Restaurant Kitchen Floor Tile

Featured Image: S-Black/Canvas White Matte 1″ Hex Mesh Porcelain Kitchen Floor Tile from Arizona Tile

Selecting tile when designing a commercial space should be well planned out, especially in restaurants. While restaurant floors are certainly going to get dirty and slippery, the kitchen is a whole other story. To keep staff safe, the appropriate tile flooring is necessary, regardless of whether this is an indoor or outdoor kitchen.

While we have a lot of natural stone and porcelain tile to truly emphasize the aesthetics of a space, like a restaurant dining area, bathrooms, exterior cladding, etc., the focus should be practicality when designing a commercial kitchen. Fortunately, we have the perfect floor tile for professional kitchens, just as we do for most other spaces—commercial and residential.

What To Look For

Not all tile products are “one size fits all,” and that is exactly the case with commercial kitchen flooring. First and foremost, you want the flooring to be as slip-resistant as possible. Safety is the top priority. Next, you want it to be sanitary. Some flooring may satisfy one of these needs, but not both. Imagine carpet in a kitchen? Totally unrealistic because it would be filthy, but it would actually prevent slipping. Or, what about large format tile? It’s easy to clean because it has fewer grout lines, but that fact alone reduces some of its slip resistance.

Durability is a key factor, too. Closing your restaurant every few years to replace flooring isn’t something any business owner would want to do. Downtime like that equates to a loss of profit. What seems to be the least important factor for restaurant kitchen tile is its aesthetic appearance. Unless you have an exposed, performative kitchen space, you’re not trying to “wow” your staff with dazzling tile floors, it’s all about practicality in this fast-paced, messy environment.

You need slip-resistant, cleanable, and durable flooring. While the kitchen, exposed or not, is the primary focus of this conversation, bar areas and server stations also require consideration since these areas become hazardous as well.

Image: Quarry Metro Mayflower Red Abrasive Restaurant Kitchen Floor Tile from Arizona Tile

Quarry Tile

Quarry tile truly fits the bill for a commercial tile. It is a full-body clay tile that’s manufactured in the United States and is extruded, not pressed. Manufacturing starts with a clay mixture or paste, which is either compacted in a press (pressed tile) or forced through a mold (extruded tile) and then fired in kilns at high temperatures. Quarry tile is 100% clay and very dense, thus making it extremely durable. Due to the low water absorption rate, the tile is highly resistant to staining and easy to clean and maintain.

Our Quarry Metro series offers two colors of unglazed tile designed for use in heavy-traffic areas, especially commercial kitchens in a standard indoor setting. The tile surface comes in two options: Ironspot and Abrasive. The abrasive surface emphasizes slip-resistant needs. Additionally, this tile comes in 6”x6” so there will be a significant amount of gout lines that naturally add more slip-resistance.

If you opt for tile like this, you may want to jazz up the space around it, like behind the bar or around a server station, with some attractive wall tile.

• The S-Series is a versatile collection of ceramic and porcelain tile that offers classic shapes and colors. With its soft, yet elegant, beauty, you will enjoy this wall tile throughout your commercial space.
• Reflexion is a versatile tile and can be used on floors and walls. The stunning shimmer of this tile reflects light and exudes a modern taste in any environment. Installing this large format tile on the walls can truly enhance a space with any of its four colors.

Image: Reflexion Night 24 x 48 & Reflexion Mercury 2 x 2 Porcelain Restaurant Floor Tile from Arizona Tile

Outdoor kitchens need different considerations for tile floors, and the R11 Anti-Slip Finish tile can accommodate these needs. Outdoor kitchens create a special ambiance for open-air dining to enjoy the sunshine or dine under the stars. This could be a cozy BBQ joint where customers can see the smokers working hard, an inviting space where wood-fired ovens are the centerpiece, or maybe a rustic eatery that offers all the comfort in the atmosphere as it does its dishes. Perhaps your commercial kitchen is not outdoors, but your dining room extends to an outdoor space and you want to maintain a cohesive flow of design. These are some ideas where our R11 Anti-Slip Finish tile won’t disappoint.

R11 Anti-Slip Finish

The tile in this category has an aesthetically undetectable finish that adds friction to the tile surface and helps reduce the risk of slipping. This tile finish is a great idea for high-traffic areas exposed to water and moisture. R11 Anti-Slip Finish Tile is suitable in many areas where there may be a regular collection of water like outdoor spaces where it rains regularly and even in showers.

With a finish of this kind, selecting aesthetically pleasing tile just became easier. Pietra Italia and Canyon are great examples. They’re both color body porcelain tile, meaning that the porcelain body and surface are colored with similar pigments. The result is a tile that if chipped, will have minimal visible damage. It is also incredibly durable and hygienic because it is fired in a kiln that’s around 2,000 degrees, creating a hard, non-porous, impermeable tile with a water absorption rate of 0.5% or less.  Additionally, this tile is “rectified,” meaning once it exits the kiln, it goes through a manufacturing process where the tile is ground or cut to minimize size variation and to leave precise, 90-degree, edges for a look more like natural stone.

• Canyon: It’s hard to tell this tile apart from slate. Canyon is extremely durable and mimics this natural stone through its shade variations, structure, and saw-cut effects. Canyon is offered in various sizes and colors: black, brown, grey, and ivory.
• Pietra Italia:  This tile features a visual design that mimics the appearance of limestone. The bonus to porcelain tile vs. natural stone is that the maintenance is reduced to basic cleaning. Pietra Italia gives a clean, natural look to any environment in its shades of beige, black, grey, and white.

Both of these products are available in large format sizes (12”x24” or larger), adding a stunning visual effect of expansiveness and cohesion throughout a space and a wonderful flow from indoors and outdoors. The fewer grout lines found with large format tile make for easier cleaning. While grout lines do aid in slip resistance, the R11 Anti-Slip Finish makes up for this.

Options of the Plenty

Commercial flooring can get tricky, especially restaurant kitchen tile. While there aren’t as many options for this category as some of our others, those available are very strong choices. Explore our tile in person and get all the details by visiting your nearest Arizona Tile showroom or slab yard. For other ideas, check out our Just Imagine Tile and Slab Visualizer. If you have questions along the way, please send us a message, and our exceptional staff of tile and stone professionals will be happy to help.