Are Tile Countertops Making a Comeback?

Short answer: yes. Tile countertops are making a comeback, and it is not just design-blog hype. We are getting real calls about them again, mostly for kitchen islands and bathroom vanities, after close to two decades where quartz owned the conversation. The tile going in now is not the grout-heavy 1980s counter most people remember tearing out. Larger format, better grout, bolder colour. Same idea, different execution.

Are Tile Countertops Making a Comeback? The Short Answer

They never fully disappeared. What changed is how often homeowners ask for one instead of defaulting straight to quartz. Design magazines started calling it a trend around 2025, and the requests we get match that timeline. Most are for a small footprint first: an island, a bar counter, a bathroom vanity. Nobody is ripping out a full quartz kitchen for it yet.

Why Tile Countertops Fell Out of Favour

Tile counters had a real run. Popular in the 1920s and 30s, back again through the 70s, 80s and into the early 90s, cheap, colourful, and easy for a homeowner to install without hiring a trade. Then quartz and granite showed up with a dead-flat, seamless surface, and tile started looking like the thing your parents’ kitchen had.

Grout was the actual problem, not the tile. Old-school grout stained, cracked, and turned into a crumb trap along every seam. Rolling dough on an uneven tile surface was never fun either. By the early 2000s, ripping out tile counters was practically a rite of passage for a first kitchen reno, and that reputation stuck around a lot longer than the tile itself did.

What Actually Changed

Grout technology, mostly. Modern epoxy and acrylic-based grouts resist stains and mildew in a way the old cement-based stuff never did. That single fix solves the complaint homeowners bring up first every time this topic comes up on a quote call.

Format changed too. Large-format tile, 12×24 and up, means fewer grout lines crossing the counter, which means less to clean and less to stain. Handmade and artisanal tiles bring texture without looking like a throwback. Put those two shifts together and a tile countertop reads current instead of dated, even using the same basic material as forty years ago.

Are Tile Countertops Out of Style?

No, not the way they were ten years ago. The specific look that reads dated is small ceramic squares in a busy pattern with white grout gone grey. Large-format porcelain, zellige-style handmade tile, or a bold checkerboard in a rich colour reads as a deliberate design choice, not a leftover from a previous decade.

What Is the Newest Trend in Countertops?

Texture over shine. Handmade and artisanal tile finishes, slightly uneven glazes, matte surfaces, are pulling attention away from the perfectly flat engineered-stone look that dominated the last fifteen years. Tile countertops fit that shift naturally, since texture is the one thing a slab material cannot fake.

What Is the 2026 Trend for Kitchen Countertops?

Bold and personal, less about resale-safe neutrals. Checkerboard patterns in saturated colour, mixed materials on the same counter, tile paired with butcher block or a different stone on an island. The through-line across every source we checked: homeowners choosing a counter that says something specific, instead of the safest option in the showroom.

Do People Still Do Tile Countertops?

Yes, though usually as a statement piece rather than the whole kitchen. Islands, bar counters, and bathroom vanities are where we see it most. A full kitchen tiled top to bottom is still rare on the Island. Most homeowners who love the look start small before deciding whether to go further.

Durability, Heat Resistance and the Real Downsides

Porcelain and ceramic both handle a hot pan straight off the stove without scorching or warping. That part of tile’s old reputation was always true and still is. Scratch resistance is strong too, better than laminate or butcher block by a wide margin.

The downsides did not go away, they just got smaller. Grout still needs sealing on a schedule, even the improved kind, or it will eventually stain. The surface is not perfectly flat, so rolling out pastry directly on it is still awkward. And a hard enough impact can chip a tile edge the way it never would a quartz slab. None of that is a dealbreaker. It is just what a homeowner is trading for the look and the price.

Which Tile Actually Holds Up as a Countertop

Porcelain is what we recommend most for a working kitchen counter. Dense, low-absorption, and it shrugs off staining better than ceramic without needing constant resealing. Ceramic costs less and comes in a wider colour range, but it is softer and more porous, better suited to a bar counter or vanity than a spot that sees a knife and a cutting board every day.

Natural stone tile, marble or slate in a tile format instead of a slab, looks the part but needs sealing on a real schedule, often once or twice a year depending on how much water and acid it sees. Skip that upkeep and it will etch and stain faster than either porcelain or ceramic ever would. Glass tile shows up on Pinterest boards a lot but rarely on a working counter for the same reason: gorgeous, scratches if a pan slides across it wrong.

Cost: Tile vs Quartz and Granite

Ceramic tile material typically runs one to fifteen dollars a square foot. Marble and other natural stone slabs can run past a hundred and fifty. Quartz sits somewhere in the middle once fabrication and installation are factored in, usually well above tile either way.

Labour is where tile can surprise people. Keep the layout simple on an island and costs stay down. A checkerboard pattern, mixed formats, or hand-cut edge detail adds hours before the first tile goes down, same as it does on a floor or backsplash job. Material savings over quartz are real. Labour savings depend entirely on how complicated the pattern gets.

Resale Value: Comeback or Red Flag?

Mixed, and worth weighing before committing a full kitchen to it. Some research suggests homes with tile counters sell for slightly less than comparable homes with quartz or stone, and plenty of buyers still associate tile with an older kitchen that needs updating. That perception has not fully caught up to the trend yet.

