Per my experience, Ceramic can be less expensive, chips easier and the chips leave white divits -- which I've filled in with craft paint. Porcelain has the color throughout, is tougher and can mimic travertine and other expensive stone without the high maintenance.

Porcelain has become popular in residential flooring over the last several years, so one of the big draws is wanting the best and obtaining bragging rights to friends and neighbors, which is great!

Most people want to buy porcelain because they think it is the same color and pattern all the way through the tile. However, this is only true on fraction of porcelain tile products that are called through-body porcelain. The majority of porcelain tiles are glazed porcelain and when chipped, the porcelain shows through, usually as a different shade if not color.

Porcelain is denser than ceramic which means it has a lower absorption rate. It is frost resistant making porcelain better for outside applications.

Indoors, the extra density makes porcelain less likely to chip. But it is a little overkill anf often misunderstood too. Some people lead you to believe that if you're not getting porcelain then you are wasting your money. More false words were never spoken.

There are different qualities of ceramic tile. Some ceramics are denser than others. There are many great quality ceramics that are more than sufficient in a house.

All tiles, whether porcelain or ceramic, have a PEI rating which will tell you how resistant the glazed surface is to scratching and chipping. A tile with a PEI of 1 will scratch and chip easily and should only be used on walls. A PEI of 2 is good for light residential areas like bathrooms. A PEI of 3 is good for all residential applications. 4 is used in commercial applications and 5 for heavy commercial applications like a mall. It is wise to view the PEI ratings becasue many pei ratings willl do fine in a house because the highest commercial pei rating isnt needed. The average home performance wont exceed those expectations and ratings.

If you drop an iron skillet on equally rated ceramic and porcelain tiles, you will probably chip both. If you drop a glass, you will probably will not break either one. Because of the difference in density, there may be some things that may chip one or the other, but in reality, when comparing porcelain to ceramic floor tile, the difference is neglibible. Remember people have been using ceramic tile way before porcelain tile existed and many of those isntallationa re stil laround today, performing perfectly, with zoro problems.

Porcelain has been around a while, but has been mainly used in outside and commercial applications. A lot of manufacturers have gone to porcelain tile recently because the price of tile in general has come down. By going to porcelain, the manufacturers can justify not lowering their prices because the insinuation is that its better so it costs more, and they really play up the performance.

The bottom line is that in a typical residential application, both porcelain and ceramic tiles will endure comparably provided they have the same PEI rating. A through body porcelain is great, but there are not very many choices and they generally cost more than glazed porcelain and ceramic.

Thanks for the help. Very informative! :) Budget will definitely play a part in the final decision, but at least now I know what the pros/cons are. Thank you so much.

Anyone have opinions on tile in the dining room? Maybe it won't seem wierd at all, I just can't picture it...

I think tiling a dining room is just fine. There are some formal looking tiles out there. I'm planning the same thing because my dining room is open to the great room, kitchen, and front door and it's a high traffic area. I live in the country and when you have grit on your shoes and crazy country dogs that go out and dig in the woods,well, you just can't have carpet everywhere or wood floors.

first-- thanks floorman for the information :)
i have been wondering what was the difference myself!

i too have a diningroom that is open to the greatroom/kitchen
and am planning to put tile in my entryway,and kitchen thru to the diningroom.
i think it will look fine.

you can just buy an area rug for the diningroom to dress it up a bit..

thanks for the post