Are porcelain or ceramic tiles better? Read our guide to decide which material is best for your home improvement project. When considering porcelain vs. ceramic tile, both tiles look similar and fall into the ceramics category: rigid tiles created from natural earthen clays and hardened by heat.
Porcelain is more durable and water resistant but ceramic is easier to install and more affordable. Ceramic tile is made from a mixture of natural clay, sand, and water. It's molded into shape and fired at a lower temperature than porcelain, which results in a slightly softer, more porous material.
Porcelain vs. Ceramic Tiles at a Glance Porcelain has a consistent color through all layers of the tile, while chipped ceramic will reveal a different base color than the glaze. Porcelain is also smoother, heavier, harder to cut, water resistant, and more expensive compared to ceramic.
Compare porcelain vs ceramic tile to find the best fit for your space. Learn about cost, durability, and ideal uses in this expert tile guide. Ceramic vs Porcelain: What's the Real Difference? Whether you're renovating a bathroom, updating an outdoor patio, or refreshing an entire room, one of the first tile questions you'll face is: porcelain or ceramic? It's a surprisingly tricky decision.
The two materials may look alike, but they have key differences that can make or break your project. From moisture resistance to design. Porcelain Tile Porcelain tile is actually a type of ceramic tile but with important differences.
Porcelain is made from finer-grain clay mixed with other refined materials like feldspar. The mixture is compacted under higher pressure to create a dense body and fired at higher temperatures-around 1,200°C to 1,400°C (2,192°F to 2,552°F). Ceramic and porcelain tiles share many similarities, but they also have noteworthy differences.
Learn the pros and cons of each material to help you decide which is the better choice for floors, walls and other tile projects. These two popular types of tiles often get confused, yet they have distinct characteristics, applications, and advantages that can affect the durability, aesthetics, and overall performance of your tiling project. If you're asking yourself, "what's the difference between ceramic and porcelain tile," you're in the right place.
Visually, porcelain typically has color that runs throughout the tile (through-body composition), whereas ceramic tiles often have a glazed surface over a different-colored clay body. This difference becomes apparent if the tile chipsâ porcelain maintains its appearance while ceramic reveals the contrasting base color. Price Comparison: Porcelain vs Ceramic The cost difference between these.