A well-installed island or vanity in a current pattern is a different story than a full 1990s-style counter left untouched. Buyers respond to intentional design choices, not just material labels. If resale is the main concern, a small tiled feature reads as a design decision. A whole kitchen in tile is a bigger bet on the next buyer sharing your taste.

Where We’re Installing Tile Countertops on Vancouver Island

Islands and bar counters lead by a wide margin, followed by bathroom vanities in older character homes where a warm, textured tile suits the existing trim and floors better than a slab of engineered stone would. A kitchen tile installation gives the most room to play with pattern since the footprint is usually larger and more forgiving.

Bathroom vanities are the other common request, especially paired with a matching or contrasting bathroom tile installation on the shower walls or floor. Full kitchen counters in tile are still the exception here, not the rule, though that could change if the trend holds another few years.

Try It Small Before You Commit

Start with an island, not the whole kitchen. It gives the look without the risk, and it is the easiest section to redo later if the pattern feels wrong after a year of living with it. A bar counter or a powder room vanity works the same way. Large-format tile with minimal grout lines keeps maintenance simple wherever it goes in.

The Bottom Line

Tile countertops are back, just smarter than they used to be. Better grout, bigger tiles, bolder patterns, and homeowners choosing them on purpose instead of by default because nothing else was affordable. Whether it belongs on your counter comes down to how much upkeep you want and how long you plan to stay in the house, and that is a conversation worth having before ordering material. Anyone weighing this up around Campbell River, Courtenay or Comox can ask us and get a real number.

Related Questions

• Can Porcelain Tile Be Used for Kitchen Countertops?
• Can I Use Peel and Stick Tiles on Kitchen Countertops?
• Can Slate Tile Be Used Outdoors?

Jordan Tile & Stone

Tile installation and repair across central Vancouver Island: Campbell River, Courtenay, Comox, Oyster Bay, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Nanaimo.

Phone: (250) 201-3891
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm
Address: 4423 Patricia Rd, Oyster Bay, BC V9H 1B8

Are Tile Kitchen Floors Outdated?

No, tile itself is not outdated. What’s outdated is a specific, easy-to-spot combination: small square tile, glossy finish, stark grout lines, laid straight in a grid. Swap any two of those out and the same material reads current. We’ve torn out kitchens where the customer swore the floor “looked old” and it wasn’t the tile doing that at all, it was the size and sheen someone chose in 2004.

Every kitchen tile job on Vancouver Island starts with some version of this same question. Comox, Courtenay, Campbell River, the specifics shift by neighbourhood build era, but the underlying worry is identical: will this floor look right in ten years, or am I locking in a look that dates itself by the time the mortgage renews.

Do People Still Put Tile in Kitchens?

Every week, on this coast. Tile still handles water, heat, and dropped pots better than anything else on the market, and that’s the whole reason it never actually left. What changed is the format homeowners reach for. Fewer 12×12 squares laid straight, more large-format porcelain, more warm stone-look and terracotta finishes, more pattern used deliberately instead of by default. The material stuck around. Only the specification moved on.

Luxury vinyl plank ate into tile’s share for a few years, no argument there. Easier install, softer underfoot, cheaper per square foot. But LVP dents, and it doesn’t take direct heat from a dropped pan the way porcelain does. Kitchens see both of those more than any other room in the house. That’s the practical reason tile keeps showing up in our quote book for kitchen work even while LVP wins in living rooms and bedrooms.

What Actually Makes a Kitchen Floor Look Outdated

Size, sheen, and grout, in that order. Small tile multiplies grout lines across the floor, and a busy grid reads instantly dated the second you walk in, no matter how nice the individual tile is. High-gloss finish is the second tell. Glossy 12×12 ceramic was the default a couple decades back, and detectors don’t need to see the exact tile to date the room, the shine does it on its own. Grout colour rounds it out: bright white grout on a warm floor, or dark grout gone grey with age, both age a kitchen faster than the tile itself ever could.

Layout matters more than people expect too. A straight grid, tile squarely aligned to the cabinets, no offset, no pattern, reads generic even in a large format. We see the opposite work every time: same tile, laid on a diagonal or with a deliberate offset, and the room feels intentional instead of default-builder.

Signs a Kitchen Tile Floor Is Actually Dated

A few tells, in order of how often we hear them on a first walkthrough. Grid lines every twelve inches, no offset, no border. Grout that’s gone from white to grey and won’t come back with a mop. A sheen that catches every overhead light and shows every footprint by mid-afternoon. Colour that fought whatever countertop got installed after the floor, beige tile under a grey quartz counter is the single most common mismatch we run into on renovation calls.

One more, less obvious: the tile still looks fine on its own, and the room still reads old anyway. Nine times out of ten that’s the cabinets or the lighting doing the damage, not the floor. Worth ruling that out before committing to a full tear-out. We’ve walked into kitchens where swapping the hardware and repainting the cabinets did more for the room than the floor ever needed to.

Small Tile vs Large Format, and Why the Industry Disagrees With Itself

Here’s a real wrinkle, though. Most of what we read and most of what shows up on our jobs points the same direction: 12×12 and smaller reads dated, 12×24 and up reads current. Fewer grout lines, cleaner sightline, easier to keep looking sharp between cleanings. That’s the consensus, and it’s what we tell most clients who ask.

