In ancient world, material made form clay is simply known as ceramics such as pottery, traditional example would be earthenware pottery, which is the result of baking or firing clay in a kiln at a very high temperature.
In modern era the term tiles can be mystifying. Like traditional method tiles are made from clay or a combination of clay and other materials, then kiln-fired are considered to be a part of the larger classification called Ceramic Tiles. Such tiles can be split into two groups, porcelain tiles (vitrified tiles), and non-porcelain tiles (non-vitrified tiles). The non- porcelain tiles (non-vitrified tiles) are frequently referred to as ceramic tiles by themselves, separate from porcelain tiles (vitrified tiles).
As you see in the below flow chart Ceramic tiles are grouped in three categories
Starting with Ceramic Wall & Floor Tiles: -
Ceramic Wall Tiles (Water absorption above 10%): Ceramic Wall tiles are generally made from red/white clay. Ceramic Wall tiles can be manufactured in single firing and double firing. This kind of tiles has more water absorption (above 10%) and are used only on wall.
Ceramic Floor tile non – Semi Porcelain Tiles (Water absorption between 1 to 6 %): As like Ceramic wall tiles, ceramic floor tiles are also made from red/white clay. Ceramic floor tiles finished with a durable glaze which carries the Colour and pattern. This kind of tiles can be printed through tradition screen printing mechanism or using digital printing machine.
These types of ceramic tiles are usually suitable for very light to moderate traffic and generally have a relatively high-water absorption rates that make them less frost resistant and they are more prone to wear and chipping than porcelain tiles.
Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles): These tiles are generally made by the dust pressed method from clay which results in the tiles that are dense, impervious, fine grained and smooth, with a sharply formed face. Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) normally have a much lower water absorption rate (less than 0.5%) than ceramic tiles which makes porcelain tiles (frost resistant or frost-proof.
Further Porcelain Tiles are divided into two sub-categories:- Unglazed Porcelain Tiles & Glazed Porcelain Tiles
Unglazed Porcelain Tiles: - Tiles like full body are type of unglazed tiles where Colour remains same throughout the body (from top to bottom). Below are different categories of unglazed tiles.
Soluble Salt Nano polished vitrified tiles: Soluble salt tiles are made up with simpler technology that uses liquid Colour screen printing to design on the surface of the tile. Soluble salt liquid is infused on the tile to give the perfect Colour and pattern to the tile. After screen printed, soluble salt tiles are polished to give them the shine and smoothness.
Soluble salt tiles are suitable in bedroom, drawing room, living room, kitchen space and other interior spaces. Soluble Salt Tiles are most suitable and applicable for Commercial and low traffic areas.
Double Charge vitrified tiles :- As the name indicates double charge means two layers are infused in tiles, It has different phase and body where the top layer design is the mixture of raw material infused with colour pigment pressed to the base layer under high pressure. Upper layer of double charge tiles are 3 to 4mm thicker than other tiles.
Double Charge vitrified tiles is the first choice for heavy traffic, commercial and residential areas. They remain stable and shiny for years with low maintenance that makes them the perfect option to go for flooring at home, malls, cafeteria, hospitals, libraries, airports, villas and other interior as well as exterior areas.
Full body vitrified tiles have single pigment in entire body (thickness) of the tiles. But the process considerably increases the cost. In other terms if We make bottom layer of double charge same as top layer, it becomes full body.
Glazed Porcelain Tiles:- Glazed Porcelain Tile will have a coating of glaze on the top of body. This layer is mainly of white Colour which allows inject printing machine to print. Objective is to make a white base and then let printer print on white base. Something like printing on normal white paper. Glazed Porcelain Tiles are most popular tiles in today’s era. This kind of tiles can have various finishes as like below.
Polished Glazed Porcelain Tiles:- Polished Glazed tiles are also known as PGVT (Polished Glazed Vitrified Tiles) PGVT tiles are shiny and offer wide variety of designs like marble look, granite look. This kind of tiles is easy to clean and maintain. PGVT tiles are having more designs and can be used for any indoor application like hall, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom.
Matt Porcelain Glazed Tiles:- Also known as Glazed Vitrified Tiles (GVT), GVT tile are of matt or rustic finish and offer designs like Concrete look, wood look, slat look, stone look. Glazed porcelain tiles with matt finish are most trending and they are made by the use of fantastic hard wearing glaze. This kind of tiles can be used as indoor or outdoor applications like office, malls, hotel, airport, parking areas.
