Complete Guide of Glazed Porcelain Tiles

Feb 2021

Glazed Porcelain tiles have become one of the popular tile flooring and wall covering options. Its well known for the durability, low water absorption rate, and of course, aesthetically appealing. Porcelain tiles work well in buildings with humid environments both for interior and exterior use.

If you’re curious about glazed porcelain tiles, here’s the complete guide for you.

What Are Porcelain Tiles?

Glazed porcelain tiles are tile products made from clay materials that have undergone an extended burning process to achieve particular finishes. The process also allows manufacturers to produce more colors and styles that provide consumers with more options. Staining wouldn’t be a problem from glazed tiles but they might not be as durable as the unglazed tiles.

What To Choose Between Glazed and Unglazed Porcelain Tiles?

There are some factors you need to consider you should consider when choosing a flooring application for your house including.

• Styles or Aesthetics
• Durability/Abrasion Resistance
• Slip Resistance
• Price
• Maintenance

Generally speaking, you can actually use both of them but for different applications in your home. For areas with higher traffic rates and where an anti-slip feature is needed like a bathroom or pool walk path, unglazed tiles could be the best application. While it’s more durable, unglazed tiles may get stained through the years.

Glazed porcelain tiles apply to the rest of your home area. Not only do you get various styles and colors, but glazed porcelain tiles also require minimum maintenance where mopping is enough to clean your floor from dust and make it shine. Even though it’s generally more expensive than the unglazed counterpart. However, it would be an excellent investment for anyone who desires beautiful flooring.

Are Porcelain Tiles Slippery?

Glazed porcelain tiles aren’t slippery even though they look glossy. They’re a little bit slippery than the unglazed or matte-finish porcelain tiles commonly in wet condition but the difference isn’t significant.

How Durable are porcelain tiles?

Compared to ceramic tiles, glazed  tiles are more durable. It’s more stain-resistant thanks to the added protective glass layer as the finish. However, glazed porcelain tiles are a little bit less durable than unglazed ones.

Waterproof?

Glazed porcelain tiles have a higher density than ceramic tiles do that makes them waterproof. However, the application for the bathroom is better with unglazed porcelain tiles while the glazed version for the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and exterior.

What are Porcelain Tiles for?

Porcelain tiles are perfect for indoor flooring where customization and different styles of tiles are required. There are extensive colors available for porcelain tiles. They’re highly resistant to chipping, scratches, and wetness while demanding easy maintenance like sweeping or mopping. The popular applications of porcelain tiles are for areas with high traffic. However, it’s getting common to use these tiles for bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, and other areas. Glazed porcelain tiles are also widely applied for exterior use now. In general, considering the functionality and aesthetic reasons, glazed tiles provide more flexibility for new building or renovation.

How are Glazed tiles manufactured?

The making of porcelain tiles is similar to other porcelain products made from clay except that the manufacturing process is modernized and specified for tile products. Glazed tiles have a longer period of burning and glass liquid applied to the finish that makes it different from the unglazed counterparts.

Whether it’s glazed or unglazed porcelain tiles are basically made from clay and materials. Feldspar is the main mineral content used in making porcelain tiles. The initial process is extracting the mixture.

The manufacturer then blends the mixture into powder with soil consistency. Water is added to create that gray-brown mud dough known as the slurry. The dough is then transferred to the drying facility to dry up the slurry from moisture that results in clay powder with sand consistency.

The next process is to form the dried slurry or the green tiles in the shape of tiles. Manufacturers may either use a pressing method or extrusion that uses the mold to shape the tiles. Pressing-and-forming has become the most used tile shaping method in the modern tiling manufacturing industry. The remaining moisture is removed from the green tiles during this process.

For glazed  tiles, there is an additional step for the glazing process. Manufacturer mixes frit material made from glass) and dyeing materials in the preparation. Then, they would pour or apply the glazing mixture onto the tile before get burned in the kiln.

The firing or burning process of porcelain tiles uses an extremely high heat that results in tiles that are denser and harder compared to ceramic tiles. Porcelain tiles are glossy as the finished products due to the glazing process and prolonged heating.

Verdict

Glazed porcelain tiles are generally a great choice for any property owner that desires more options in style and color while expecting a glossy finish and stain-resistant tiles. Customization, personalization, or mix and match are more flexible with glazed porcelain tiles.