tricks the eye into thinking that the grout lines are shadow around the “wood planks” especially with a rectified edge and really thin grout lines.

6. Use random offsets: Customers sometimes think it’s a good idea to lay wood tile with a regular offset pattern but that’s another give away that your flooring is not actually wood. Laying the tile with a random offset, even different plank lengths, like real wood, helps trick the eye.