When this family built their dream home in rural Northland, they wanted to ensure that it could take the rugged daily lifestyle that comes from having three rumbunctious children, two energetic dogs, and a menagerie of other animals. With almost every room in the north facing home opening to the outdoors, the flooring needed to be durable, stable, fade resistant, waterproof and heat proof. Porcelain flooring was the obvious choice.

Having lived with restored matai flooring in their previous home, the family had experienced dismay as, despite taking great care, daily wear and tear scratched and marked the floor, and sun fade and some water damage occurred. For this new home, they wanted something more robust and lower maintenance. Woodgrain porcelain tiles were selected from The Tile Depot and laid throughout almost the entire ground floor of this home, including the bedrooms. It gave them the wooden aesthetic without the maintenance issues of natural wood. Worried about the floor being cold in winter, under tile heating was installed but has rarely been used due to the passive solar heating afforded by the porcelain floors. After two years of living in the home, the family say their woodgrain porcelain looks as great as the day it was laid.

In addition to the woodgrain porcelain, all remaining areas of the home's ground floor have been tiled with porcelain tiles. This includes an outdoor room, bathroom, ensuite, powder room and laundry. The walls in the bathroom areas have also been tiled floor to ceiling and all splashbacks in the kitchen, scullery and laundry have also been tiled. This family wanted easy care surfaces and they sure got it. Even choosing to use epoxy grout throughout all tiled areas as it doesn’t require sealing, is 100% waterproof and is considered to be a ‘lifetime grout'. In total over 500m² of tiles from the Tile Depot were laid.

The vast majority of this home is single storey, however, a second storey office and shared art space with the children sits above the double garage. In this space they chose Neptune SPC flooring as an easy to install, robust and lightweight floating floor. The family report they have been equally impressed with the performance of this flooring that has withstood the rigours of creative mess, with one child particularly fond of paint, glue, and glitter. The Neptune has been easy to clean and has not marked or scratched.

There are many floor covering options on the market, all with their pros and cons. For this family and their rugged rural lifestyle, porcelain tiles and Neptune SPC flooring from the Tile Depot have proven to be the perfect flooring options for their very fluid indoor-outdoor lifestyle.