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Norminn Norminn is offline
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Default Alternatives to ceramic wall tiles

John61 wrote:

Just got new cabinets for my kitchen. I want to get tiles around on walls,
but don't like ceramic tiles. Houses in the area have notorious foundation
problem due to bad soil type. Cracks on ceramic are hard to repair.

Are there any products that can be used on walls as alternatives. There are
so many options for flooring. How about products on kitchen walls?

Thanks.

John




We had old metal tile on our kitchen wall behind the cooktop. When we
redid the kitchen, we
did not want to rip out the wall so we covered it. Got a sheet of
laminate in desired
color, applied with contact cement to cover the tile. Then we bought
textured glass and put
it up over the formica. It is held in place only with a bead of clear
silicone caulk, all the way around so
that moisture and gunk doesn't get behind it. It is put up with the
smoothe side out and is a
heck of a lot easier to clean than tile grout! I love it. The glass
cost about $60 and I can take
it out with ease if I get tired of it. Could probably put wallpaper
behind the glass, or use
a colored or sandblasted glass. I was a bit nervous about the
possibility of it getting hot
and breaking, but it doesn't get very hot. I am careful not to put
skillets up against it. The
glass shop had used glass on kitchen walls only once before, but they
were happy to work with us.
The glass had to go back to factory (or supplier?) after it was cut to
be tempered, which
was included in the price. I had shopped around for different tile, but
the thought of
getting spaghetti sauce out of tile grout inspired me to try something
different. The texture of
the glass is such that the one seam doesn't show.......the wall is wider
than the glass, so it had
to be in two pieces. The glass shop made sure the meeting edges were
perfectly straight and
ground a very slight bevel on them......the silicone makes the ground
edge "disappear".