Polished porcelain tiles for kitchen floors

Vpande,

It's your choice! A few thoughts to consider though.....

Polished porcelains have a glass like appearance when you look across them with light behind. If there is any irregularity in the floor, it will show. They must be laid very well, as any flaws will be quite conspicuous.

There are stacks of porcelains arriving here from China. Some are good quality, but there are a lot of substandard ones as well. You will pay top $$$ for good consistent quality porcelains. The polished finish is achieved after firing by honing the surface flat. This means the surface is normally NOT stain resistant, so there are further costs after laying if you want optimum performance from your floor.

The tiles normally are packaged with a wax coating on them for a few reasons. After laying, this coating needs to be professionally removed, and the tiles need to have a quality sealer applied. Again, I recommend professional application of a suitable sealer.

The better porcelain tiles will have machined edges with a fine bevel. They should have narrow grout-joints of about 2-3mm. Grout should be a non-sanded type. The best grout is epoxy grout. If your tiler is not happy to use epoxy grout, choose another tiler.

So, for a really well performing polished porcelain floor, you'll need a big cheque book for;

Fine quality tiles
A quality experienced layer
Epoxy grout
Professional clean up
Quality sealer like Aquamix Ultra-solv.
Professional application of sealer.

You can cut corners and costs, but then you've gotta live with it!

Do it right and you have a beautiful exotic hard floor that will perform well if its properly cared for. After some years, it can scratch and the honed finish can wear and become dull. Maintenance can prevent this, but it must be a good maintenance regime.

I recommend you read this technical newsletter for more info...

http://www.aquamix.com.au/pdf/newslette ... r%2006.pdf

Ash.

Hi Bud977,

*Yes, but it will still show to an extent, if the smooth polished surface is scratched or chipped.

** I find that advice highly questionable! It may be fair for consumers to assume advice from these sources to be reliable, but the sad fact is, many of these people don't know what they are talking about! Ignorance and misinformation is rife!

Here's the test..............

Get a black whiteboard marker. Choose an out of the way area of your polished porcelain tile, and mark an X on the surface. After a couple of minutes, clean it off with a damp cloth. If you have any staining or 'ghosting' of the X, you DO NOT HAVE A STAIN RESISTANT SURFACE.

A vitrified glazed surface of a ceramic tile will pass this test. That is, the X mark will be able to be cleaned off, the same as from glass.

The link I posted to the Aquamix site explains why this is the case.

Ash.

Hi Vpande
We had porcelain tiles put in the kitchen and family room and really regret it. The light cream color is a pain to keep clean , they are slippery and the grout gets grubby really easily. Would never have them again!
Eimaj

Thank you all for your feedback.
My thoughts are going in this direction--
1. Slipperiness
Division of zones in the Kitchen.. all messy wetstuff to be done near the sink..
A mat near the sink to handle minor drops of water.
A mat near the cooktop for steadiness and to capture any cooking drops-- eg pasta fluid etc
Handy to keep some paper towels/wiping cloths for inevitable spills and 'spot cleaning' as required
2. stain and dirt
I am keen to get a robot vaccum cleaner for daily run thru the hallway,family and dining areas- it will capture hair and dirt from kids school clothes
weekly mopping with a scrubber mop
sealing of grout and tiles after installation

Bud- your tiles may have been 'presealed" hence no need of sealer but I think its handy to use a sealer occassionally as it will eventually wear out.. I am noticing that with my granite benchtop.

Guys, let me know your thoughts

Hi Ash - yep, the tiler recommended we seal the tiles after they were laid, so we got him to do it. It was called sureseal. Found out afterwards he sent his apprentice to come and do it. We also noticed patches on some of the tiles that look sort of dull, like they've been burnished. The tiler then tells us the tiles were probably not good quality (tile shop said otherwise - so we don't know)
There was also a light sort of residue on them, which was hard to clean off, so we got a professional tile cleaner in to have a go. Brought up the shine, but the dull patches remain.
We clean them with vinegar and hot water, and vacuum regularly,but overall we're still not happy with them. Another thing is how cold they make rooms feel. Each to their own, but I'd go with a good quality matt-finish ceramic tile any day.
Eimaj

Hi Ash
Thanks - you could be right about the grout haze, as the burnishing is mostly on the corners of the tile.
It was the tiler who told us to clean with vinegar. The tile-cleaner used some kind of buffing/polishing machine with his chemicals, but said vinegar was ok for us to use too. Aaaaagh! Confusion What do you recommend to use instead?
Yes we are disappointed with the floor. It was the first thing we had done, as the existing carpets were thread, and kitchen vinyl floor was foul. But we've learnt a lot more since then. It's just difficult when there's so many conflicting opinions around
We'll probably look at redoing or recovering them somewhere down the track - perhaps a floating floor???
Thanks again for your help
Eimaj

I got to the bottom of the tile sealing issue and found it was my beautiful wifes screw up. Yes, our tiles should be sealed and they now have been.

Under intense questionioning under a bright lamp, she confessed that she asked the tile people about sealing, but misunderstood their answer. They had actually advised sealing, but she registered that as "does not need sealing".

I had asked the tiler about sealing. He said it didn't need it. He was just repeating the incorrect information given to him by my wife!

This seems like a game of Chinese Whispers, and the message was totally mixed up.

Luckily, the information brought up on this site raised a few questions which my wife checked. Saved by Homeone again! Thanks all.

Eimaj,

Early signs might be grout crumbling or powdering away.

People tend think that vinegar is this very benign natural product, (which it kind of is in many applications). But any acids are destructive to some extent where calcium rich tile & stone products are concerned. Industrial strength glacial acetic acid is a highly reactive chemical.

A good product to use for maintenance is Aquamix concentrated tile cleaner, a neutral cleaner that doesn't leave sticky residues. Ammonia can be used in water for mopping. Microfibre cleaning systems are the best way to maintain tiled floors.

Ash.