High Gloss Tiles: - High gloss tiles are also of polished surfaces but these kinds of tiles are mainly of dark or black Colours. This kind of tiles bring better definition of the graphics which give rich look to any area and are advisable to use on floor and wall.
Rocker Tiles: - Rocker is new technology which creates structure digitally in the way we want. Structure is defined at designing level. If we want particular veins or lines on the design with structure, we have to define that during designing level. When Digital machines process this file, it will come to know that few lines have to be printed with structure. These lines can be made shiny or matt. Overall tiles will be matt but only some veins or lines will be shiny.
Sugar Tiles: - Sugar Tiles are called semi polished because this finish is not matt nor polished. On the top of tile surface, grains like sugar are added and these grains are polished. So, grains are shiny while base of the tile is matt so this combination makes the tile semi polished. Sugar floor tiles have a grainy exterior making them a unique option for both residential and commercial areas.
Lapato Tiles: - This is exactly like Sugar finish but has little difference in grain structure.
Wooden Look Tiles: - Wooden Look Tiles are the most emerging and trending tiles in interior designs as it defines the look and feel of natural wood with combination of the wooden effect. Wooden Tiles are always inspiring and adorable as they are durable and much easier regarding the maintenance. Whether it’s concerned with wall or floor, wooden tiles have its own beauty that captures the natural presence combining the wooden effect to any interior or exterior areas. Wooden tiles are Versatile, water Resistant & Durable.
Glazed wall tiles are ceramic tiles that have a high absorption of water i.e. >10% with one side that is glazed. They are perfectly suited to interior walls.
Glazed floor tiles are coated with a glassy finish which often contains Colour, texture, or design and is fired at significantly high temperatures. Unglazed floor tiles do not have such surface as the Colour forms from the body within the tiles. It can be natural Colour from the clay or other minerals and can be added to the mixture before forming and firing the tiles. Because the Colour extends through the complete tile, these are great for high traffic areas as they do not show wear as easily.
Ceramic tiles can absolutely be used outdoors; we recommend that the tiles must be frost proof and unglazed to be used on the floor. Make sure the absorption rate is 0.5% or less.
It can completely be done on a daily basis. However, you really need to know some more information. There are furthermore steps you needed to take care of when using the backer board (CBU cementitious backer units) as your underlayment. The thinnest you use, how you lay your plywood, how you SCREW it down, even the species and the rating of the plywood used, all make a difference.
Floor tiles can be used on the wall, but similarly, wall tiles are never recommended being used on the floor.
Yes, it is absolutely feasible to fit new tiles on top of an old tiled floor. However, it is not advisable as there’s a higher cost and you would possibly reduce the headroom (height between the floor and the ceiling). However, if you still want to go ahead for tiling on old floor tiles, be careful the existing surface provides a good grip. If flooring is of glazed tiles then they have to be roughened to give a good grip to the new floor.
Furthermore, there are some other aspects as well that you have to take into consideration before deciding to fit new tiles on an old tiled floor. You need to allow the thickness of the tiles that you are laying in addition to approximately 6-12 mm for the cement slurry/adhesive, depending on the type of flooring to be laid. After adding thickness top of your existing floor, you can still be able to open doors.
The tiles can be either dry fixed tiles or wet fixed tiles. The dry fixing tiles are fixed by using conventional cement mortar. Wet fixing is done by using special adhesives that can fix tiles directly on the existing flooring.
Tiles can be used in almost any part of the house like hall, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, portico, foyer, driveway, drawing room, living room, lobby, etc. There is also a prominent use of tiles for commercial and corporate places. They can be used both on the walls and floors.
Length * Width of the area to be covered will give you square footage. Most installations add 5-7% for cutting loss and are enough to keep on hand for any repairs. When the installation is on a diagonal or when you use a multi-size pattern, you should add 12-15%.
Yes indeed Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) are better because of its following properties:-
Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) or Ceramic tiles are the most durable flooring material available when compare to following flooring options.
| Category | Porcelain Tiles / Ceramic Tiles | Wood Flooring / Timber Flooring | Carpet Flooring | Vinyl Flooring | Laminate Flooring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Environment Friendly | Yes | No (Cutting trees are required) | Yes | No (Contains Harmful Chemicals) | No (Contains Harmful Chemicals) |
| Low Water Absorption Rate ( Moisture Resistance) | Yes | No (Prolonged exposure to water can damage) | No | Yes | No (Prolonged exposure to water can damage) |
| Abrasion Resistance | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Low on Maintenance | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Resistance to High Temperature | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Fade when Exposed to Sunlight | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Durability | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
As you see Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) or Ceramic tiles are the best fit for any circumstances compare to other flooring materials.
