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The Advantages and Disadvantages Of Using Rectified Tiles For Your Home Renovations

26 July 2018 by Audrey Ramos

So you're planning home renovations, and you have decided to use ceramic tiles for your kitchen and bathroom. Though ceramic tiles have been used for centuries, an innovative new tile is on the block: rectified tiles. Rectified tiles are not better than traditional porcelain and ceramic tiles; they are just different, and using them has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages Of Rectified Tiles

The main advantage of rectified tiles is that they can be laid using very fine grout lines, and this particularly fine sliver of grouting combined with the use of large-format tiles creates a sleek, streamlined, minimalist effect. After comparing tiling using rectified tiles with ordinary tiles using thicker grouting, the sleekness of rectified tiles becomes more obvious.

Rectified tiles can be laid more closely than ordinary tiles because their edges are mechanically cut or ground after firing to a precise size. Because the tiles are so precisely sized, they can be laid very close to one another, almost adjacent, with fine grout lines. Ordinary un-rectified porcelain or ceramic tiles vary slightly in length and width because the molded clay of each tile shrinks slightly after firing in varying degrees. Because ordinary tiles are not uniform, they are laid with thicker grout lines that can mask the minute size differences.

The overall effect of rectified tiles, especially if the grout color is similar to the tile color, is almost seamless. Gone are the obvious, thicker grout lines of normal un-rectified tiles. Rectified tiles are not better than ordinary porcelain or ceramic tiles; they create a different, clean, straight-edged look that is less organic than the curved edges of traditional tiles that are laid with thicker grouting.

Disadvantages Of Rectified Tiles

A problem with rectified tiles is that while the length and width of each tile is precise, the thickness of each tile varies slightly, as it does with ordinary tiles. Because rectified tiles are laid closely together using very fine grout lines, this difference in tile thickness can become more apparent. This lippage, or difference in elevation of laid tiles, can make laying rectified tiles complicated. When placing ordinary porcelain and ceramic tiles using thicker grout lines, the difference in tile thickness can be disguised by creating a slight slant. 

Another issue is that the sharp edges of rectified tiles can chip, particularly at the outer-facing edges where the tiling finishes. To counteract this, sometimes the top edges are slightly beveled to minimize the chance of chipping.

If you're planning to use ceramic or porcelain tiles in your kitchen makeover, whether you use rectified tiles or not depends on the look you are after. If you plan to use large-format tiles and love the clean, straight, minimal lines of rectified tiles, they might be just perfect for your home renovations.

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