Which tile suits a bathroom wall and floor?

Ceramic tile and porcelain stoneware — where the difference actually is

Ceramic wall tile is fired clay with a glazed surface, lighter and cheaper, and it's been the standard bathroom wall covering in Estonia for decades. It's fine on a wall that never sees standing water or foot traffic, and it's easier to cut, which matters around pipework and corners.

Porcelain stoneware (often sold as granito or gres) is denser and fired at a higher temperature, which makes it absorb far less water and resist chips and scratches better. That density is what you want underfoot, in a shower tray area, or anywhere water sits before it drains.

The rule that holds up in practice: ceramic for walls, porcelain stoneware for the floor and the shower floor. Some porcelain ranges are made to go on both, which simplifies the wall-to-floor transition if you want the same look throughout.

What to check on a floor tile

Water absorption is the number that tells you whether a tile belongs on a bathroom floor at all. Porcelain stoneware typically absorbs under 0.5%, which is what you want somewhere that gets wet daily and occasionally floods slightly around the shower.

Slip resistance is rated separately from water absorption and is the one people forget until someone's foot goes out from under them. Look for an R-rating (R9 to R11 is the usual bathroom range) or a wet-floor pictogram on the box — R10 or R11 for a shower floor, R9 can be acceptable outside the wet zone.

A textured or matte finish grips better wet than a polished one, even at the same R-rating on paper. If you're set on a glossy floor tile, keep it out of the shower area and put texture underfoot where water actually pools.

• Water absorption under roughly 0.5% for any bathroom floor tile
• R10 or R11 slip rating, or a wet-floor pictogram, for the shower floor
• Matte or textured finish in the wet zone, gloss only outside it
• PEI rating (surface wear) matters more for hallways than bathroom floors, but check it isn't the lowest grade
• Frost resistance is irrelevant indoors — ignore it unless the tile is also going outside

What size to choose, and why it's not only about style

Large-format tiles — 60×60 cm and up, sometimes full wall-height slabs — are the current trend, and they do cut down on grout lines, which means less to clean and fewer joints for water to find. The trade-off is that a small bathroom can end up with a lot of cut, awkward pieces around fittings.

Small and mid-size tiles (20×20 to 30×60 cm) are more forgiving on an uneven Soviet-era panel wall or a floor that isn't perfectly flat, since large tiles show up any waviness underneath as visible lippage. They're also more practical for a small, irregularly shaped bathroom with a lot of corners.

On the floor specifically, a smaller tile gives more grout lines, and grout itself adds a small amount of slip resistance — worth factoring in if the room is compact and you're weighing a large-format floor tile against a mid-size one.

What's marketing and what's a real property

"Anti-bacterial" glazes, "self-cleaning" coatings and similar claims are printed on plenty of tile boxes and rarely tested to any standard you can check. Treat them as a nice-to-have if the price is otherwise right, never as the reason to choose one tile over another.

Rectified edges (cut perfectly square after firing, rather than left with the slightly rounded factory edge) are a genuine, useful property — they allow a much thinner grout line and a flatter finish, which matters more with large-format tiles.

Country of manufacture and brand name affect price and sometimes batch consistency, but they don't tell you the water absorption or slip rating. Ask for those two figures directly, or check the technical sheet, rather than trusting the marketing copy on the box.

How the tile you choose affects installation

Large-format tiles need a flatter substrate and more careful adhesive coverage across the whole back of the tile, not just the edges, or they crack under weight over time. That's more labour and usually a different adhesive than a small ceramic tile needs.

Porcelain stoneware is harder to cut than ceramic, which means more wear on tools and more time around drains, pipe outlets and internal corners — worth knowing if you're pricing the job yourself rather than getting a quote.

If you're not sure a tile you like is right for the room, it's worth getting the substrate and layout checked before buying in bulk. Our tiling work starts from 35 € per job, and for a full bathroom renovation — tiling included — quotes start from 3500 €.