As far as bathroom and kitchen flooring go, the tried and true flooring option has always been tile. Tile flooring is water resistant, easy to clean and maintain, and incredibly durable, meaning that it will last a lifetime in your Lexington or Nicholasville home. But there is a whole range of flooring varieties just within the tile-flooring category. Should you go with natural stone, or ceramic? Slate or glass? Knowing a bit more about the various qualities of the flooring tile options available to you will help you to make the right decision for your flooring project. That’s why Floor Coverings International of Lexington and Nicholasville, KY put together this post to explore in-depth just one of the many tile floor coverings available to you: porcelain tile flooring.
What Is Porcelain Tile Flooring
When many people think of the term porcelain, their mind instantly jumps to the image of fine China. Expensive and luxurious objects like Oriental vases or Delft tile come to mind. This sort of precious dinnerware is a totally different material from porcelain tile flooring, which should be associated not with delicateness, but rather with durability. Porcelain tile flooring is often compared and contrasted with ceramic tile flooring, but porcelain tile is actually just a subset of ceramic tile flooring (albeit a superior subset). Porcelain clay is made from kaolin, but can also include sand-like materials such as crushed china stone (feldspar), quartz, glass, bone ash, steatite, petuntse, and alabaster. Porcelain tends to have higher feldspar contents than regular ceramic tile, which also contributes to its increased durability. What truly sets porcelain apart from other traditional ceramic tiles though, are the extremely high temperatures at which it is fired. Porcelain clay is shaped into tiles, glazed or unglazed, then heated in a kiln at 1,200 to 1,350 degrees Celsius (2,192 to 2,462 degrees Fahrenheit). These incredibly high temperatures are what causes porcelain to be so hard and durable, and correspondingly so valued as a flooring material. When fired at this degree of heat, the formation of glass and a mineral called mullite occurs, which contributes to the strength of porcelain tiles. There are two basic types of porcelain tile for flooring, through-bodied and glazed, and the type you choose will affect the look and durability of your floors. Through-bodied porcelain floor tiles have color and texture that is consistent throughout the tile, whereas glazed porcelain tile has a wear layer created by the glaze, so that the color or pattern does not permeate through the entire tile. Through-bodied tiles are more durable, since chips are rarely noticeable, but you can get more pattern and color variety with glazed porcelain floor tiles. One of the key ways to determine whether a ceramic tile is porcelain or not is its water absorption rate. A ceramic tile can only be classified as porcelain if the absorption rate is less than 0.5%. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has a test to determine this, the C373 test. A fired ceramic tile is weighed, and then boiled for 5 hours. After that it is submerged in water for another 24 hours. After all of this the tile is re-weighed. If it weighs less than half of one-percent more due to the water it absorbed, it can be classified as porcelain. Gzhel porcelain baking bowl with lid
The History of Porcelain Tile Flooring
Porcelain tile has been a luxury item going back for centuries. It has been the tile of choice for royalty, nobility, and even emperors throughout history. Porcelain’s name derives from porcellana, the Old Italian term for ‘cowrie shell,’ due to the similarity in appearance of both porcelain and the shell’s translucent surfaces. Originating in China (hence the association with the terms “China” or “Fine China), porcelain has been used there since the early Han Dynasty. You can still see old Chinese porcelain tiles today, a testament to their durability. Porcelain was introduced to Europe and was immediately a hit, with early 1700’s Delft blue tile being an example of how porcelain was mixed into European art. Italian porcelain tile was incredibly prized, and used to floor and decorate churches and villas. There are a number of European palaces which feature rooms that are entirely decorated in porcelain. Today, porcelain manufacturers can be found throughout the world, with modern production methods making them available not only to princes and popes, but to the rest of us as well, so you don’t have to be a Chinese emperor to floor your Lexington or Nicholasville home with porcelain tile. Italy today is the global leader in porcelain production, producing 380 million square meters of porcelain tile in 2006 alone.