I guess you konw what a PEI rating is.
"The glaze wearing off a tile that is not thru-body..." is not a big concern. What is a far bigger concern are the little chips of the glaze coming of due to bumps, drops, micro cracks, scratches, etc. The body of the tile can be close in color to the surface glazing which can be minimal and look almost like the body. That works well.

Borrow a few tiles, put them under your fridge's front legs, and scratch the tiles by jerking the fridge around a bit as you open and close the door a few times with extra strength. Over many years the tiles on a kitchen floor get seriously hurt by all kinds of appliances big and small, utensils, cookware, silverware, glasses, etc being dropped on them, and foot traffic too pivoting on spot.

David

Get a porcelain tile with a hardness grade of three or more. Ours was a three, color does not go all the way through. Made in Italy. I've droped a hammer and a dead bolt on the floor, and it didn't faze that tile. Of course, you can kiss goodbye any glass or plate that hits the floor. Small price for a tough product, though.

The only chip we have is on the edge of the tile step down into the sunken family room. The hardwood flooring installer whacked the edge with his mallet when installing the the floor. I mean he hit it full force! Benjamin Moore enamel paint custom blended to the main color of the tile took care of that chip. Porcelain is tough stuff if you get one with a commercial grade rating. Had ours 10 years. Perfect condition, except for that one tiny chip.

Thanks.

jerseydeb....How did you do the tile to the sunken family room? We have that too so that was probably going to be my next post!

In our kitchen remodel I installed a thru-body color porcelain tile from the company Crossville, from their Palais line in the color Versailles. It is a little more of a limestone look than a travertine look, but of the many samples my wife and I looked at it was the first choice for both of us (which never happens)

The tile is really durable, at one point while installing something over the cooktop I dropped the hammer, and in my frantic attempt to catch it I ended up throwing it across the room, where it landed on the floor with a loud bang, and caused no damage at all.

Here's crossville's website for the tile, which doesn't really show the tile well, and a couple of pictures of my kitchen:

{{gwi:1567518}}

i went through this, also. i finally gave in and got "regular" tile because i couldn't find throughbody i liked. i think my tile has a 5 rating, so hopefully it will hold up. mine just went down in february, but so far, so good. and i'm a klutz. :)
and i do have several extra tiles just in case!

Here is a link that might be useful:

With a 5 rating, you could drive a truck over it.... with studded tires.... and snow chains.... and a load on the back!

Seriously-- any glazed tile with a PEI rating of 3 or more is sufficient for normal residential use. Is thru body porcelain better? Common sense will tell you it is. Is it absolutely necessary? Not a bit.

Porcelain is tough stuff if you get one with a commercial grade rating.

Just one comment to this statement-- ALL porcelain is commercially rated.

Real travertine is also through body...I'm just sayin'! I know. Takes a little more maintenance, but it's so silky underfoot!

We have Crossville Color Blox "Black Black" (or something like that) on our countertops. It is supposedly thru-body, but the chips (from cutting) are a reddish color. Fortunately for us, we were trying for a slate-look without the real-stone maintenance, so the reddish color enhances the slate-look. Most people think we have slate countertops when they see it - exactly what we were hoping!
(For the record - black epoxy grout at 1/8" spacing because 1/16" was just too difficult - very happy with this decision although I don't think we'll ever DIY epoxy grout ever again - what a mess!)

very happy with this decision although I don't think we'll ever DIY epoxy grout ever again - what a mess!

But.....but....... WHY?!?!?

:-)

(just between you, me, and a few hundred close friends-- I can't stand grouting epoxy, either)

We had linoleum in our kitchen for 27 years. Replaced it with tile. At first, I was searching for thru-body porcelain and only found it at one store and the choices were so few and very plain. I did not see any tile that looks like bob cville's...which I think looks amazing!! Anyhow, we ended up getting a glazed porcelain that has a mottled look with cream, taupe, gray, and a touch of brown. I tried to find a tile where the color on the bottom and the body was not too different from the top. So far, it's been about 5 months and we're very happy with it. Right now, we're in the process of removing the 27 year old ceramic tile in our entry way. We want to install wood floors in the remainder of the downstairs. The glazed ceramic held up very well for all those years with only a few minor chips. But, where it chipped, I could definitely see the adobe/rust color show through (which was the body or base color in that tile. I am not worried about the porcelain tile chipping in our kitchen since it's much stronger than ceramic. When dh installed the entry tile he scored & snapped when he had to cut a tile. When he installed the porcelain kitchen tiles, he purchased a wet saw because porcelain is so hard.
I'm posting some pics of the porcelain tile so you can see what I mean about the bottom and body of the tile not being too drastically different from the top. Also, I'm posting a pic of the ceramic tile that we're removing.

