1- do they scracth/loose the high glossed polish easily some sites say polished porcelain tiles loose thier shine/scratch within a couple of days of being laid?

[Ian's Answer] Yes, of course they can scratch, so can any flooring material you care to think of. Diamond, the hardest, natural surface know to man, will scratch another diamond. Although most porcelain is extremely hard, hard materials such as tungsten-carbide will scratch it – (otherwise we could not cut them without a diamond wet saw) but also many naturally occuring minerals like quartz (commonely found in grit and soil ) can scratch porcelain. Porcelains also vary in quality these days, some are really tough, others less so but most would be more resistent to scratching than say polished marble, and about the same as polished granite. Use a door mat both inside and out to elimiate as much grit as possible – grit is the floor’s #1 enemy

2 – do they need to be sealed -if yes what is best sealer?
[Ian's Answer] – That is the billion dollar question – answer is: ‘Depends on the porcelain” – sorry, that is the accurate answer. My gut feeling is that, due to a number of circumstances, both economic and technical, your porcelain is more likely to be in need of sealing than not, but I cannotbe sure. Do some testing, water drops, oil, even a permanant marker pen – if they leave marks, then sealing will provide a benefit.

3 – Once sealed will this retain the polished surface?
[Ian's Answer] – Basically, no – the types of sealers we are talking about are impregnating sealers – meant to sit below the surface – in the case of porcelain though, they are really just temprarily occupying the micro pores in the surface – so they offer no protection to the actual surface itself, they just sit in the holes and prevent unwated contaminants from getting a hold in the holes instead.

If you were to put a coating sealer on then that is different, but there are not many sealers designed for use on top of polished porcelain, the few that are, in my opinion, look cheap and plasticky and are impossible to maintain effectively for the general house and home.

4 -how often will they need to be resealed?
[Ian's Answer] – depends on the tile (how much sealer is needed), the cleaning regime (harsh cleaning regimes and chemicals can quickly degrade a sealer), and on the traffic and use conditions. But anywhere from a few weeks to several years between applications

5 -what is best product to clean tile with?
[Ian's Answer] – brush/sweep with soft brush or better still swiffer type dry mop, vacuum if necesasry but be wary of trapping grit (scratching risk), routine ‘wet’ cleaning – use a mild, neutral soapy detergent. For deeper cleaning (and with a well maintained polished porcelain, deep cleaning will be mainly for the benfit of the grout) use a high alkeline cleaner designed for tiles and stone.

6 – is their wax on the surface that needs to be removed?
[Ian's Answer] – Again, it depends on the porcelain, but it is very common these days, espcially on large format, polished tiles, even more so if they are from countries like China – so my guess would be that yours are likely to have a transit wax on them.
7 – is therea better alternative ?
[Ian's Answer] – although I may have not given you the answers you would like, there are are not many alternaitves that I can think of that beat the overall performance of good porcelain, for example although yes, the do scratch, they will scratch less readily than virtually any other surface (save for carpet). The truth is all floors will scratch and wear but a good porcelain is pretty resilient.

Hope that helps
Ian

Im just about to put some Topps Tiles – Brussells Porcelain (highly polished) 60cm X 60cm on to my kitchen floor, just have afew questions _

1- do they scracth/loose the high glossed polish easily some sites say polished porcelain tiles loose thier shine/scratch within a couple of days of being laid?

2 – do they need to be sealed -if yes what is best sealer?

3 – Once sealed will this retain the polished surface?

4 -how often will they need to be resealed?

5 -what is best product to clean tile with?

6 – is their wax on the surface that needs to be removed?
7 – is therea better alternative ?
Thanks

David

Not quite sure what tou mean when you say marked underneath? – I think you mean there are marks visible just below the surface? If so, are the marks in a kind of chequer board-pattern or grid? do they mirror the pattern on the back of the tiles? If so then you may have a real problem that ought to be refered back to the tile manufacturer.

Often tiles like these have a dusty white coating on the back, this is a release agent – a type of clay that ‘fires’ at a different temperature to both the tile and the ceramic kiln rollers – to stop the tile from fusing to the kiln as it is fired, sometimes due to the fast nature of production, and the speed with which the tiles are packed as soon as they come out of the kiln, this clay dust can be deposited from the back, onto the face of the next tile in the box. Sometimes it is just a dust and will brush off, in some situations though as things are cooling it it seems it can fuse to the face of the next tile. In other situations, there may be no dust, but the pattern of the back of one tile seems to be imprninted ‘in’ the surface of the next tile in the box. If this has happened – it is a faulty tile clear and simple and I would call the company who sold the tiles and seek their assistance as the tiles would need replacing.

With regard to the wax – again there are different types, some wipe of with a cloth, others need an alkaline cleaner and others need a solvent – only trial an error can tell, but again, there are some factory-applied wax-type coatings that have proved incredibly difficult, if not impossible to remove. It is also possible that the marks are from the still-hot tiles being stacked against each other while the ‘wax coating’ was still setting, I am speculating a bit here but the point is there could be a number of reasons for the marks and it could be combined with the wax, you may find that if you can remove he wax, the marks go too.

Try products like Strip-it (stripper) and Xtreme Clean (high alkaline) and also try a micro-abrasive like Micro Scrub.

You appear to be in Australia so I suggest you contact http://www.aqua-seal.com.au they have these products and also they will be able to give you advice over the telephone.

Hope this helps

Ian