What exactly do you mean by ground-stone type flooring? Do you mean the granite that is outside some places? It’s hardly everywhere. I certainly prefer it to the alternative choice of slippery bathroom tiles.
no, the one made by laying concrete and white-and-grey gravel in a matrix of squares, letting it dry, then grinding it down to a smooth finish. really common in older houses, sidewalks and stairwells.
Forgive me if there’s a rule against bumping old threads, but let me just say that I know people love to diss outdoor tiles, but I think they’re strangely charming, based on what I’ve seen on Google Maps. (Will be in Taipei from December 26-29.)
Well, you’ll see as many as you want. There’s a good chance of overcast and rain at that time of year though, which may detract from the experience.
Japan manages to do bathroom tiles on the outside of buildings fairly well.
Here? Not quite as much. Usually it’s because the color choices are weird and the buildings are covered in decades of soot and pollution. I’ve seen some older homes where the tiles were cleaned up and they were kind of charming.
Any favorites?
Looks nicer on a sunny day, but you get the idea
Those tile buildings were a 70s to 90s thing weren’t they? They don’t build em like that last decade or so from what I’ve seen.
Remember at the time those buildings were the new luxurious homes compared to the shacks before them
You will see when you arrived, but anyways in 3 days you won’t notice too much. But is not about dirty tiles, is also rusty cage, plastic windows, rusty metal sheet to cover sun or whatever they cover , and lots of bags, boxes, etc. But my first month in Taipei I did’nt notice all this, it get you more in the long term.
Still the same old … odd tiles.
A few days ago I saw this really genius plumber drilling a hole through the wall from the inside and during the process actually nocking 5-6 tiles off the exterior wall falling down. Next day I saw they put a water line on the outside around the corner probably to the water heater on the other side of the apartment.
You may not find them so strangely charming if one falls onto your head.
most new buildings look decent. there are a few new ones that still have shitty tiles with shitty colours though. really weird.
My theory is people don’t maintain the outside because they think reunification is inevitable. My momma wants to start a beautification program in Taipei to deal with the grubby buildings.
That’s because they like the tiles, some older people anyway
She’s right, Taiwan needs beautification. Getting rid of all the ugly pigeon pens (rust buckets), cleaning up buildings.
Who’s gonna do it?
Chinese missiles…
That’s an interesting take on ‘the gunmit should do it’ 
I think the tiles are really there to not only make the building look presentable (initially) but also prevent moisture from getting into the rebars and causing them to rust. When rebar rusts, it expands, destroying structural integrity and causing collapse.
It’s better to have ugly dirty tiles than no tile and the building becoming dangerous to occupy within 20 years. Building code probably require it.
And no, nobody thinks “reunification” because nobody since Chiang Ching Guo ever thinks Taiwan is going to take back China. Which is why current buildings look much better than ones built in the 80s (most of the buildings you see today).
I can’t imagine bare concrete as it is not watertight. I guess I have seen places that look bare concrete but never thought about the water tightness.
We are in a tiled building but still have a couple of leaks, we seem to have managed to fix one, but the other seeps small drips of water when it rains 
so tiles with movement from earthquakes etc crack at the seams and are not totally waterproof in the long run.
Overseas they seem to use rain screen systems where there is an air gap between the outer rain screen and the inner wall so any water that penetrates the outside runs down the inside of the outer screeb and can’t seep into the inner wall. Seems like a more watertight design to me but nothing new seems to catch on here, they are in the process of building a new building across the road, same old tile over concrete
Taiwan is so far behind with insulation in buildings . Cavity walls make sense . The only reason I can see that it’s not used is cost probably .
Yep, would love to see some progress on energy efficiency here.
There was a research thesis here about it but it seems the building industry isn’t interested:
http://chur.chu.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/42857/1/101CHPI5015041-001.pdf
We are on the top floor of our building and have a false ceiling to hide all the sprinkler system pipes, there are some inspection holes and looking up there, it’s just bare concrete. I’m no expert on the subject but some day if we have to replace that false ceiling for whatever reason (probably replacing the A/C lines and machines), I feel like sticking some thick rigid insulation panels to the concrete to try and stop heat from the roof coming through. I am not sure how effective it would be considering no insulation in the walls, floor and single glaze windows. It’s probably a waste of money though considering the payback time due to low electricity prices and since Taiwanese don’t seem to care about insulation, lack of increase in resale value of the house.
Incidentally when we looked at new places near the Taoyuan HSR (which were terribly expensive and out of our budget) one had double glaze windows but I’m guessing it wasn’t for insulation purposes but for noise reasons.