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Interior and finishes

Tiles & Stone Surfaces

Tile and stone are surfacing systems: the tile, the adhesive, the substrate, the movement provision and the grout all have to suit each other and the room. A tile that performs perfectly on a stable, dry floor can fail on a flexing timber base or in a shower that was never tanked.

These entries describe the surfacing materials themselves and the questions that follow them. They contain no slip determinations, no wet-area waterproofing specification and no claim that a given tile or stone is suitable for a given room — that is a decision about the whole assembly.

12 reference entries · educational materials reference · suitability always depends on the complete assembly and qualified professional review

Scope

What this category covers

Where the boundary of this part of the library sits, including what it deliberately leaves to qualified professionals.

  • Fired tile, natural stone and engineered stone surfacing
  • Mosaic and small-format tiling
  • Backer boards, adhesives and grouts that tiling depends on
  • Not covered: slip ratings, wet-area waterproofing design or suitability determinations

Start here

Frequently referenced entries

A starting point, not a ranking — these are simply the entries most people arrive looking for.

Porcelain tile →A fired clay tile pressed from a fine body at high temperature, generally far less absorbent than ordinary ceramic, and used on floors, walls and external surfaces.Engineered quartz →A composite of crushed quartz bound in polymer resin and pressed into slabs, giving a consistent factory-made surface that behaves unlike stone around heat and sunlight.Tile adhesive and grout →The bedding and jointing materials that hold tiling in place and fill between the units; grout fills and colours joints, but it is not a layer that keeps water out.

All entries

Every tiles & stone entry

The complete set for this category, in reference order.

Porcelain tile →A fired clay tile pressed from a fine body at high temperature, generally far less absorbent than ordinary ceramic, and used on floors, walls and external surfaces.Ceramic tile →A glazed fired clay tile with a more open body than porcelain, long used on internal walls and lighter-duty floors, and easier to cut and drill on site.Natural stone tile →Quarried stone sawn into tiles and slabs for floors, walls and terraces, where the geology of the particular stone rather than a factory recipe governs how it behaves.Granite →A hard igneous stone of interlocking crystals, quarried as slabs and tiles for worktops, floors and external surfaces, and generally tolerant of the acids that etch carbonate stones.Marble →A recrystallised carbonate stone with characteristic veining, softer than granite and chemically reactive to acids, which is why it behaves as it does in kitchens and bathrooms.Limestone →A sedimentary carbonate stone formed from shell and lime sediment, softer and often more open than marble, with travertine as a characteristically voided variety of it.Terracotta tile →Unglazed fired clay tile with an open body and warm earth colours, traditionally given a surface treatment after laying and developing a patina through years of use.Mosaic tile →Small tile units supplied on a backing sheet, where the quantity of joints, the mounting method and the way sheets meet matter more than the material the pieces are made from.Engineered quartz →A composite of crushed quartz bound in polymer resin and pressed into slabs, giving a consistent factory-made surface that behaves unlike stone around heat and sunlight.Sintered stone →A slab of mineral powders compacted under pressure and fired without any polymer binder, closely related to porcelain and quite distinct from resin-bound quartz composites.Tile backer board →A board fixed to walls and floors to give tiling a flat, stable and moisture-tolerant base; it is a substrate rather than a finish, and is not by itself a water-managing layer.Tile adhesive and grout →The bedding and jointing materials that hold tiling in place and fill between the units; grout fills and colours joints, but it is not a layer that keeps water out.

Browse by role

By the role the material plays

The same entries, clustered by what they typically do in an assembly. A material can appear in more than one cluster because it genuinely plays more than one role.

Substrate and base

Backgrounds and bases that other materials are fixed or applied to.

Jointing and fixing

Materials that bond, seal, support or connect other materials.

Where they appear

Parts of a building this category touches

An orientation aid only — it does not imply that any entry is suitable for that part of a particular building.

  • External walls · 1
  • Internal walls and ceilings · 12
  • Floors · 11
  • Wet areas · 10
  • External works and landscape · 5

Elsewhere on Build Design Hub

Planning guidance for this subject

This library explains what materials are. These sections help with choosing between them and preparing for the conversation.

Bathroom materials guides →Planning guidance for wet-room surfaces and tiling.Kitchen materials guides →Planning guidance for worktops and splashbacks.Material and finish decisions →Preparation before a surfaces conversation.

Materials & Systems Encyclopedia

Reference entries for building materials, product formats and system components — what they are, what their behaviour depends on and what to ask about them.

Browse the full Materials Library →