The love of one’s life may be just around the kitchen corner. Porcelain tiles enhance any space.
“It’s a well-known fact that porcelain tile is just about the number one favorite choice of homeowners for kitchens and bathrooms, and it has been that way for a lot of years. What sets it apart from other tile choices is the fact that is comes either glazed or unglazed which makes it head and shoulders above choosing ceramic tile for the bathroom. The main consideration here is the presence of water,” outlined Dean Dupre who runs Champion Tile, a Clearwater Flooring, Tampa Flooring, and tile installation company.
“The plain unglazed truth – really I couldn’t resist that line – is that if you want to tile your bathroom, you need something that is a bit more moisture resistant than ceramic tiling. In other words, porcelain would likely be the tile of choice for wet locations,” remarked Dupre.
Porcelain is made by mushing up clay and other materials and then firing the concoction at an extremely high heat. The firing process serves to harden the tile. What many people don’t realize is that depending on the length of time and the actual temperature, the results will reflect how hard the tile gets and how water repellant it will be. “The story with ceramic tiles is that they are not as hard as porcelain because they aren’t fired for as long. This doesn’t mean they aren’t a viable choice for other areas of the house though and honestly should be considered because they are attractive and add a vibrant look to your home,” Dupre added.
“In my line of work, I get asked a lot of questions and the number one query is usually what is porcelain used for besides the bathroom? Well, it’s definitely used as flooring material, but it can also be used on your walls. Most people opt for glazed porcelain in the bathroom because its absorption rate is low,” he explained.
Porcelain tiles are usually graded relating to their hardness and the ability to resist soaking up moisture. That means the porcelain scale runs from 0 to 5 and the hardest is a ranking of 5. “What that means is that the harder tiles are used on the floor; and for walls and other areas, lower ranked material is usually used as an electrical insulator for appliances etc.,” commented Dupre.
The bottom line is that for appearance, utility, maintenance, durability and class, the tile of choice for a bathroom may be porcelain.
To learn more, visit http://www.champtile.com.
