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Wood-look tiles

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Short answer

Wood-look tiles are ceramic or porcelain tiles cut as long planks and printed with a timber grain. CTM Tanzania lists them in formats such as 230 × 1200 mm and 300 × 1000 mm. Fine Homebuilding's guide advises offsetting each row by no more than one third of a plank, so that the floor stays flat.

In stock in Zanzibar

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What wood-look tiles are

A wood tile is a fired tile, not timber: a porcelain or ceramic body with a printed glaze that copies the grain, knots and colour of a board. Most are made as planks — long and narrow — so the floor reads like boards rather than squares. Some buyers searching “tile on wood” mean this look; laying tiles over a timber subfloor is a different job, and its base preparation is a matter for the adhesive and tile makers’ instructions.

Because the body is ceramic, the tile takes water and wear the way other floor tiles do. The porcelain tiles page explains the dense body most wood-look planks use.

Wood tile sizes sold in Tanzania

These wood-look ranges appeared in Tanzanian shop catalogues on 12 November 2026:

Wood tile sizes sold in Tanzania
Range Body and finish (as listed) Size Shop
Borneo Gris, Roble, Taupe porcelain 230 × 1200 mm CTM
Barnwood Natural, Whitewashed glazed porcelain, matt, rectified 895 × 220 mm CTM
Origins Trinidad Grey matt porcelain 280 × 710 mm CTM
Kilimanjaro Edge (Tshwane, Kibale, Timbila, Amarula) rectified matt porcelain; marked discontinued 300 × 1000 mm CTM
Alpi Cerezo, Alpi Nogal (Pamesa) listed under “Wooden tiles” not stated Dar Ceramica

Prices for some of these are on the floor tiles price page; this page carries none.

What to check when you buy wood tile

  1. Body. Porcelain is the usual choice for floors; check the water absorption or the word porcelain on the box.
  2. Rectified edges. Studio Jeandre’s guide to wood-effect tile recommends a rectified profile: the edges are machined straight, so the grout joints between planks can be tight and even.
  3. Pattern repeat. A printed grain repeats after a number of faces. Ask how many different faces the range has, and mix tiles from several boxes as you lay them so that identical planks do not sit side by side.
  4. Slip class. For kitchens, bathrooms and verandas, check the R class; the floor tiles page explains R9 to R13.
  5. Batch. Buy all boxes for one floor from the same shade batch.

How a wood tile floor is laid

Long planks are rarely perfectly flat along their length. Fine Homebuilding’s guide to wood-look plank flooring therefore tells the tiler to measure the cuts so that each row overlaps the previous one by no more than one third of a tile. A half-plank offset, common with real boards, lines up the high points of neighbouring tiles and leaves edges standing proud.

For the adhesive under long porcelain planks, see the tile adhesive page, which sets out the classes made for porcelain and large formats; joints are filled afterwards as described on the tile grout page. Narrow joints suit a rectified plank.

Where wood-look tiles suit

Because porcelain takes up very little water, wood-look porcelain planks are laid in rooms that are washed often — kitchens, bathrooms and verandas — as well as living rooms and bedrooms. It also suits feature walls; the wall tiles page covers fixing tiles to walls. Where a stone look fits the room better, Kitovu keeps the Beige Porcelain Tile 1200x600 mm, Matt Anti-Slip R10 in stock in Zanzibar.