I saw your post in the kitchen section also. I can give you my opinion, but will of course preface it with I am a DIYer and by no means a professional, so please take it at face value. I say, take the savings and run with it. Especially if you are doing the job yourself. My husband and I install everything ourselves. While I had installed small tile jobs before, I had never done a large tile job or done one in a home I actually owned and was planning on living in forever. When it came time to buy our own hexagon floor tile and white subway tile for tub surround I did my research and had a few long conversations with my brother in law who had been in construction for 40 something years. I was going to splurge on the tile, figuring I save all the money by installing everything ourselves, why not spend a little more and get a "high quality" product. For the very little difference I could see side by side in the tile I was considering the cost difference was astronomical. My BIL advice was also spot on. The more expensive tile had many imperfections as far as the depth of the actual tile. A more "hand made" look and feel yes, however it requires a very skilled installer to make it look right and they must take added time to get it to look right. So not only would it have cost us more, but I wouldn't have been able to do a great job alone without hiring it out. We went with the big box store brands. The only issue I had with the big box store, was paying attention to their quality before buying and while installing. For instance, I did a black pencil trim with our white subway tile. I had a hard time in the store finding as many trim pieces as I needed that weren't scratched already. A bad batch sent to the local store was not padded properly and had to be gone through to find ones that I deemed perfect. Also before grouting the hexagon floor we checked extra carefully to be sure the black hex tiles were where they were supposed to be in the black and white design as there was one sheet of the mosaic that had one out of place. We certainly did not want to grout and find out later that we had a mistake in the pattern. But honestly well worth it for almost $2000 savings I figure I got from just the cost of the tile. I am about to start the second bathroom and have already started shopping my local big box store for my tile. Good luck.

I am thinking of using that very same tile for my bathroom. They had a display of it at our Ikea in one of the kitchens and I liked it very much. With all the people trampling through, it didn't seem dirty at all but they used downtown black which is pretty dark. Maybe you should get a sample and put it through some testing. What color were you planning to use?

A white vinegar 50/50 solution should work, but might bleach out the grout colour. I would use a neutral PH cleaner. Just check the label...

Thanks for your comment and bottom line suggestion, Linda. My sister and close neighbor have been advising me of the same thing. Accordingly, I have been doing more investigating into how to easily clean the unglazed porcelain and also checking into other flooring options. My neighbor suggests Marmoleum, which would be appropriate to our 1926 home. My sister-in-law has Marmoleum in her kitchen and strongly recommends it, as she finds it hard to clean. It also does not have the longevity of tile. I have been searching for a matte glazed porcelain floor tile and finally met with some success yesterday. There is a good bit of such tile in black and white, but not much in other colors. Yesterday at Daltile, I found a matte glazed porcelain hex in some colors including a couple greys and a greyish green, which is what I'm after. It comes in various sizes including the 2" hex I am after and can be paired with a 1" square black for the perimeter border I'd like to have. Daltile carries this tile, which is made by Cepac and it can be found on the Cepac website. Good luck!