Porcelain Tiles –Are They All They Seem? Part 1
By Michael Ross on Mar 12, 2008 in Cleaning, Porcelain, Problem Solving, Sealing, Tiles
There is much debate about Porcelain Tiles at the moment and it is a subject that I will no doubt return to again and again in the future but I wanted to give an overview to begin with. Look on any tile-related forum, walk into any tile shop, read the trade press etc. and you will see references to porcelain tiles, and increasingly, to a number of associated problems and issues. So what are the issues?
The main ones are:
1. Do they need sealing?
2. How do I get them clean?
3. How do I keep them clean?
In order to answer these questions we need to understand a little about the history of porcelain tiles, what they are, how they have evolved and that is what I hope to do in this article. So what is a porcelain tile? Well defining porcelain today is part of the problem. We need to look back at when it was first invented, or at least when it was launched commercially.
Back in the Early ‘80s, a few companies in Italy started to produce ceramic materials with a number of perceived advantages over the traditionally produced ceramics. Up to this point, ceramic tiles were typically glazed or unglazed, with the glazed types offering more design possibilities but the unglazed being more durable and harder wearing, especially on floors as there was no glaze to wear off. But, the unglazed tiles of the time were very limited in terms of design as they were basically restricted to the colour of the clays from which they are made. These clays could be tinted a little and different firing methods could induce shade variations but the designs and available colours were not wide-ranging. Another disadvantage the unglazed tiles have over the glazed variety is that they tend to be harder to keep clean and some could be quite porous which makes staining a real possibility. Part 2 to follow
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