When purchasing a marble slab for your Toronto home, many options appear in terms of colour, thickness and price. One of the most difficult choices, however, is the choice between a marble slab and marble tiles for your home renovation project. The difference in price may be what sets the two apart, but it’s important to know that there is more than just a cost difference between the two.

 

Marble tiles are a great option for many rooms in the house, and the savings in cost may be one of the most appealing factors. Tiles can be created from smaller sources of stone, or bigger pieces that were unable to be used as slabs; this means that they tend to be less expensive than perfect slabs. Colouration and veining in the tiles can vary from piece to piece because of their random sourcing, a characteristic that can either be considered uniquely beautiful or unappealing to certain buyers.

 

Like all tiles, installing marble tiles can be more tedious and difficult for contracting companies than installing a slab. A board will need to be placed under the tiles for stability and something for the grout to stick to. The tiles then need to be perfectly arranged piece-by-piece and sealed multiple times for a perfect finish. Marble is also extremely easy to scratch, so grout can be difficult on the stone’s natural finish.

 

With these things in consideration though, tiles are a great addition to a bathroom or backsplash. Because the tiles are separated by grout, moisture cannot spread throughout as easily as it can in a slab.

 

Slabs

 

Marble slabs are undeniably a better choice than tiles for certain areas of the house. Kitchen countertops should be in slab form instead of tile in order to get the most out of marble’s natural qualities. The stone is fantastic for heat transfer quality, and many professional kitchens use marble slabs to work with extremely hot or cold products. Marble tiles would not be able to transfer heat as well as slabs, given that the stone is not naturally connected, the grout would interrupt this process.

 

Similarly, the grout that connects the tiles would be difficult to work with in a kitchen setting. Marble is soft, porous, and prone to absorbing moisture and colour – just as grout is prone to absorbing colours and staining easily. Marble’s difficulty is that it must be delicately cleaned and polished, whereas grout needs a heavy duty cleaner and scrubbing to keep it pristine. It would be difficult to keep both kinds of materials clean in a kitchen setting, where spills and messes are bound to occur.

 

Many of these concerns can also exist with bathroom countertops. Bathrooms can be even messier than kitchens, and are regularly coated in a thin layer of grime. Hot styling appliances can also be difficult on tiles as they will not transfer heat like the slabs will, causing individual tiles to tarnish.

 

Depending on the room, a marble slab or marble tiles may be the better choice for your Toronto home. When heat transfer and maintenance are prominent concerns, stick to a marble slab. However, when cost and unique visual appeal are taken into consideration, tiles are a better choice. Whichever the final choice, any kind of marble is a beautiful, beneficial stone to have in the home.