In honor of National Tile Day (February 23), Daltile, the largest designer and manufacturer of tile in North America, is adding to the celebration by highlighting the myriad of attributes that make tile an outstanding component of residential and commercial design, construction, and remodeling. Tile excels in many categories: beauty, performance in wet areas, cleanliness, sustainability, durability, and value.
Beauty
“Tile enables the creation of unique, personalized, beautiful spaces, and we are committed to maintaining the highest levels of style and design in our Daltile products,” said Laura Grilli, director of product design for parent company Dal-Tile, LLC. “The level of cutting-edge technology we employ means that if we can envision a design, we can almost always create it in tile. This ability keeps our tile at the forefront of interior fashion with no lag time, providing the sizes, shapes, designs, colors, and textures that bring the ultimate trending style to any residential or commercial space. Today’s technology also allows for high levels of realism in tile designs emulating wood, marble, stone, and other materials.
“Bottom line, tile is not only a dependable building material, it is a true design element in a space!”
Daltile offers the largest breadth of tile products in the industry. Virtually any tile product that a consumer, designer, architect, contractor, installer, or builder is looking for, they can find within the Daltile line.
THE solution for wet areas
Tile is the preeminent flooring product for wet areas—it is, in fact, the original waterproof flooring. Because of its waterproof performance, bacteria resistance, low maintenance, versatile design options, and cost effectiveness, tile is by far the best flooring product for wet areas such as bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, mudrooms, entryways, commercial public spaces, patios, pools, and other outdoor areas, as well as for surfaces such as walls, showers, countertops, backsplashes, and tub surrounds. While liquid spills can ruin other materials, the surface of tile is unchanged by most liquids, water, or moisture.
The Daltile brand takes this capability in wet areas to an even higher level by featuring proprietary StepWise technology in many of its best-selling products. StepWise provides 50% more slip resistance than regular tile.
In addition to enhanced safety in wet areas, this slip resistance is also a significant attribute from a home design standpoint, opening up a new world of indoor-to-outdoor seamless design. Daltile is now able to offer the higher level of design historically found indoors, for outdoor use, and has taken many of its most popular looks and added StepWise technology.
Cleanliness
Unlike other surfaces, tile is hard and impervious, so it’s innately resistant to the growth of bacteria, mold, and mildew, making it a hypoallergenic surface that harbors no odor. In addition, tile is made from natural materials: water, clay, sand, feldspar, and other natural minerals. Being made of natural ingredients, tile surfaces are free from toxic chemicals and harmful contaminants found in other types of flooring—no VOCs, no PVCs, no formaldehyde, and no allergens.
Tile is also easy to clean. Regular, basic cleaning with warm water and mild soap is sufficient to keep porcelain tile looking new. Additionally, tile will not be damaged from professional cleaning services, for those customers wanting a deeper clean.
Daltile has taken the already hypoallergenic and easily cleaned properties of tile a step further by incorporating DEFEND powered by Microban® technology in the floor, wall, and mosaic tile products under this umbrella. Daltile’s DEFEND powered by Microban® products continuously eliminate up to 99% of the bacteria on the tile surface, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because this technology is baked into the tile, it will not wash off or wear away, for the life of the tile. Daltile’s DEFEND program features some of today’s hottest styles and most on-trend tile designs in this superior performance format.
Sustainability
“We are proud that tile has the lowest carbon footprint of any installed hard surface flooring,” said Paij Thorn-Brooks, Vice President of Marketing for Dal-Tile, LLC. Regarding Daltile’s products, he listed these sustainability attributes:
- 100% of manufactured tile collections contain recycled materials.
- 10 of Daltile’s 11 manufacturing plants are zero-discharge facilities, recovering and reusing 100% of their process wastewater.
- Annually, Daltile recovers and reuses over 98% of all process wastewater generated in its manufacturing plants to make its products. These measures conserve over 200 million gallons of water per year.
- On average, Daltile facilities recover and reuse over 385 million pounds of recycled and/or reclaimed material per year.
- Daltile has recycled over 3 million pounds of cardboard and office paper, averaging 750 thousand pounds per year.
- Daltile has contributed over 49 million pounds of materials to state-approved beneficial reuse programs, averaging 12 million pounds each year.
- Daltile has reduced its overall energy consumption by 6% across its sales service centers and distribution facilities since 2021.
Durability and value
Tile is tough! Tile offers outstanding durability and performance. It has an innate strength to resist decades of heavy traffic, and tile is also stainproof, scratchproof, and fire resistant. Tile is also an aspirational product that will add value to a home.
About Daltile
‘Daltile is the industry-leading brand of ceramic, porcelain, glass, metal, and stone tile, as well as mosaics, extra-large slabs, countertops, and exterior tile products. Daltile products are distributed through over 250 company-owned sales service centers, stone slab yards, and design studios that service a robust network of trade customers. Additionally, Daltile products are sold through independent flooring retailers. Dedicated to innovative product development and distinguished style, Daltile provides a rich palette of quality products created to inspire residential and commercial designs.
