Tile | Materials, Tools & Techniques | Britannica (original) (raw)

tile, thin, flat slab or block used structurally or decoratively in building. Traditionally, tiles have been made of glazed or unglazed fired clay, but modern tiles are also made of plastic, glass, asphalt, or asbestos cement. Acoustical tiles are manufactured from fibreboard or other sound-absorbing materials. Glass blocks are used in partitions. Hollow, ceramic-glazed structural tile is used for partitions in public buildings.

Roof tiles of some Greek temples were made of marble; in ancient Rome, of bronze. Stone slabs used for roofing in parts of England are called tiles. Many rough forms of terra-cotta are called tiles when used structurally. The steel forms for casting certain types of reinforced concrete floors are referred to as steel tiles.

Modern ceramic roofing tile, similar to brick, is substantially the same in form as the classic ancient types; improvements have been made only in manufacturing methods, not in design. The most common type of covering for a small house roof in England and parts of France is flat tile designed to hook over roof battens or boards. In Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey, pitched roofs are covered with a layer of concave tiles, with convex over-tiles. Around the Mediterranean, tiles of S-shape section are commonly used. Curved tiles are almost always laid in overlapping rows in heavy, waterproof mortar, with the roof’s ridges and hips covered by courses of similarly bedded tiles. With flat tiles, the use of mortar is restricted to the convex or pointed tiles covering the hips and ridges.

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Floor tiles are usually made in small geometric shapes. They are machine-pressed, made of fine clays, thoroughly vitrified, and very hard. A gritty substance such as silicon carbide may be added to prevent slipping, even when the tile is wet.

Wall tiles were first made in ancient Syria, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, and Persia. By the 13th century the manufacture of wall tiles for both exterior and interior use was well established in Persia. By the 14th century a tile developed in Germany and used principally for stoves, with ornament in relief and a glaze of green, yellow, or brown, was in widespread use in northern Europe; blue-painted tiles made in Delft, Neth., from 1600 on were especially renowned. Modern wall tiles may be highly glazed and semivitreous or structural ceramic tile made of fireclay or shale.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Virginia Gorlinski.