Difference between Tiles and Marble

Key Difference: Tile is a piece of baked clay used in covering roofs, walls or floors. It is also a similar piece of plastic material used for covering floors. Marble is a kind of hard, usually highly polished stone, used for sculpture and as building material.

Dictionary.com defines ‘tiles’ as, ‘a thin slab or bent piece of baked clay, sometimes painted or gazed, used for various purposes, as to form one of the units of a roof covering, floor, or revetment.’

The word 'Tile' is derived from the French word ‘tuile’, which is, in turn, from the Latin word ‘tegula’, meaning a roof tile composed of fired clay. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls or other subjects such as the top of a table. Tiles are more suitable for harsher applications, such as flooring. They are less likely to absorb moisture and stains which afterwards may become difficult or impossible to remove. Tiles always play an important role when it comes to interior décor. Nowadays, ceramic tiles are more preferable for household’s décor, as it is the most effective and gives a beautiful effect to the room.

There are varieties of tiles and all vary in type and cost. It becomes a little tricky to choose a right tile for a right place, from thousands of designs and colors. It becomes a difficult task when you have to choose a tile for home, office, mall or airport.

The varieties of tiles are as follows:

  • Ceramic tiles
  • Metal tiles
  • Mosaic tiles
  • Vitrified tiles
  • Digital tiles
  • Stone tiles
  • Solar

Marble, on the other hand, is a metamorphic rock, that is pertaining to or characterized by change of form. It is composed of re-crystallized carbonate minerals. The problem of the marble stone is that it is a porous stone so it can stain. As it is a rock, the most commonly used stones are limestone and dolomite rock. Limestone makes up about 10% of the total volume of all sedimentary rocks and has number of uses as a building material, as total for the base of roads, as a white substance used for coloring or as a filler making in products such as paints or toothpaste.

Examples of variety of marble stones and their colors:

Marble

Color

Carrara marble

Murphy marble

Yule marble

Vermont

Etowah marble

Creole marble

Connemara marble

Purbeck marble

white or blue-grey

white

uniform pure white

white

pink, salmon, rose

white, blue/black

green

grey/brown

In the older times, tiles were all the same, but now with the new technology and machines, tiles looks more perfect with the finalized finishing and good hardness. Tiles are very hard but easily broken, thus one may require an expert to cut them. Marble is a beautiful natural stone that is cut and polished in a factory.

The prominent differences between both the terms is that Marble tiles are made from essential marble stone, whereas, porcelain tiles are frequently only made from white clay and they have color all the way through the tile. Marbles can be used on walls, whereas, porcelain tiles are hard and are used for flooring as well as interior and exterior walls.

Comparison between Tiles and Marble:

 

Tiles

Marble

Description

Tile is a piece of baked clay used in covering roofs or walls. It is a similar piece of plastic material used for covering floors.

Marble is a kind of hard, usually highly polished stones, used for sculpture and as a building material.

Origin of the word

French word ‘tuile’, which is, in turn, from the Latin word ‘tegula’, meaning ‘a roof tile composed of fired clay’.

From Latin marmor, from Greek marmaros ‘shining stone’.

Types

  • Ceramic tiles
  • Metal tiles
  • Mosaic tiles
  • Vitrified tiles
  • Digital tiles
  • Stone tiles
  • Solar
  • Carrara marble
  • Murphy marble
  • Yule marble
  • Vermont
  • Etowah marble
  • Creole marble
  • Connemara marble
  • Purbeck marble

Finishing

Tiles come in both glazed and unglazed.

Marble typically comes in a polished, honed and tumbled.

Flooring

A tile is one of the cheapest flooring options.

Marble is one of the most costly materials to use for flooring.

Appearance

Tiles are more suitable for harsher applications, such as flooring. It is generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls or other subjects such as top of a table.

Marble is the most elegant natural stone which gives such stylishness to the room that it increases the richness of the house.

Image Courtesy: overthetopflooring.ca, atelierhob.com

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