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 can confirm I have original through-body porcelain that was not glazed and they do not stain at all. They're pretty darned indestructible, in fact. You can take a buffing pad and buff them up to a sheen, if you want to.

I have a bathroom in my house from 1940, and I love the floor tile. I am renovating a second bathroom in my house (that was redone in the 1980s with powder blue fixtures) and would like to imitate the look of the 1940s bathroom floor. The floor is a green and white check, and I have always assumed that it is unglazed tile. So I have been looking at white unglazed hex tile for the bathroom that I am renovating. I'm now balking at the unglazed hex because I have heard that it has to be sealed periodically and it can stain. I have two small boys, one of whom is only recently toilet trained and doesn't have the greatest aim, and the other who has yet to be toilet trained, so I worry about stains on the floor. Also, I have never had a problem with stains in the 1940s green and white bathroom, although the bathroom admittedly doesn't get that much use and the floor already has a "patina." So I'm wondering - maybe it's glazed tile, and it just looks unglazed because it has flat, rather than "cushion" edges. I have attached a photo. Does anyone know whether GLAZED flat edged floor tile was used during the 1940s, or was it all unglazed? Also, I realize now that the thing I like about the floor isn't so much the glaze or lack thereof, it's the fact that the floor tiles are flat and not "cushioned." So I'm wondering if you can find GLAZED hex or similar small tiles with a flat edge. All the tile I've seen has been either glazed with a cushion edge, or unglazed with a flat edge, however. Does such a thing exist?

511 will not hurt your porcelain. It can asssit in final grout cleanup as well as help remove any previos 511 streaks from say pre sealing to assist in the grouting itself. many times we use it before and after grouting even on porcelain. bur it must be buffed off and not allowed to dry or it may leave streaks.. If you dont need a final grout surface clean it can be only applied to the proper type grouts.