Painting on Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) is possible but not all paints work. In the case of polished surface and highly waterproof tiles it is recommended that the paint should be highly adhesive for which epoxy paints can be used.
Rectified tiles are the tiles which go through a cutting process called grinding. In this process it trims all the pieces of tiles into the same precise size, as a result seating joints can be minimum, grout usage can be minimum and making the joints between tiles more pleasing.
Marble slabs come in various shades and of different quality, maintenance of marble are not always easy and requires care, while on the other side the sturdiness of porcelain tiles merged with the stunning beauty of precious stones has paved new paths in the faculty of architecture and design, the Marble-look porcelain tiles do not fail to evoke the same feeling with their added features of more durability, less fading, resistance to breaking, chipping, warping, and more. On the contrary, marble-look porcelain tiles virtually need no care and maintenance
This type of tiles is considered to enhance floor and wall tile when used as inserts, borders and special accents.
Lavish’s 3d printing technique uses the state-of-the-art in digital design technology, allowing for infinite design abilities at maximum resolution.
The term digital technology refers to the tiles design that is printed onto the surface. Today, images that are created from photographs using a computer program are then applied to the tile by use of ink jets, much like modern office printers. With such technology usage, the designs are more exciting and attractive than ever
Porcelain/vitrified tiles material are perfectly apt to be used with under floor heating. The notable thing that should be taken into account is that a grout joint of at least 1.5 mm is requisite for the installation.
The COF of ceramic tiles means Coefficient of Friction, which rates the slip resistance of tiles. The American Society For Testing and Materials (ASTM) have several benchmarks for measuring coefficient of friction for wet & dry Surfaces. Values are 0.6 on any flat or horizontal surfaces both for wet and dry, but 0.8 for any inclined or ramp Areas.
The porosity of a ceramic tile or a porcelain tile is the water absorption rate of the material. When choosing a tile, Need to keep following ratings under consideration that evaluate the ratio of water absorbed.
The Grouping (Classification) for the porosity of tile are
Impervious i.e. Porcelain tile are best recommended for cold temperature which are having an ideal water absorption rate of < 0.5%.
Porous tile should not be used outdoors where cold weather produces freeze as Porous tiles are having a water absorption rate of > 10%.
Yes porcelain is scratch resistance, as porcelain tile are made from a denser material you’re less likely to scratch porcelain tile. When looking for scratch resistance tile, go for the porcelain tile having a higher PEI rating, as Higher PEI rating means durable and more scratch resistant.
The Shade variation of a tile indicates the level to which its colour, texture and tone vary among individual tiles. Except pure black or white tiles all category of ceramic & porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) has some extent of shade variation even in the same assembly run. Following tiles shade variation rating system
Resistance to stains means cleaning of stains on the tiles and the type of glaze that has been used. Following are the classification of how easy it is to clean the tiles
Once the glaze or upper body of the porcelain tile is damaged it is not possible to repair. We just need to replace the damaged tile with the new one, which the only finest alternative.
It is not possible to polish the surface of porcelain tile once it is fixed to the floor or wall surface.
Daily Maintenance of Porcelain tiles (Vitrified tiles) are very easy following is the steps:-
Grout is the chemical used for placing joints to prevent stains, dust particles between tiles.
It is not recommended to dry cut the tiles as it produce silica dust which can be harmful if inhaled. Wet cutting methods are the best.
Yes it is possible to drill a hole through porcelain tiles, we need to keep few point in mind which are:-
To check whether the sealant is fine or not we just need to do simple water test. Just add small amount of water on the grout and if the water is not absorbed then it’s perfectly fine and if the water is absorbed then it’s the time to reseal the grout.
Best Grout to choose are sanded grout and epoxy grout.
Rectified tiles without Grout line is not recommended because grout absorbs the stress movements which will prevent the tile from damage.
We recommend have a grout sample and placing them with your tile in the space where they will be installed. This will allow you to observe how it look with other and how to lighting affects them. Just to note that Grout colour can be darken over time.