Laurie 2008 - Thanks for the pics. I was just making that point to my husband that we would probably get something beige anyway, so even if it isn't thru-body, a chip wouldn't be that noticeable. I still want to go to my local Virgina Tile and check out their Crossville line though. How's the tile removal coming? :-)

Ever since dh discovered that we basically need to pulverise the tile with the small hand held sledge hammer, it's coming along a lot better than the first day. We're a little more than 1/2 way done : ) & had to construct a larger tent to keep a lot of the dust from getting all over the rest of the house.

Laurie,

We're looking for porcelain tile similar to yours. Would you kindly share details- size, name of color & brand?

Thanks, in advance!

We bought our tile from Lowes (about 6 months ago). It's called Pietra Series Bone 18". Stamped onto the bottom of the tile is : Porcellanato Smaltato. They are not rectified, however dh was able to use a 1/16" grout joint... it probably helped that our kitchen floor was smooth & fairly level and a small area to cover. The grout is Keracolor U Ivory #39.

Regarding how we did the tile step down into the sunken family room: I'm sure there's a better way than our tile installer did this.

We do not have a step per say, it's an 8" drop from the 116" opening. The cut edges of the vertical tile (about 8 inches) meets the horizontal edge of the hall/entry tile with grout. As you might guess, the cut edges are the color of the unglazed porcelain. The installer solved this problem by painting the cut edge with a color matched enamel paint that is the same color as the background color of the tile. It looked and continues to look fine. Except for the little chip caused by the hardwood floor installer. We haven't gotten around to painting that little chiped edge.

There's probably a better way to do this type of installation. We had originally been told some type of matching trim/finishing tile would be put along the edge where the vertical and horizontal tiles meet at the grout line. Didn't find out until after the installation that it was not available. Bear in mind that we contracted this work before closing on our trac home. Didn't always have access to the property, as it was kept locked at this stage of construction, and the builder actually still owned it. We found out when we came to inspect. The tile company didn't bother to let us know before the work was started that the type of trim promised wasn't available.

What a maroon (your installer).

There's probably a better way to do this type of installation.

There are SEVERAL better ways, depending on what other finishes are adjacent. Anything from stained or painted wood trim, to Schluter bullnose strips, to using actual bullnose, if it's available for that line of tile. Those are just a few off the top of my head!

Thanks, Bill. I will probably be posting a photo soon in the Flooring forum looking for suggestions on tiling the step down to the family room.

You can post it right here. I don't usually go in there unless "summoned". :-)

We purchased this porcelain tile, then decided to use something else. UGH..... but I love my decision.

We may still use this in our laundry/office area. I do like it- it looks like travertine, it's rectified (so I was told), and I think it may be thru-body. I can look up the name if you are interested when I get back from church.

Looking for tile was such a hard job!!

Here is a link that might be useful:

remodelqueen,
I'd love to know the name of that tile. It looks nice. If you could let me know, I'd really appreciate it

Sorry!!! I forgot to check back this afternoon. The tile is 20x20, the brand is Legend, and color is Serena Blanco. I was told it was rectified. I purchased it from a store that ended up going out of business. I paid $1.85 s.f., so if you are able to locate it- that was the cost.

We have sold some of what we purchased (2100 s.f.-Yikes!), but are considering using it in the laundry room and our master closet if we don't sell the rest. It really is nice!

Thanks, remodelqueen. I didn't find anything on a Google search, but I will keep my eyes open in the tile shops!

Laurie2008, When at Lowe's tonight (they were open until 9 PM, I asked to see the tile you used in case I liked it better than the Rialto Beige in person or in case I wanted to use it in my kitchen. I was told by Steve at the farther away Lowe's that Pietra Series Bone was a special order tile so I could not see it in person. Did your Lowe's have your tile on display? I love your tile and thought it would look nice in my kitchen but I wanted to see it in person since my HP LCD Monitor may distort colors.

I THINK I saw this tile at one of the newly constructed Lowe's in my area. I know it was NOT at an older Lowe's I went to recently bc I made a point to look for it. Perhaps only the newer stores have this one for display.

Thanks Merimom, I will call a few other Lowe's in my area and ask who has the tile on display since I loved Laurie's kitchen tiles.

The Lowes in my area (Southern Calif.- Irvine) has a sample tile of the Pietra Series Bone in the store. It is not a stock item, and we had to special order it. I am sorry that Lynn & Merimom were not able to see it at their local Lowes. Hopefully, they'll have it at another Lowes not too far away. I have only one tile remaining - dh cut that calculation very close : ) Otherwise, I would send a extra tile to both of you! It is important to see these things in person. Computer images can vary too much.