Porcelain vs Ceramic Tiles — The Difference, and Which to Use

The one number that defines the difference

Porcelain is ceramic. Both are clay bodies pressed and fired, and porcelain sits inside the ceramic family rather than beside it. What separates them is a single measured property: water absorption. A tile absorbing 0.5 per cent of its weight in water or less is porcelain. Anything above that is a non-porcelain ceramic.

That figure is achieved by using a finer, denser clay with more feldspar and firing it hotter and longer — around 1200 to 1300 degrees Celsius against 1000 to 1150 for standard ceramic. At that temperature the silica and feldspar melt and fuse the body into something closer to glass than to fired earth. The trade word for that is vitrified, which is why vitrified tile and porcelain tile describe the same product.

Every practical difference people quote comes out of that density. Water cannot penetrate far enough into porcelain to freeze and split it, so porcelain survives outdoors where ceramic fails in a season. Stains cannot soak in. The body is far harder, which is what lets it take real floor traffic instead of being limited to walls.

The cost of the density is workability. Porcelain needs a diamond blade rather than a scoring wheel, is harder to drill, and is heavier per square metre. On a dry interior wall a good ceramic tile is cheaper, lighter and easier to fix, and specifying porcelain there buys you nothing.

Porcelain and ceramic compared

Which to specify, by location

• Any floor — Porcelain. A wall-grade ceramic tile will crack under floor traffic, and the saving is not worth the failure.
• Shower floor — Porcelain, textured, R11. Constant water rules ceramic out entirely.
• Shower and bathroom walls — Either. Ceramic is perfectly adequate on a vertical surface in a wet room and costs less.
• Kitchen splashback — Either. Ceramic is fine; choose on looks and price.
• Anywhere outdoors — Porcelain only. Ceramic absorbs water, and in any climate with frost it will split.
• Commercial floors — Porcelain, full body or double charged. Ceramic is not a candidate.
• Dry interior walls — Ceramic. Lighter, cheaper, easier to cut, and nothing is gained by upgrading.

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How to tell them apart in your hand

Look at the unglazed edge or the back. A porcelain body is fine-grained, dense and usually pale grey, white or beige right through, with no visible porosity. A ceramic body is coarser, more open in texture and usually a distinctly reddish or pale terracotta colour.

Weigh it. For the same size and thickness, porcelain is noticeably heavier because there is less air in the body.

The definitive test is water. Put a drop on the unglazed back and wait a few minutes. On ceramic it soaks in and darkens the body; on porcelain it sits on the surface. That is the 0.5 per cent threshold made visible, and it is the test worth running on any tile a supplier will not quote an absorption figure for.

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