Porcelain Tiles from China?

Hi,

Last three months I have been going from shop to shop looking for the best deal on polished porcelain floor tiles. Three months ago, most of the stock was either from Spain or Italy and were priced between 30 to

60 euros a sq. yd, however yesterday I came across three different shops selling Chinese porcelain tiles as cheap as 15 - 20 euros a sq.yd.

Chinese/Spanish/Italian tiles looks all the same to my novice eyes, anyone knows why they are so cheap, or if they are of same quality as the (now) expensive Italian tiles? I am doing about 35 sq.yrds (hall, kitchen & dining).

Any comments appreciated, thanks for reading! :)

Reply to
ashokkm
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Hi the chinese one they have not the same quality of italians and spanish. they produce the tiles win 50% less time than the normal porcelain stoneware! the absorbition is high and they came always with a film on top, very difficult to remove! If you buy italian or spanish tiles, you treat with a permanent sealer, e.g. Fila MP/90 the most performance in his field, than you have a tile easy to mantain (do not anyway use Flash! it damages the grout, use the right professional products). hope this will be useful for you regards

Reply to
keko

Thanks Keko, that sounds bad - especially since laying the tiles down is going to cost me just as much as the tiles themselves! Are you sure the Chinese porcelain tiles are not upto the job?

Anyone else had any bad experience with them?

thanks!

Reply to
ashokkm

how the tiles look like? do they have any film on it? if not you must protect with a product like that one i suggested you: this is the only one I've seen it really works. at disposal regards

Reply to
keko

No film on them - they looks exactly the same as the spanish / italian tiles. But then, it could be just me.

Its going to cost me nearly a thousand euros to lay them, so I didn't want to make compromise on the quality of tiles - have you come across any other problems with these tiles, like, staining, cracks, fading (I don't think porcelain would fade) etc etc...

thanks again!

Reply to
ashokkm

the only problem is the stain, but this is normal problem on every kind of polished porcelain stoneware. on the chinese the absorption seems to be higher. Protect it with Fila MP/90, that is a permanent sealer you don't need to reapply. it's really good! regards

Reply to
keko

thanks keko - decided to go ahead with the chinese tiles - will update if I come across anything out of ordinary with them. cheers.

Reply to
ashokkm

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