There are many types of ceramic tiles, such as full-body tiles, polished tiles, antique tiles, fully polished glazed tiles, diamond, microcrystalline stone, marble... and so on. The categories are dazzling. For those who are new to decoration, it is as difficult to tell which category the brick in front of them belongs to as it is to teach a straight man to distinguish between lipstick shades such as carrot red, maple leaf red, and aunt red; for a catechist girl to distinguish between Tiga and Gaia, Dyna and other Ultraman.
A ceramic tile has to undergo many tests independently from soil to brick, and from brick to brick: the soil is ground into fine particles with higher plasticity in the ball milling process, and then reshaped into bricks in the pressing process. The bricks are glazed to add color, and finally go through processes such as edge grinding and polishing, and are almost ready to enter the market.
According to the level of water absorption, brick materials are also divided into pottery (water absorption rate > 10%), stoneware (water absorption rate 0.5% ~ 10%), and porcelain (water absorption rate ≤ 0.5%). To understand the difference between them, you must first start with their types:
Ceramic tiles can be divided into two categories according to technology: unglazed tiles (polished tiles, exterior wall tiles, square tiles) and glazed tiles (ceramic tiles, glossy full-glazed, matte semi-glazed); according to use It can be divided into two categories: floor tiles and wall tiles. Generally, floor tiles can be placed on walls, while wall tiles cannot be laid on the floor.
Unglazed tiles
Unglazed bricks are what we often call full-body bricks. There is no glaze on the surface, so the material and color of the front and back sides of the brick are the same. Common full-body brick products include wear-resistant bricks, exterior wall bricks, polished bricks, square bricks, etc.
01 Polished Tile
Polished tiles are bricks with a bright surface formed after polishing. It was prosperous in the early years, but now it is slowly falling behind because of the single color and pattern, which basically cannot meet the current decoration needs.
The advantages of polished tiles are bright surface, basically no color difference, thin brick body, light weight, low price, no radioactive elements, long-term exposure will not cause harm to the human body, but the disadvantage is that it easily harbors dirt and has poor anti-pollution properties. Only a few brands have anti-fouling treatments.
Glazed brick
Glazed tiles are ceramic tiles whose surface has been glazed and fired at high temperature and high pressure. They are one of the most widely used categories in decoration.
Glazed tiles are made of soilIt is composed of two parts: the glaze on the surface. The glaze has beautiful appearance and anti-fouling effect, but its wear resistance is not as good as polished tiles and vitrified tiles. The main body of glazed tiles is divided into two types: pottery clay and porcelain clay. The back side of fired pottery clay is red, and the back side of fired porcelain clay is off-white.
01 Full polished glaze
According to the difference in gloss, it can be divided into full polished glaze and semi-polished glaze. Those with a smooth glass-like surface are fully polished glazes, and those with uneven surfaces and an antique effect are semi-polished glazes.
The advantages of fully polished glaze are anti-seepage, seamless splicing, arbitrary shape, very good toughness, and basically no breakage.
The disadvantage is that its wear resistance depends on the hardness of the glaze layer on the surface, so the wear resistance of some lower-cost glazed tiles is not as good as that of polished tiles.
There is an upgraded product on the market that is fully polished glaze called super crystal. It increases the thickness of the glaze layer to 0.2-0.4mm and uses the hard polishing process to make the surface brighter and smoother without water ripples (full polished glaze is in Under the illumination of light, water ripples will appear). Through the improvement of glaze technology and glaze thickness, the hardness and wear resistance of the bricks are improved.
02 Marble Tiles
Marble tiles, whose real name is "imitation marble tiles", are similar in technology to full polished glaze. It abandons various natural defects of natural marble and has the realistic decorative effect of natural marble and the superior performance of ceramic tiles. It is one of the mainstream products on the market. The disadvantage is that it is expensive and requires maintenance.
03 tiles
In theory, porcelain tiles are the most cost-effective and best choice. This is because the price of porcelain tiles is low, the production process is mature, and the construction requirements and costs are also minimal.
But few people actually consider porcelain tiles. Porcelain tiles are ceramic tiles, not porcelain tiles. Compared with porcelain tiles, they are easier to absorb water. The commonly referred to as "kitchen and bathroom floor tiles" are also porcelain tiles. Due to high water absorption, low density and area, the maximum size of the sheet can only be 300×600mm or 400×800mm. The current mainstream market trend is to lay ceramic tiles with a size of 600×600mm or more on the floor of the living space. In this way, the porcelain piece is abandoned.
Stone slab
Finally, let’s talk about rock slabs. Rock slabs are a category that has only emerged in recent years. The definition of rock slabs is stillThere are different opinions, but we can think of slate as an upgraded version of ceramic tiles.
The advantages of rock slabs are large specifications, strong moldability, diverse designs and colors, high temperature resistance, wear and scratch resistance, anti-penetration, acid and alkali resistance, zero formaldehyde, and environmentally friendly and healthy. The most important thing is that slate can be used in islands, furniture, etc., and can also be customized.
The shortcomings of slate can be summed up in one word: expensive, two words: very expensive, and three words: very expensive. The high cost is not only reflected in the material itself, but the most important thing is the service fee. The material fee for a top-to-top wall rock slab is 1,000, the labor fee is 2,000, and the transportation fee is 1,000.
