Mohs Hardness Scale

In the flooring world, Mohs hardness scale rates the surface hardness of different materials relative to each other. If you are not sure whether you need hardwood flooring or stone tiles, use the measure of hardness scale to help guide your flooring tile purchase. Still, be sure to use other comparisons to fill out your understanding of the tile’s durability.

History of Mohs Hardness Scale

Mohs hardness scale was originally created to measure the hardness of minerals in order to check samples for defects. This scale is important when choosing a flooring material because it gives you an idea of how tough each material is relative to the other. For example, marble floors look great, but did you that marble is one of the softest flooring materials available?

This hardness scale revolves around the fact that a scratch on one mineral can only be made by one that is harder. Friedrich Mohs used these principles upon first inventing the scale, and the same practices are still used today. Simply, Mohs scale of hardness is a rough measure of the resistance of a smooth surface to abrasion or scratching by another harder mineral.

Mohs Hardness Scale is Relative

The Mohs scale can be kind of confusing to homeowners looking to install new tile in the kitchen or bathroom. The ratings assigned to different materials are no proportional to their scratch resistance in comparison to each other. For example, the hardest element with a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale (diamond) is 4 times harder than an element that measures 9 (corundum); whereas a 4 on the scale is only about 10% harder than a 3. Since the Mohs hardness scale is a relative scale and not an absolute scale, the numbers assigned to each element should be used for reference purposes only.

Choosing a Flooring Material Using Mohs Scale

When choosing flooring, paying attention to the Mohs hardness scale can help you with your selection. If you are interested in stone flooring, knowing how hard the stone is compared to your use is very important. You must keep in mind that some materials like rubber flooring or even vinyl flooring can be more durable than some stone flooring.

Though the Mohs hardness scale lists ten common minerals, though most people do not have these minerals lying around their house. To simplify the use of the Mohs hardness scale, common minerals have been assigned ratings on the Mohs Scale to help people get an idea of the hardness of materials.By categorizing these common household items, the ratings on the Mohs scale are given context, making the hardness scale more meaningful and useful.

Some items with a Mohs hardness rating include:

• Fingernails- 2.0
• Penny- 3.0
• Knife blade- 5.0
• Glass- 5.5
• Ceramic tile – 6.5

When you buy flooring tiles, be they porcelain, ceramic, or terra cotta, you’ll often see references to the Mohs Scale of Hardness. That number doesn’t give you the complete picture of the durability of the tile you are buying, but it is a start in giving you an understanding of how the flooring tiles will last and hold up to the abuse your floor receives.

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