Natural stone tiles offer more than value and beauty not to mention timeless elegance and reliable durability. In order to find the right stone tile that goes well with your house, the first step is to identify the different natural stone tile flooring available and their features and characteristics that will best suit whatever purpose you have.

There are several well-known and loved stone tiles that can go well with the different parts of your house and they are:

• Travertine Tiles. Formed from calcite, travertine stone is a lot younger than marble and a little softer than limestone. Available in either porous or polished forms. One advantage of travertine is its character that makes it suitable for both indoor and outdoor use that goes well with your house. It comes in natural earth tones and perhaps the biggest disadvantage is that its pores make it unfriendly to pets and children and it definitely needs sealing.

• Marble Tiles. A stone tile in a class of its own, marble has been used by ancient artisans to create statues and buildings of legendary beauty some of which are still around today. Comes in natural shades of whites, greys and beiges characterized by lines created during its formation and that no two stone tiles are entirely the same. One flaw on marble flooring tiles is that the material is prone to scratch and stains

• Granite Tiles. Unmatched luster and great water repelling properties makes granite one ideal flooring stone tile that goes well inside and outside the house. Granite is one of the hardest natural materials we have around in a scale below diamonds. This hardness is both granite’s strong and weak points because the price for its durability and sturdiness is a cold hard surface.

• Slate Tiles. Rustic slate is formed from metamorphic rocks. What makes it perfect aside from its great slip resistance and traction is its resilience. Since it comes from stone it has a rich texture with heaves and bumps and a downside is that slate stone tiles come in limited dark colors.

• Limestone. Just like travertine, limestone tiles is formed from calficerous materials only here. It tends to keep the striations when cut and processed into stone tiles and in a way resembles wood flooring. Limestone comes in light colors and is highly resilient however, it absorbs water which makes it ideal for in-house use only.

• Sandstone. Consistent, resilient and comes with great traction, sandstone tiles is a metamorphic rock that goes well with the different parts of the house – hallways, kitchens and baths. The only limitation of this flooring is the lack of colorful options.

Now that you’ve made yourself familiar with different stone tiles, consider the following factors to identify which one will go well with your house:

First, cost. Unlike installing wood flooring, stone tiles would have to be installed by qualified individuals because cutting them is more complicated than wood and unlike wood that will quickly lock in place and secured by nails, fixing stone tiles in your house’s subfloor definitely requires more. Also consider other materials like cement or plaster and grout aside from

Aside from installation, consider the areas in your house where you want to have stone tile  flooring not that its not the perfect choice but that it is priciest flooring choice so you might want to see how much you can shell out for this project.

Second important thing to keep in mind is purpose. There is no doubt that stone tiles can go well in practically every place in your house, however there are places at home where they might not be the best choice like the bedroom or the bathroom – except slate probably and the kids rooms given the hard surface and being prone to stains.

Whether you intend to retire in the house you want these stone tiles on or not is not that much a question of value since they will add up to the cost of your property.

Third is lifestyle since these floors in a house may seem unfriendly to pets once installed and the installation process can take up time too, so be sure this will fit into your lifestyle.

If you are looking for a great addition to your house, then stone tiles are definitely a great improvement idea and the choice of which doesn’t have to be complicated as long as you keep your needs and preferences in mind, I’m pretty sure that you’ll find something that goes well with your taste and meets your requirements.

About the Author: Bryan Vu is a home improvement blogger and community outreach associate for BuildDirect, a leading flooring and building materials provider online.