One design source flags the opposite, calling oversized square tile in a small kitchen dated on its own, arguing the scale overwhelms the room. Both are right, depending on the kitchen. A 400-square-foot open-concept kitchen carries 24×24 porcelain fine. Squeeze that same tile into a tight galley kitchen from a 1970s build, though, and it can look worse than the original small format did, because the tile stops reading as flooring and starts reading as one slab under the cabinets. Measure the room before picking the format, not the trend chart.

Checkerboard: Dated or Trending? Depends Which One

Stark black-and-white checkerboard, laid corner to corner across a whole kitchen, is the fastest way to date a floor we’ve seen this year. It reads retro-diner, not intentional-vintage, in most Vancouver Island builds. Swap the palette and the same pattern flips completely current: sage and cream, terracotta and off-white, or a checkerboard confined to one zone like an entry or an island footprint instead of the whole room. Same idea, different colour story, opposite verdict.

Scale changes the read too. Small checkerboard squares, the two-inch kind that used to show up in older builds, read busy and dated almost regardless of colour. Larger checkerboard, closer to twelve or eighteen inches per square, reads architectural instead of retro. We’ve installed both within the same year for different clients and gotten opposite reactions from guests walking through the same house.

Terracotta and Warm Stone Tones Are Back

Cool grey porcelain dominated kitchen quotes for the better part of a decade. That’s shifting. Terracotta, warm limestone, and honey-toned stone-look tile are the requests coming in now, and they’ve got real staying power behind them, not just a trend cycle. Terracotta specifically has been used in kitchens for centuries. Hard to call something outdated when it predates the concept of a trend by a thousand years.

Matte and textured finishes are doing the same work sheen used to do. Where a homeowner ten years ago wanted polished and reflective, the current ask is matte, sometimes deliberately uneven, tumbled-stone-look edges instead of a laser-straight rectified edge. Cheaper to keep clean, too. Gloss shows every footprint and water spot; matte hides both.

Tile Choices That Don’t Go Out of Style

Some formats sidestep the trend cycle entirely. Zellige has been made the same handmade way for centuries, uneven glaze and all, and that irregularity is exactly why it never reads as a decade-stamped choice, there’s no factory-uniform version of it to date. Subway and elongated rectangular tile takes the same pass. People keep declaring it over and it keeps showing up in our quotes, because the shape adapts to a herringbone layout, a stacked layout, a running bond, whatever the kitchen needs, without the tile itself ever changing.

Marble and natural stone carry the same weight. Real stone tile has been used in kitchens for a very long time, longer than any of us have been installing floors, and a floor that lasted centuries in European homes isn’t losing its footing over a five-year design cycle. Hex-shaped tile is the newer entry on this list, we weren’t sure it had legs a few years back, but it keeps landing on kitchen jobs where a client wants texture without going full pattern. No strong grain direction to the shape, so it sits well against almost any cabinet layout.

What’s Replacing Small Grid Tile

Large-format porcelain leads, for the grout-line reasons above. Most of our porcelain tile installation quotes this year specify 12×24 or larger for exactly that reason. Hexagon and elongated hex tile has picked up real momentum where a client wants texture without going full pattern, no strong directionality to the shape means it works in almost any kitchen footprint. Wood-look porcelain had its run and it’s fading in main living areas, mostly because luxury vinyl plank does the same job for less money and a softer step. We still use wood-look tile in specific spots, mudrooms off a kitchen, a pantry floor, anywhere durability matters more than the plank alternative’s comfort.

Patterned and cement-look tile is the other real mover. Usually confined to a smaller zone, a kitchen entry, in front of a sink run, or a full backsplash-to-floor moment rather than covering the whole kitchen. Full-room pattern tips into busy fast; a contained zone reads deliberate.

Wood-Look Tile vs Luxury Vinyl Plank

Wood-look porcelain had a real moment. Homeowners wanted the warmth of hardwood with none of the water risk, and for a few years tile was the only material that delivered both. That moment’s passing in main living areas now, not because the tile got worse, but because luxury vinyl plank arrived and does the same visual job for less money, less install time, and a floor that’s softer on the knees during a long cooking session.

We still recommend wood-look tile in a handful of specific spots: a mudroom that shares sightlines with the kitchen, a pantry floor, anywhere the durability gap between tile and LVP actually matters more than comfort. For a full main kitchen floor, most of the clients we quote these days land on LVP if the wood look is the priority, and porcelain or a stone-look finish if durability and resale value matter more than matching a specific plank colour. Neither answer is wrong. It comes down to which trade-off a household is willing to live with.

The Practical Case for Tile Nobody Argues With

Water resistance still wins the room. A wine glass tips, a pot boils over, a dishwasher line fails at 2am, tile shrugs all of it off in a way laminate and most engineered wood never fully recover from. Heat resistance matters too, set a hot pan straight off the stove onto tile and nothing happens. Try that on LVP.

