Today Dean popped along to Kendal Tile and Stone to see these porcelain tiles we are due to be installing in a bathroom in a couple of weeks.
They are stunning, with the look and feel of old planks of wood, and they will look fabulous in the project – we look forward to sharing the photos of the completed room.
People often ask us the difference between porcelain tiles and ceramic tiles and it can be hard sometimes to determine the difference. To make things even more complicated, both porcelain tiles and ceramic tiles get lumped under the same name of ceramic tiles!
As a general rule, porcelain has less impurities than ceramic and often contains more kaolin. But its main differentiating feature is that it is more dense than ceramic, and therefore more water resistant.
The industry rule that decides if a tile is porcelain or ceramic does it by checking this exactly. To quality as a porcelain tile, it must have a water absorption rate of 0.5% or less.
Within this testing process a fired tile is weighed and then boiled for five hours, followed by 24 hours sitting in water, after which it is weighed a second time. If it weighs over 0.5% more than it did at the beginning of the test, it cannot be considered porcelain.
This higher density means porcelain tiles are often harder to work with – more difficult to cut and to install. Drilling holes into the tiles runs a higher likelihood of them splitting or cracking.
All this means ceramic tiles are often more affordable and tend to be thinner and lighter than their porcelain counterparts.
At Dean Taylor Bathrooms we install tiles of all sorts. And while there are some stunning porcelain tiles available that are always a joy to work with, we have also installed some bathrooms that look amazing with the lowest priced ceramic tiles.
For while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it also comes down to design and workmanship.
And that is two areas we believe we are able to shout about!
We do, however, really recommend visiting one or more tile showrooms not only to see what is available but also to hear from the real tile experts – the people who work there.