No doubt, natural materials are already good because they are natural. Take the same marble - it is beautiful, it lasts a long time and does not require significant efforts for its care. But there is material that, while not being natural, is in no way inferior to the best natural samples. This is porcelain tile, and in contrast to natural stone, it has a variety of textures. Modern technology allows you to get almost any surface. There is porcelain tile under a stone, under a tree or imitating the structure of any other material.
Currently, surface finishing with it has become very popular, sometimes crowding out some familiar materials. Facing of facades in the first place of large commercial and commercial buildings is carried out, as a rule, from porcelain tile. And in interior decoration it is used more and more widely, especially where high resistance to mechanical stress, strength and wear resistance are required. Cladding of floors when porcelain stoneware is used under a stone, especially in commercial and public buildings, where a large flow of people is the most common occurrence.
What is the reason for such popularity of porcelain stoneware? In its properties. It is enough to mention only that it is inherent in:
- zero water absorption;
- high wear resistance and mechanical strength;
- chemical inertness;
- practicality, it requires almost no maintenance, is durable.
Such capabilities are a consequence of its manufacturing technology. The initial components (quartz sand, white clay, metal oxides as dyes and feldspar) are crushed, mixed, pressed under high pressure and fired at 1300 ° C using a special technology. At the penultimate stage of the surface of the material, you can give the desired look, including making porcelain stoneware like stone. Finished products are available in the form of tiles of different sizes.
It, if no drawings and a given structure were applied to it, has a uniform rough surface. This is technical porcelain stoneware, it is usually used for decorating workshops, production facilities, car service centers, garages, etc. As already mentioned, a pattern is created at the pressing stage, it can be a wood-like structure, iron-like, it can be granite-like porcelain. For the floor (its decoration and decoration), you can use a tile with any pattern, but best with a rough surface.
The fact is that, after pressing, the finished products arrive for polishing and acquire a shiny, mirror-like appearance, become smooth and slippery. It is best, for example, to use polished porcelain stoneware under a stone for walls - their finish in this case will only win. However, it should be noted that the use of polished tiles as a floor covering increases the possibility of injury - the floors will be slippery, and the likelihood of falling on them increases.
The described porcelain stoneware surface variants are only a small part of the existing ones. It is a large selection of various types of tiles, its appearance and size difference, a huge color scheme that make this material so popular. And if we add its characteristics to this, we can only wonder why they use something else to finish surfaces in difficult operating conditions.
Tiles used for decoration, including the mentioned stone-like porcelain tiles, can replace almost any material. At the same time, it is very difficult to find a replacement for them, except to go for the deterioration of the finished coating. Thanks to its unique capabilities, it can be said that it is porcelain clay and is so popular.