The trade-offs are real and worth saying plainly. Tile is hard underfoot for long cooking sessions, it’s cold without heating, and dropped dishes don’t survive it the way they sometimes survive a wood or vinyl floor. Grout needs sealing periodically or it picks up stains near the stove and sink. None of that makes tile the wrong choice, it just means the decision should account for how someone actually uses their kitchen, not just how the floor photographs.

What we hear on site visits: people weighing a kitchen remodel almost always start the conversation asking about vinyl plank, then switch to tile once the pot-on-the-floor scenario comes up. Every kitchen has had that moment eventually, someone drops something hot or heavy, and the household remembers which material handled it. Homeowners with dogs bring up scratches unprompted. Tile doesn’t scratch. That single fact settles more kitchen flooring decisions in this market than any style trend does.

Should You Replace Dated Tile Before Selling?

Depends on how dated and how much else needs work. Small glossy 12×12 in an otherwise updated kitchen is worth pulling, buyers notice floor first and it reads as an unfinished renovation. The same tile in a kitchen that’s original throughout, original cabinets, original counters, gets discounted mentally by buyers as part of a whole-kitchen project, and swapping just the floor won’t move the needle much on its own.

Regrouting is the cheap middle path worth mentioning before anyone commits to a full tear-out. Old grout gone grey or stained ages a floor almost as much as the tile format does, and a professional regrout costs a fraction of replacement. We get called for full kitchen floor jobs where regrouting alone would’ve solved most of the complaint, worth asking about before signing off on demo.

Updating Dated Tile Without a Full Tear-Out

Regrouting comes first on this list every time. Grout carries more of the “dated” verdict than the tile underneath it, and a fresh, slightly darker grout colour changes how the whole floor reads without touching a single tile. Second option, less common but worth knowing about: epoxy tile paint kits exist for a reason, and they can carry a glossy ceramic floor through a few more years if a full renovation isn’t in the budget yet. We don’t install these ourselves, it’s a DIY product, but we’ve seen homeowners buy a year or two of patience with one before committing to the real project.

Area rugs and runners do real work too, especially over a small-format section near the sink or stove that’s taking the brunt of the wear. Cheapest fix on this entire page, and it solves the visual problem the same afternoon someone buys the rug.

What a Kitchen Floor Update Actually Costs Here

Porcelain tile installation on Vancouver Island runs roughly $12 to $20 per square foot installed, material and labour together, depending on tile cost and how much substrate prep the existing floor needs. A typical 200-square-foot kitchen lands somewhere around $2,400 to $4,000 for the floor alone. Removal of old tile adds to that, usually $3 to $6 per square foot on top, more if the old thinset bonded hard to the subfloor underneath.

Regrouting a floor that doesn’t need full replacement runs a fraction of that, often under $500 for an average kitchen. Worth the phone call before assuming a full tear-out is the only fix. Most kitchen tile installation quotes we write out start with a walkthrough covering exactly this, whether the floor needs replacing or just a refresh, before any number gets attached to the job.

Substrate condition is the number that swings a quote the most, more than tile choice ever does. An old kitchen with plywood subfloor that’s flexed over the years, or a slab with cracks, needs prep work before new tile goes down, cement board, self-leveling compound, sometimes crack-isolation membrane. Skip that step to save money and the new tile inherits the old floor’s problems within a year or two. We won’t quote a job without checking the substrate first, and any installer who skips that walkthrough is setting up a callback. Got measurements already? Send us the details and we’ll tell you what it’ll take.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do people still put tile in kitchens?

Yes, regularly. What changed is the format and finish, not whether tile itself belongs in a kitchen. Large-format porcelain, warm stone-look, and terracotta are the current asks.

What is the newest trend in kitchen flooring?

Large-format porcelain in warm tones, terracotta, and hex-shaped tile for texture. Matte and textured finishes over the high-gloss look that dominated a decade ago.

What are the trends for kitchen floor tiles in 2026?

Warm stone and terracotta over cool grey, large-format over small grid, checkerboard in soft colour pairings instead of stark black-and-white, and pattern confined to a zone rather than covering an entire kitchen.

What makes a kitchen look outdated?

Small tile with heavy grout lines, high-gloss finish, and mismatched grout colour top the list. Straight-grid layout with no offset or diagonal reads generic even with newer tile.

Ask five different sources what’s dated and get five different answers. That’s the real state of kitchen tile trends right now. Measure the actual kitchen before matching whatever a trend list says, that room decides more than the calendar does.

Related Questions

• Are 12×12 Tiles Outdated?
• Are Square Tiles Outdated?
• Are Glass Tiles Good for Kitchen Backsplash?
• How to Re Grout a Tile Floor?

Jordan Tile & Stone

Tile installation and repair across central Vancouver Island: Campbell River, Courtenay, Comox, Oyster Bay, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Nanaimo.

Phone: (250) 201-3891
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm
Address: 4423 Patricia Rd, Oyster Bay, BC V9H 1B8

What Is Subway Tile?

Rectangular. Twice as wide as it is tall. Laid in a brick-style offset. That combination is subway tile, and it has been the default backsplash choice on more Nanaimo and Courtenay kitchens than any other single product we install. Most homeowners can picture it before they can name it, which tells you something about how far the look has travelled from where it started.

Standard size runs 3×6 inches, though the category now covers anything with a roughly 1:2 ratio, from a small 2×4 mosaic strip to an elongated 3×12 plank. Ceramic remains the most common material, but glass, porcelain, marble, and natural stone versions all get sold under the same name.

