To start, stainless steel is a metal that is resistive to corrosion and staining. Stainless steel is low maintenance, relative in expense, and maintains a brilliant shine. With these unique properties stainless steel makes an ideal material for many applications both in the home and outside the home. There are thousands of places we can find stainless steel at work in our daily lives. For example: cookware, cutlery, hardware, surgical instruments, major appliances, industrial equipment, and building material like stainless steel tile.
Focusing just on stainless steel tile I will introduce some ways that a home owner may use stainless steel tile in their home improvements projects, and for those that are designing a new home there are many uses for stainless steel tiles in kitchens, bathrooms, and in flooring.
Why choose stainless steel tiles when trying to design a kitchen backsplash or bathroom? Stainless steel tiles are smooth, radiant, contemporary, and innovative. For one, stainless steel metal tiles come in a variety of colors and finishes like copper or brass and even a stainless steel stucco finish that gives texture and dimension to the metal tile design. Most kitchen appliances come with a brushed satin finish; stainless steel tiles come in the same brushed satin finish making it easier to match a metal tile backsplash with the appliances. If you are looking for stainless tile for your floor then the 14 gauge tiles are most recommended. With a thicker stainless steel tile, durability, maintainability, and appearance are not an issue.
To better complete your one-of-a-kind metal tile design, what do you do about those light switches and receptacles? The answer is simple; there is a full line of switch and receptacle stainless steel covers that range from single gang to four gang toggle wall plates. Every possible plug/switch combo is available with most stainless steel tile dealers.
So you’re off and tiling your new kitchen backsplash and you come to the last row of tile when you find that a whole tile is just too big. What to do? Two ways to fix this problem, many stainless steel tile manufacturers provide custom pre-cut tiles that you can order with your full size tiles. Pre-cut tiles are more expensive because the buyer will have to pay for each cut, about a dollar and a half, on top of the cost of the stainless tile. Option two is to buy your own metal tile saw. For about one hundred dollars you can buy a small band saw and outfit it with a metal saw blade designed for cutting tile. A 100 tooth count blade works well. With the ability to cut your stainless tile as you install, the guess work on how many pre-cut tiles you need will be eliminated.