Tile -- porcelain or red clay?

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
1

I recently had an entire house redone with porcelain and it looks great, but it was not cheap ($1.30/SQF, the cheapest porcelain they had available).

I had heard not to use the cheaper red clay tile because any cracks on the tile caused by damage would show through. But I was wondering if other people have had success using red clay in rentals–do you touch up the cracks with some kind of epoxy? It is so much cheaper than porcelain I wonder if I should be considering. Thanks.

2

I think the red clay tiles wouldn’t look good for a standard rental, unless you were doing a back porch or something. I have never seen red clay tile used much around Dallas, except outside or in a spanish/latin style house. I would say just use a ceramic or porcelain tile. For a middle income or lower income rental - use the cheapest you can find that still looks good. Home Depot has great looking tile for $0.79 a square foot sometimes! Also note you’ll want to avoid white grout as it will brown / dirty some over time. And I would keep plenty of spare extra tiles, and just bill the tenant if/when one gets broken. Its rare for a tile to break if the mud was put on well. But if one does, 99% of the time the tenant abused it (dropped something heavy on it, etc), and I would just have my handyman replace it (they’re easy to cut out, and replace) for ~$25…and I would then bill the tenant & deduct it from their deposit.

hhr

3

Just make sure when you buy the tiles, to buy extras as many times the clearance or sale tiles are discontinued. I like tile over linoleum and vinyl for the premium look on my rentals. While it may cost a little bit more, I think they last much longer than vinyl or linoleum. At the end of each lease, I have Indianapolis house cleaning crews go through my rentals and it’s cheaper having floors that are durable and easy to clean.

4

I think when you say “red clay” you mean ceramic. I choose porcelain over ceramic for the reason that you stated. Chips and cracks show in ceramic tile but not in porcelain.
$1.30 sq/ft is too much, in my opinion. You should be able to find stone or tile flooring for less.
$1 per sq/ft is about what I pay.