Where the Name Actually Comes From

New York City, 1904. Architects Heins and La Farge needed a wall surface for the first subway stations that would feel clean and bright to riders nervous about going underground for the first time. White glazed ceramic tile, laid in that now-familiar offset, reflected what light there was and wiped clean easily. The name stuck to the tile long after most people stopped thinking about subway platforms.

Germ theory was gaining ground in that era too, and a smooth, non-porous, easy-to-scrub surface fit the moment. Hospitals, commercial kitchens, and eventually home bathrooms adopted the same tile for the same reason. Over a century later, the practical case still holds up, even though most homeowners choosing it today care more about the look than the hygiene argument that started it.

The Standard Sizes and Where Homeowners Deviate

3×6 inches is still the most requested size on our jobs, and it’s the one people mean when they say “subway tile” without qualifying it further. Beyond that, the sizing gets flexible fast. 2×4 works well for a small backsplash where a person wants more grout lines and more visual texture. 4×8 and 6×12 scale the same brick pattern up for a shower wall or a larger kitchen run. 3×12 has become popular on Island jobs the last few years, a longer, thinner plank that reads more modern and needs fewer cuts around outlets.

Grout joint width matters more than people expect going in. 1/16 inch is standard on a factory-edge 3×6, tight enough that the offset pattern reads clean without the grout lines competing for attention. Handmade or slightly irregular tile needs 1/8 inch or more just to accommodate the size variation between individual pieces, and skipping that step is one of the more common callback causes we see on DIY jobs.

Material Options

Ceramic is where subway tile started and it’s still the budget-friendly default. Handles moisture fine in a kitchen backsplash, less ideal for a full shower surround where impact resistance matters more.

Porcelain costs more but wins on water absorption, which is the number that actually matters in a wet shower install. We push clients toward porcelain any time the tile is going somewhere it will see standing water or steam on a daily basis.

Glass brings a glossier finish and a wider colour range, but it scratches more visibly over time and shows trowel ridges through a translucent face if the installer isn’t careful with technique. Marble and natural stone versions look striking and cost the most, plus they need sealing that ceramic and porcelain never require.

What We Actually Recommend

Porcelain for anything wet. Ceramic for a dry kitchen backsplash where budget matters. Marble only for clients who understand the sealing commitment going in, because the ones who skip that maintenance call us back within two years asking why the grout has gone grey.

Pattern Options Beyond the Standard Offset

Traditional layout uses a 50% offset, the middle of each tile lined up with the seam of the two tiles above and below it. That’s the pattern most people picture. A 1/3 offset shifts the stagger slightly, a subtle variation that reads as intentional rather than accidental once it’s on the wall. Push the stagger to a 1/4 offset and the wall gets a stepped, almost staircase feel running up it.

Herringbone has become the request we hear most often for a feature wall or a statement backsplash behind a range. It takes longer to install, involves diagonal cuts around every outlet and edge, and costs more in labour for exactly that reason. Vertical stacking, tiles set directly on top of each other with no offset at all, elongates a narrow wall and reads more contemporary than the brick pattern most people associate with the name.

Where Subway Tile Actually Gets Used

Kitchen backsplashes remain the most common application on our jobs across Nanaimo, Parksville, and Campbell River. A subway tile backsplash handles grease and splatter the way the original hospital and kitchen installs handled worse, and the classic white version still shows up on close to half our backsplash quotes.

Shower and tub surrounds are the second most common request, particularly with a porcelain or ceramic finish that tolerates constant water exposure. Fireplace surrounds and standalone feature walls round out the list, both spaces where the tile’s clean lines do most of the visual work without competing with everything else in the room. A proper backsplash tile installation accounts for outlet cutouts, corner transitions, and substrate prep before a single tile goes up.

Location shifts the request slightly. Comox and Courtenay jobs skew toward the elongated 3×12 plank in a warm white for kitchen renovations tied to a broader remodel. Older Nanaimo character homes see more classic 3×6 white, matched to original trim and mouldings the owners want to keep intact. Campbell River’s newer builds are where herringbone feature walls come up most, usually behind a freestanding tub rather than in the shower itself.

Can Floor Tiles Be Used on Walls?

Often, yes. This is the question that comes up almost as often as the subway tile question itself, usually from someone who found a floor tile they liked and wants the same look carried up a shower wall or a feature wall. Floor tile can go on a wall, that’s the short answer. Longer version: it changes the installation in ways worth knowing before committing to it.

Weight is the first issue. Floor tile runs denser and thicker than most wall-rated tile, built to take foot traffic the wall version never has to handle. Gravity works against that extra weight the moment the tile goes vertical, which means a heavier-duty thinset, sometimes temporary support while it cures, and tighter installation tolerances to stop the tile from slumping before the adhesive sets.

Wall prep changes too. Standard drywall backs most residential walls, and it isn’t always rated for the load a large-format floor tile puts on it, especially in a bathroom where moisture adds its own stress to the equation. Cement backer board or a waterproof membrane usually needs to go up first, which adds a step and a cost that a straightforward wall-tile install skips entirely.

