I am not sure about the different brands, but I absolutely love the wood floor tiles, we have Brazilian Walnut wood flooring in our kitchen and I love the tones of walnut as well; I think its a beautiful choice.

There are pro's and con's with any kind of flooring you choose and I think the biggest con with tile (other than the grout) is that it can be very hard on one's legs and back if they cook a lot. If you have a fix for that, or are at least aware and still don't mind, I think you're making a good choice. It's an option we would have considered if I had known about it when we did our flooring. :c)

My post vanished, so I'll try again but make it shorter. lol. Don't get it. We came close to doing the same and now we're relieved we didn't go that route. For a small area like a kitchen, that's fine.

Have you checked into engineered wood? Highly durable, especially with cat accidents. I know from experience from our dog before we had to put her down. She was having accidents every few hours, and at times I wouldn't find the puddle until the next day. No warping or staining.

We do have hickory though, which is the hardest wood out there..I think.

If you lay a large area of the porcelain "wood" tile, it'll look fake.

Not exactly what you are looking at probably. But we used Ergon Mikado. The color we used was Mogano. It's not the typical tile that looks like slabs of wood, but every person who saw it thought it was wood.

We used it in our hallway bath. Here are a few pictures, it was hard to photograph. In fact, in the photos they look like tile, not wood! ha

Here is a link that might be useful: mikado tile

i have not installed it in my home but have seen it when checking out high $$$ new homes--it is popular item now with upscale construction for areas like utility room and maybe some bathrooms...

my negative would be about the irregular finish--
the tiles I saw had definite indentions to mimic the roughed up wood flooring that is popular in my area
I would think that moping those floors would tend to have mop water trapped in the crevices--not to mention just dust
so maintenance might be a real pain...

My advice is the same as Oakley's, don't get it! I have brick floors throughout my present house. While they look beautiful and fit with our all adobe home, they're killer on the legs, feet and back in the kitchen. In our last home I had 12"x12" (brown)saltillo tile from Mexico in the front part of our home. Not only was it just as hard on my feet, etc., the grout was a PIA and if you dropped anything on it, it was not only unforgiving with most everything breaking, but the tile could, and occasionally did, crack as well. That was very expensive to replace!
After over 25 years with one or the other of these floors, I strongly suggest engineered hardwood instead, if regular hardwood is not an option.
Lynn

I prefer wood FWIW. We have furbabies and well and yes, wood does take it's toll. But I like the feel of it under my floor.

I did go with all tile for our basement after getting flooded and having to rip out 10" wide plank quartersawn oak.

Here's a link of one I like
http://www.granitifiandre.com/porcelain-tile/technical-ceramic/essenze-extreme/cabreuva-dorata/

Tile like any trade need a pro. Deflection, support, level of SKILL working with the product, flat floor, etc etc

We are putting in the Allure vinyl plank stuff. It looks OK, is very resistant to pet accidents, is softer than tile and inexpensive.

However I am sad to hear that you think your kitty has an attitude problem - cats don't urinate or defecate out of "attitude" - in almost all cases of cats having litter box problems it is a medical issue, even if a urinalysis shows no bacteria. I recommend checking out Dr Pierson's website for tips on dealing with idiopathic urinary tract problems and for litter box tips.

http://www.catinfo.org./?link=urinarytracthealth

http://www.catinfo.org./?link=litterbox

I ADORE my tile with the heat mats underneath them. I have them in the den, kitchen, and both bathrooms. LOVE those heat mats and they're very cheap to operate. I have 2 large dogs now (did have 3 when the tile was installed). I used tile just because of them.

I've also seen some awesome looking wood tiles. I actually first saw them on a business trip at a hotel I was staying in. I was admiring the floor when I realized it was actually tile. Very smart.

There are gel mats you can get for the kitchen if your lets get overly tired. I've considered getting one, but for now, we've not noticed any ill effects using tile (we don't have the "wood look" tiles).

There are also some great looking laminates that mimic wood. I just installed a santos mahogany in the bedrooms and hallway in laminate. Beautiful.

If the cat does have problems with the litterbox however (and I read its "inherited" so I'm thinking not a young cat), two ideas spring to mind immediately:

1. The cat has a UTI or other undiagnosed condition

2. The cat doesn't have ENOUGH litterboxes to get to. Sometimes this can happen in a large home.

We considered the wood-look porcelain plank tile for our mudroom -- the contractor told me all of the designers are pushing it now (a very in look). There seem to be a lot of options -- and some look more like wood than others. The key is to have a very narrow grout line. I was afraid it might look like laminate, though.

We decided on a larger 12 x 24 tile -- with a wood look. I went with a charcoal color -- so the format and color make it look like really cool tile and not an attempt at wood.

I LOVE Bee's bathroom tile posted above!

Here's ours ...

I have to say that if I saw a home that had wood looking porcelain tile in it I wouldn't buy the home. I just don't care for it and would not want to replace a house full of tile. Just my opinion, I don't mean to offend.

I saw some being laid in a new JCP that was recently built here. They used very tiny grout lines and I swear, I could not tell that it was not wood. The floor was gorgeous but again, any tile will be hard on your legs and joints.

I wouldn't want a house full of tile, carpet or laminate. We've had site finished oak in all our houses or added it as needed. Tile in baths & laundry. We did use the wood look tile in a guest house we just added. It will be more of a teen hangout and hobby area and I did not want to have to worry about the floors at all, but no one will use the space 100% of the time like our main living spaces.

Thank you for all the input and opinions. My husband and I rarely are barefoot-always wear slippers in winter or flip flops in summer, so I'm not sure how hard it will be on our joints. And I understand that tile may not be for everyone. I spoke with a rep for Shaw about laminate and our situation and she recommended vinyl plank flooring. She said that even the best laminate could be affected by cat urine if it isn't cleaned up quickly.

And thanks for all the concern for the kitty & links to sites to assist us. She has been checked for UTIs. There was one only 1 time. We have 8 litter boxes that are cleaned daily, 3 with Cat Attract Litter in them. We have placed her on anti-anxiety meds and have 3 Feliway diffusers in the main areas of our home.

We recently had an animal behavior specialist come to our home. As she sees it, the problem is territorial; that my late parent's cat lived with them for 2 yrs as an "only" pet (and my folks both died unexpectedly 4 months apart from each other). Cat was only 2.5 yrs old when we brought her to live with us; she is 6.5 yrs old now so she will be with us for awhile. We already had 2 cats that get along fine. Older one is now 16 yrs old and the other is 8. New cat wants to be Alpha cat and our oldest cat want to be alpha cat. New cat on occasion marks areas other cats like to frequent-she's even done it while i'm sitting in the same room.Behaviorist has given us strategies" to recognize and correct the behavior (dominance positioning and recreating the "order of the pride") and ways to improve things (including crating the cat at night). We have seen positive results and things have improved but there are still setbacks.

Alot of emotional baggage with this sweet (for the most part) cat-my youngest daughter loves her because she is the last connection with her grandparents. I just want my house to look great and be less stressed by this situation.

chicgeek ,
Sounds like you are/have tried a lot for your cat. Check out the indoor cat initiative as well.

I was looking at the Florida tile, Berkshire too, but I went with another type. I think it was called Empaza, but I would have to check the label. I'll link to my post on the kitchen forum. We have radiant heat as well and that was the deciding factor that made us forego the wood floor and use tile instead.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dilly_ny's tile