The Complete Handbook of Wall & Ceiling Tile

Chapter 1: Understanding Wall & Ceiling Tile

Walk through any commercial building built in the last fifty years, and you are walking past wall and ceiling tile. Look at the restroom at a busy interstate gas station, the corridor of a hospital surgical wing, the back wall of a supermarket bakery, or the drop ceiling in an insurance office. In most cases, you are looking at one of two things: the material is either a type of ceramic or porcelain product adhered directly to a wall, or it is an acoustical ceiling tile (often called a "drop tile") that hangs in a metal grid below the structural ceiling. These are wildly different products, with different jobs, different installation methods, and different failure mechanisms. What they share is a single purpose: to protect the surfaces of a building and make those surfaces practical to clean and maintain, while controlling the environment inside the space. That is the core of what wall and ceiling tile is, and understanding that core purpose is the first step to making a smart choice about what to buy and install.

Consider the restroom at a highway rest stop. It gets heavy use, frequent wetting, and aggressive cleaning with harsh chemicals. The reason the walls are not painted drywall is simple: paint will fail. It will chip, peel, and harbor bacteria in the scratches. A ceramic tile wall, on the other hand, creates a hard, impervious surface. It can be sprayed with a bleach-based sanitizer and scrubbed