Kitchen Walls Versus Bathroom Walls

Floor tile on a kitchen wall, behind a range or as a backsplash, deals with grease and heat more than standing water. Slip resistance stops mattering the moment the tile is vertical, so a textured floor tile that would have been chosen for traction on the ground becomes just a texture choice on a kitchen wall, one that happens to be a little harder to wipe clean than a smooth ceramic subway tile would be. Bathroom walls carry more moisture exposure, and that’s where the backer board and waterproofing step earns its cost.

When We Say No

Large-format floor porcelain, anything over roughly 18 inches, on an older wall with unknown framing is where we start pushing back. The math on temporary support, reinforced backer board, and installation time often lands close to the cost of just choosing a wall-rated tile that gives the same look without the structural gymnastics. A wall tile installation quote usually flags this trade-off before the job gets booked, not after.

Grout Colour and the Pattern Decision

White grout with white subway tile keeps the offset pattern quiet, close to invisible from across the room. Grey or black grout on the same white tile does the opposite, pulling the pattern forward and making the layout itself part of the design rather than a background detail. Neither choice is wrong. It depends on whether the goal is a calm, unified wall or a wall that shows off the brickwork underneath.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a tile a subway tile?

Shape and layout more than any specific material. A rectangle with roughly a 1:2 width-to-height ratio, laid in an offset pattern, qualifies regardless of whether it’s ceramic, porcelain, or glass. The 3×6 size is traditional, not mandatory.

What are the disadvantages of subway tile?

Grout lines add up fast on a small tile, and more grout means more maintenance over the life of the wall. Standard white also shows up in enough homes that some clients worry about it reading as generic rather than distinctive. Larger-format versions and unusual colours address both concerns at a higher material cost.

Is subway tile out of style in 2026?

No, though the standard 3×6 white version has stopped being the default request it was a decade ago. Elongated 3×12 formats, colour, and herringbone layouts are where most new quotes land now. The shape itself, offset rectangles, keeps getting specified even as the size and colour choices shift.

What is a subway tile backsplash?

A kitchen or bathroom wall section, usually between the counter and upper cabinets or mirror, finished in rectangular offset tile. It’s the single most common application we see the tile used for, ahead of showers and feature walls combined.

Can I use floor tile as a backsplash?

Generally easier than putting floor tile on a full wall. A backsplash carries far less load than a shower surround, so the weight and structural concerns matter less, though slip resistance textured for foot traffic can still make a floor tile backsplash a little harder to wipe down than a smooth ceramic one.

Is there a difference between floor tile and wall tile?

Mainly density, thickness, and slip rating. Floor tile gets built to handle foot traffic and often includes texture for traction. Wall tile skips both requirements and tends to run lighter, which is why it’s the easier default for a vertical surface even when floor tile can technically be adapted.

What holds tile on the wall?

Thinset mortar does the bonding, spread with a notched trowel sized to the tile. Heavier or larger tile sometimes needs a modified, polymer-enhanced thinset and temporary support while it cures, since gravity is working against the bond until it fully sets.

What are some alternatives to wall tiles in bathrooms?

Waterproof PVC panels and acrylic surrounds cover the same moisture-prone areas with less labour and lower material cost, though neither matches tile for long-term durability or resale appeal. Large-format porcelain slabs are the other alternative clients ask about, fewer grout lines but a heavier, more specialized install.

Central Vancouver Island’s mix of older housing stock and newer builds means wall framing and drywall thickness vary a lot from one job to the next, Nanaimo through Campbell River. Confirming what’s actually behind the wall before committing to a heavier floor tile on a vertical surface saves a redo later.

Related Questions

• Are Wall Tiles and Floor Tiles the Same?
• Can I Put Floor Tiles on the Wall?
• Can I Put Wall Tiles on the Floor?
• Are Subway Tiles Ceramic or Porcelain?

Jordan Tile & Stone

Tile installation and repair across central Vancouver Island: Campbell River, Courtenay, Comox, Oyster Bay, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Nanaimo.

Phone: (250) 201-3891
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm
Address: 4423 Patricia Rd, Oyster Bay, BC V9H 1B8

Are Hexagon Tiles Hard to Lay?

Harder than a square tile, not brutally hard. That is the range most jobs land in. Are hexagon tiles harder to install than a standard rectangle? Yes, mostly because of the cutting, not because the tile itself is fragile or unusual to handle. A homeowner asking whether to attempt hexagon tile themselves needs a different answer than a homeowner just trying to understand why their quote came in higher than the last square-tile job. Both questions get covered below, along with where the difficulty actually shows up on a real jobsite instead of in the abstract.

Why Hexagon Tiles Take Longer to Lay Than Square Tile

Six sides instead of four changes the math at every border. A rectangular tile against a straight wall needs one straight cut, sometimes none at all if the layout lines up. Hexagon against that same wall needs a cut on nearly every piece touching the edge, since the angled sides never sit flush against a flat wall the way a square edge does. Order extra material for a hex job too. Waste factor on angled cuts runs closer to fifteen percent than the ten percent most contractors quote for a straight square-tile layout.

