Porcelain tiles are a fantastic product for home and work. With the advances in technology over the past 10 years we have witnessed a huge growth in the ultimate flooring. From Polished to matt modular to glazed, porcelain is the flooring to have in 2012. Or even why not use it on your walls in bathrooms and kitchens?
Porcelain tiles are sourced worldwide coming from Italy, Spain, China, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The whole world has gone porcelain mad !! And why not, as I said previously it is the ultimate covering.
Here are some porcelain options:
Polished porcelain : With its highly polished finish will give any room a high class finish whether it's on the wall or floor. Use it on bathroom walls or bathroom floors polished porcelain is easy to clean and maintain. Kitchen floors will sparkle with a polished porcelain on the floor. Bouncing your light back into the room, seeing is believing
Modular porcelain: With its mixed size cobbled effect will re create that farm house, country cottage feel. Use in Kitchens, halls, living areas, conservatories the modular porcelain will work in modern as well as older properties. Glazed finish means no sealing and little maintenance.
Rectified Porcelain : Has a square cut edge to replicate real cut stone but without the hassle of sealing and maintenance. This will give a minimal high spec look and works well on both walls and floors. small joints will limit the grout and give a fine flat finish.
Unglazed porcelain : Tends to have a good anti slip finish. Along with looking great, this will give peace of mind in wet areas like kitchens, bathrooms, pool surroundings and changing areas.
Glazed Porcelain: Will simply look fantastic and last a life time. Glazed porcelain is a very hard wearing floor covering. In wide range of designs, colors and sizes they can be used on bathroom walls, kitchen floors, halls, living areas, conservatories.
Working with porcelain can be tricky, when recently laying my own kitchen floor tiles I used a glazed porcelain tile. The tools are key to fixing porcelain, a good flat bed cutter for your straight cuts is essential, the amount of tiles that I wasted using an inferior cutter was criminal. Also motored wet wheel comes in very handy for cutting around thresholds.
Another lesson I learned, make sure you have the correct adhesive and grout for your floor and sub straight. A 1 part flexible adhesive is the most common and ideal for concrete floors and pre strengned floors and a flexible grout will fill your joints and protect the adhesive underneath from moisture.
I did a great job on my kitchen floor if I do say so myself, however it did take a while to complete! Next time I will get a professional in, who knows exactly what to do and tools to use, and do not even ask about trying to drill them! That's a story for another day.
To summaries easy to clean and maintain makes porcelain tiles the best covering for your floors. Whether is polished, glazed, rectified, non rectified it's the ultimate covering. Make sure you have the right tools and adhesives and if you can get the professionals in!