Porcelain Tiles
Material : porcelain
Hardwearing Porcelain Tiles
Incredibly popular for commercial tiling projects thanks to the wear resistance of porcelain floor tiles while avoiding the changes with wear that are often seen on ceramic floor tiles as foot traffic wears through the surface glaze. Porcelain tiles are fired at very high temperatures making a glass like tile that is impervious to moisture and dimensionally stable for the most demanding commercial applications while being a beautiful alternative to marble for certain applications
Porcelain Colour Choice
From a beautiful mirror finish black porcelain tile to match the blackest granite or basalt to a white tile you can use for a simple floor finish that's easy to keep clean; there's a coloured porcelain tile to suit your colour choice plus a range of marble effect porcelain tiles that are difficult to tell from the real thing thanks to the glass-like quality of vitreous porcelain
Trade Deals on Porcelain
You don't need to be a tile dealer or commercial tiling company to benefit from our trade prices as we're happy to deal with the public and can deliver to your door. We can also offer expert advice or supply suitable adhesive and grout for a one stop tiling shop to help with your tiling project
History of Porcelain
Chinese Porcelain
Porcelain originated in China with the earliest porcelain-like examples dating from about 1600 to 1000 BC. Porcelain is formed by heating kaolin (clay) to about 1300 Deg C at which point the kaolin particles melt and form a contiguous glass-like translucent material known as porcelain.By the Ming dynasty 1368 to 1644 early examples were introduced to Europe
European Porcelain
Attempts to copy the Chinese porcelain were unsuccessful until samples of the kaolin clay were brought back by Portugese traders. In 1708 W.W. von Tschirnhaus managed to produce a form of porcelain which remained a closely guarded secret until 1712 when a jesuit missionary released details of the original Chinese process. The earliest porcelain tiles also date from about this period and were mainly used as wall tiles in palaces and religious establishments
The Porcelain Pagoda of Nanjing
Designed during the reign of Emperor Yongle, Prince of Yan (1402-1424) whose father Emperor Hongwu was the first of the Ming Dynasty. The porcelain tower became one of the tallest buildings in China and was constructed of white porcelain bricks or tiles that were glazed with green, yellow or brown designs