The Every-Other-Tile Cutting Problem

Tradespeople on the trade forums put it plainly: square tile on stack bond against a dead-straight wall needs no cutting at all. Hexagon against that same wall needs a cut on every other piece, angled, not a simple rip cut. That single difference accounts for most of the extra labour time on a hex job. More cuts, more angled cuts specifically, and angled cuts take longer to mark, score, and fit than a straight edge does. A wet saw with an adjustable angle guide handles most of it, though tile nippers still come out for the tight corner pieces a saw blade cannot reach cleanly.

Squaring the layout before the first tile goes down matters more on hexagon too. Get the starting line off by even a few degrees and the error compounds across the whole floor, showing up as a widening gap by the time you reach the far wall. Square tile forgives a slightly-off starting line. Hexagon does not forgive it nearly as well. Older character homes across the Island, the kind with a bathroom that was never quite squared to begin with, are exactly where this problem shows up hardest, since the walls themselves are already a few degrees off true before a single tile gets set.

Small Mosaic Hex Sheets vs Large-Format Hexagon Tile

Two different products get sold under “hexagon tile,” and they carry two different difficulty levels. Small hex mosaic, usually under two inches per side, comes mesh-mounted in sheets. Large-format hexagon, four inches and up, gets set piece by piece like any other individual tile.

Mosaic sheets look like the easier option since a contractor sets a whole sheet at once instead of one tile at a time. In practice, sheet-mounted hex carries its own headache: the spacing baked into the mesh backing is not always consistent from sheet to sheet, and forcing two sheets together to match the joint width means fighting the mesh instead of the tile. We have pulled up bathroom floors where the sheet spacing drifted just enough that grout lines widen and narrow across the room in a pattern nobody planned. It photographs fine from three feet away. Get down on the floor with a straightedge and the drift is obvious.

Large-format hex skips that mesh problem entirely, since each tile gets set and spaced individually with real tile spacers. The trade-off runs the other way: bigger pieces mean heavier handling, more thinset coverage to check underneath each one, and a single bad cut wastes a much more expensive piece of tile than a mosaic sheet ever would.

Cost per square foot rarely tells the whole story either. Mosaic sheets often price lower per square foot on the material invoice, but labour eats into that savings fast, since setting and grouting a sheet still takes real time even though the cutting is minimal. Large-format hex costs more per piece but sets faster per square foot covered. Compare the two on total installed cost, not the shelf price at the tile shop, before assuming the smaller mosaic is the budget choice.

Points-Up or Flat-Top: Orientation Changes the Layout, Not Just the Look

A hexagon sits one of two ways: flat side facing the wall, or a point facing the wall. Pick wrong for the room shape and the border cuts get uglier than they need to be. Flat-top orientation lines up cleanly against a straight wall on one axis but leaves points to deal with on the perpendicular wall. Points-up does the opposite.

Most installers pick the orientation based on which wall in the room is the most visually dominant, then accept that the other wall’s border cuts will be less clean. There is no orientation that gives a perfect straight-line border on all four sides of a rectangular room. That is geometry, not a skill gap, and it is worth knowing going in rather than discovering it mid-job.

Narrow galley-style bathrooms, common in a lot of the older housing stock around Nanaimo and Parksville, make the orientation call harder still. A five-foot-wide room leaves almost no margin for a wrong guess on which wall gets the clean flat-top run, since both long walls are visible from the doorway at once. We walk that decision with the client before ordering material, not after the first box gets opened, because swapping orientation mid-job means starting the layout over.

What a Hexagon Tile Job Gone Wrong Actually Looks Like

A homeowner posted photos of a poorly laid hex mosaic floor once, asking whether to live with it or rip it out. Thirty-six replies followed, most landing on the same diagnosis: the spacing inconsistency traced back to the mosaic sheets, not the installer skipping steps. Some commenters pushed for a full tear-out. Most said regrout with a closer-matched grout colour first, since a lot of what reads as “bad tile work” from a distance is actually a grout colour fighting the tile rather than true lippage or gaps.

That thread is a useful gut check before hiring anyone for a hex job. Ask what happens if the sheets do not line up perfectly, before the work starts, not after. A contractor who has an answer ready has done this before. One who has not thought about it is learning on your floor.

The other repeat problem shows up on jobs where the subfloor was not flat to begin with. Any tile shows a wavy floor eventually, but hexagon shows it faster, since the eye tracks the repeating angled pattern and catches a dip or hump that a plain square grid would hide for longer.

Lippage, one tile edge sitting proud of its neighbour, has an actual tolerance number behind it: TCNA guidance allows roughly 1/32 of an inch between adjacent edges on most standard installs. That sounds tiny, and it is, but a hex layout has more shared edges per square foot than a square grid does, so more places for that tolerance to get tested. A levelling clip system, not just a notched trowel and a steady hand, is what keeps a hex floor inside that tolerance across a full room.

Hexagon Tile on a Shower Floor: Extra Considerations

Shower floors add a slope-to-drain requirement on top of everything above, and that slope has to be built into the mortar bed before a single hex tile goes down. Small mosaic hex, an inch or so per side, handles that slope better than large-format hex does, since more grout joints per square foot means more places for the surface to flex slightly toward the drain without the tile itself needing to bend.

Grip matters here too. A shower floor sees water and bare feet daily, and the higher grout-line density on small hex mosaic gives more traction than a large-format tile with fewer, wider joints. That is one case where the “harder to install” small mosaic is also the better functional choice, not just the prettier one.

