How interlocking deck tiles join
Each tile has a base with clips or tabs along its edges, and the tiles join to their neighbors to form a floating surface. Nothing is screwed, glued or bedded into the ground underneath.
That changes what the product can be used for. A surface that is not fixed down can be lifted, taken to another property, stored for winter or removed when a lease ends, and it can be laid over concrete, asphalt or an old patio without any of it being taken up first. It is a covering, not a construction.
Acacia and composite deck tiles
Most of this range is acacia hardwood: slats fixed to a plastic base, which gives the surface a real wood face while keeping the interlocking underside. Alongside it sit all plastic tiles, tiles molded to look like stone, and artificial grass squares on the same base system.
The choice is between what the surface should look and feel like, not between grades of the same thing. Acacia gives warmth and a natural surface that weathers and grays over time, which people either want or treat as maintenance. The plastic and stone look tiles keep their appearance without changing, and the grass squares are usually used to break up a hard area, not to cover one.
Sold by the pack, measured in square feet
These are sold in packs instead of singly, and the packs here run from a dozen tiles up to 54. The common tile is 12 by 12 inches, with a 24 by 12 format alongside it.
A 12 by 12 tile covers exactly one square foot, which makes the arithmetic unusually simple: a pack of 27 covers 27 square feet, and a hundred square feet of balcony needs a hundred tiles. The larger 24 by 12 tiles cover two square feet each and lay faster, at the cost of being less able to follow an awkward shape.
What the surface underneath has to be
Because the tiles float, whatever is under them shows through in how the floor feels. A flat, solid base gives a firm surface; an uneven one leaves the tiles bridging hollows, since a tile takes its support from what is under it rather than from its own stiffness.
Drainage matters for the same reason. Water passes between and under the tiles rather than running off them, so the surface below needs somewhere for it to go. Both are questions about the existing floor rather than about the tiles, and they settle the order rather than follow it.
Cutting and edges
Tiles at the perimeter usually need trimming to fit, and the interlocking base is designed to be cut. What a given product allows, and with what, is on the product rather than general to the category.
The edge of a tiled area is visible because the surface sits proud of what is under it. Some ranges offer edging strips that ramp that step down; others are laid up to a wall or a rail where the edge does not show.
Where they earn their place
Balconies and roof terraces, where nothing can be fixed and weight matters. Rented properties, where the surface has to come back up. Tired concrete patios that would cost far more to replace than to cover. And seasonal use, where a surface goes down in spring and comes up at the end of the season.
For a permanent outdoor surface laid on a prepared base, the outdoor tile and granite pavers and cobblestone ranges are the other end of the same question.
