Marble flooring can make your home look elegant and expensive. Here are a few tests you can conduct yourself to check the quality of marble tiles:
- Measure their thickness from all sides. If the tile does not have a uniform thickness, it is not of good quality as it might crack or break easily.
- The veins in each tile may differ, but make sure the colour of marble is uniform as specified.
- All four sides of each tile must be machine cut and have straight lines. If the tiles are of uneven sizes, cutting and installing them would be a hassle.
- One flat side of the marble tile must be polished while the other should be free of any wire-mesh. The presence of wire-mesh indicates that the marble tile is soft and easy-to-break. These tiles are generally cheaper but are not of good quality.
- The backside of the tile should also be checked for cracks and fissures.
- Carefully check the tiles to make sure there aren’t any cracks present along the veins.
- One of the most commonly known properties of marble is its porosity. You can squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on marble to check the quality of tiles. Low quality marble is more porous, thus it quickly absorbs the juice. Meanwhile, if the lemon juice causes white stains on the tile, it indicates the presence of calcite, which means the marble is not of good quality.
- Dull patches on the surface of marble indicate poor quality. The simplest way to check the quality of tiles is to examine the marble under light at a 45-degree angle.
- Some manufacturers use artificial colours to make the marble tiles look more attractive. You can confirm that by scratching the surface. If the tile remains virtually unscratched, it’s artificial and can fade after a while.
You can find more about types of marble and their rates in our detailed guide on the topic.
