Marble tiles

What marble is

Marble starts as limestone or dolostone. Over millions of years, heat and pressure deep in the earth recrystallise it into a dense stone of interlocking crystals. Art of Marble’s guide to marble stone gives its main minerals as calcite (CaCO₃) or dolomite (CaMg(CO₃)₂), and explains that traces of other minerals colour it: iron oxides towards pink, clay minerals towards grey or green, bituminous matter towards black. Those impurities also draw the veins, so no two slabs are the same.

The same guide names Italy, Spain, China, Greece and Turkey as major sources today.

Types of marble

Marble is sold by quarry name and colour. Among the best-known kinds, the same guide names three white Italian stones: Carrara, Calacatta and Statuario. Suppliers such as Tino Stone also sort it by colour — white, beige, grey, green, blue, brown and black. The name tells you the look rather than the performance, so ask the seller for the stone’s origin and see a sample tile from the batch you will buy, since veining varies from slab to slab.

Marble finishes: polished, honed, tumbled

That guide lists three common finishes for the face of a tile:

Marble finishes: polished, honed, tumbled

Finish	Surface	Where the guide places it
Polished	high gloss, reflects light	walls, benchtops, areas where shine is wanted
Honed	matt, smooth	high-traffic floors, where a less slippery face is needed
Tumbled	worn, rounded edges	relaxed, rustic spaces

Fiorantina, an Italian stone company, adds that honed and leathered (textured) finishes are gaining ground on a polished face. For marble flooring in a kitchen, bathroom or on a veranda, a honed face is the safer choice on wet feet.

Caring for marble tiles

Because marble is a carbonate stone, acids attack it. The Australian supplier describes it as sensitive to acids and scratches, and calls sealing crucial to protect the surface from staining; with proper sealing, it says, the stone resists moisture and stains. Ask the seller which sealer suits the stone you buy and how often the maker says to renew it, and keep acidic spills off a polished face.

Marble or marble-look tiles

Tile and marble are often confused in shops, because many tiles are printed to look like the stone. In Tanzania, CTM lists a “Marble Look” range that includes ceramic tiles of 600 × 600 mm and porcelain of 800 × 800 and 600 × 1200 mm. These are fired clay, not stone: they do not etch with acid and need no sealer, but the veins are printed and repeat across tiles.

Real marble tiles cost more care and give a unique stone; marble-look porcelain gives the look with the maintenance of a tile. The porcelain tiles page explains the dense, low-absorption body these tiles use. PVC marble sheets sold for walls are a third product again — plastic panels, not stone or tile.

Kitovu does not stock marble. It keeps a stone-look porcelain in Zanzibar, the Beige Porcelain Tile 1200x600 mm, Matt Anti-Slip R10, with a matt, granular face.

Where marble tiles suit

The sources quoted here match finish to place:

• Walls and benchtops — a polished face, where shine is wanted (the Australian guide).
• Busy floors and halls — a honed face, which the same guide places in high-traffic areas that need a less slippery surface.
• Marble tiles in a kitchen or bathroom — Fiorantina describes the stone as central in both rooms; sealing matters most here, where water and food acids reach the stone.
• Patios and façades — the same guide mentions honed or textured faces outdoors; for hard-wearing outdoor stone, compare granite.

Adhesive and grout for natural stone are covered on the tile adhesive and tile grout pages; Sika lists its SikaCeram-650 grout for this stone.