Grout colour choice affects maintenance more than looks on a shower floor specifically. Light grout on a hex shower pan darkens with mineral buildup faster than the same grout on a wall. A darker grout hides that buildup longer, though it hides early leak staining longer too, which is worth weighing before locking in a colour on a bathroom tile installation.

None of this works without a proper waterproofing membrane behind the tile assembly, and that step gets skipped or rushed more often on hex mosaic jobs than on any other shower floor. The mesh backing on small mosaic sheets can trick an inexperienced installer into treating the sheet itself as part of the waterproofing, which it is not. Tile and grout are still just the finish layer over the membrane, hexagon or otherwise, and the curb and niche details around a hex shower floor need the same attention as the field itself.

What to Ask a Contractor Before a Hexagon Tile Job

Three questions separate a contractor who has run hex jobs before from one who is learning on your bathroom. What happens if the mosaic sheets do not line up perfectly out of the box, and how does that get corrected before grouting. How much extra time is built into the quote for the angled cuts specifically, not just a flat “hexagon costs more” line item. What levelling system gets used to keep lippage inside tolerance across the room, not just at the entry point where it is easiest to check.

A vague answer to any of those three is worth pausing on. Contractors who have set a lot of hex tile answer fast, usually with a specific product name for the levelling clips or a specific percentage for the added labour, because they have priced it out before and it is not a guess anymore.

Should You DIY Hexagon Tile, or Call a Pro

Depends entirely on the room and the tile size chosen. A small accent area, a backsplash strip, or a single powder room floor in large-format hex is within reach for a patient first-timer who has already tiled something square before. Full shower floors in small mosaic hex, with a slope-to-drain requirement and waterproofing behind them, are a different job entirely. Get the slope wrong under a shower and the callback is a leak, not a cosmetic fix.

On a job we would quote in a straight line, plan on hexagon adding somewhere around twenty to thirty percent more install time than the same square footage in a standard square or rectangular tile. That gap comes almost entirely from the extra cuts and the layout planning, not from the material itself costing more to work with. Ask any contractor quoting a hex job to walk through why the number is higher than a square-tile quote for the same room. If the answer is vague, that is worth a second opinion.

On labour alone, that twenty to thirty percent bump usually lands somewhere in the two to five dollar per square foot range on top of a standard square-tile install quote, depending on tile size and whether the sheets or pieces are fighting the layout. A small powder room floor absorbs that difference without much drama. Full main bathrooms, wall and floor both in hex, are where the number starts to matter to a renovation budget, and where getting a second quote is worth the extra week it takes. Happy to walk through the specifics of your own room. Just ask us.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the hardest tile to lay?

Natural stone in large-format pieces, closer to the top of that list than hexagon is. Marble and travertine slabs demand near-perfect substrate flatness and careful handling to avoid chipping the edges, on top of any shape-related cutting. Add a heavy natural-stone slab to a hexagon or herringbone layout and difficulty stacks fast. Hexagon is harder than square, but material choice moves the needle more than shape does once you are comparing across the whole tile market.

Is hexagon tile outdated?

No, and that is really a separate question from the difficulty one covered here. Hexagon has cycled through popularity for a century and shows no sign of falling out of rotation heading into 2026. Size and grout colour choices date faster than the shape itself does, not the six-sided outline. The full breakdown of what actually dates a hex floor, and what keeps it timeless, lives on our hexagon tile trend page.

How hard is it to lay hexagon tile?

On a one-to-ten difficulty scale against square tile as a baseline five, hexagon sits closer to a seven. Not expert-only territory, but enough extra cutting and layout planning that a first attempt should be a small area, not a full main-floor bathroom. A patient DIYer with one square-tile job already behind them can reasonably take this on at a small scale.

What is the hardest tile pattern to lay?

Herringbone and basketweave both edge out hexagon for pure layout difficulty, since both demand every single tile be cut at an angle with almost no full pieces surviving to the border. Hexagon at least gives you full, uncut pieces across the field of the room, with the cutting concentrated at the edges instead of spread across every piece. Herringbone rarely offers that break.

What is the most difficult tile pattern to install?

A mixed pattern combining two or more shapes, hexagon paired with a rectangle picture-frame border for instance, tops the list in practice. Each shape brings its own cutting rules, and getting the transition line between them straight is harder than either pattern is on its own. Most installers reserve combination layouts for smaller feature areas rather than full floors for exactly that reason, saving the ambitious pattern work for a backsplash or an accent strip where a mistake costs less to fix.

A hexagon floor or shower done with a flat subfloor, the right orientation call made up front, and grout matched to the room’s actual traffic holds up as well as any tile shape on the market. Jordan Tile & Stone handles hexagon and mosaic tile installation across Nanaimo, Parksville, and Campbell River, and can walk through what a specific room actually needs before the first cut gets made.

Related Questions

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Jordan Tile & Stone

Tile installation and repair across central Vancouver Island: Campbell River, Courtenay, Comox, Oyster Bay, Nanoose Bay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Nanaimo.

Phone: (250) 201-3891
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm
Address: 4423 Patricia Rd, Oyster Bay, BC V9H 1B8