Ceramic usually has a red/brown body, porcelain is either white, tinted to match the glaze [though considerably lighter in tone], or color body/color through. Porcelain is stronger, but for 90% of residential use, ceramic is plenty strong-- consider that glazed tile is the last surviving remnant of many ancient civilizations, and that you can buy ceramics from the time of the Roman empire on Ebay for a few bucks. A couple cautions: if your kids are waaay out of control, the porcelain could be better in that it resists cracks. But if it's properly set and supported, they'ed haved to drop a shot put or the like to crack regular ceramic. I like porcelain for kitchens in case someone drops a very heavy skillet or similar, though. And in the bath, the color body porcelains tend to offer better traction. Look for the CoF numbers on the tile you like [if you can't find it, ask the salesman to track it down]. CoF is Coficient of Friction, and measures grippiness. Higher is better. Try sliding your foot accross a sample, both wet and dry, and never use a tile in a wet location that is at all slippery-- the EMTs won't care about your lovely tile while sliding your naked tush on a gurney because you've taken a tumble.

thanks so much; very pleased with the great answers ~~ hope additional comments and/or questions are o.k. (?) going backwards from funyellow: the kitchen designer brought over two tiles with absolutely nothing written on them; but she said they were daltile ~~ looking at their site i would guess they could be *p'zazz* series ~ (white ritz & black drama)~ or *color scheme* series ~ (artic white & black) ~~ i don't suppose i will have the option of ordering from home depot; i would feel obligated to give the order to my kitchen designer since she is doing the searching for me ~ i am curious (since you have already done the research) as a TOTAL category of porcelain tile, how does the price of daltile compare with other manufacturers? bill, i have been lurking here for awhile, so i appreciate any & all advice you give cuz i know you are definitely one of the respected experts on this forum ~ with that said, how would i find out the PEI rating? ~ what is your personal opinion on daltile??? ants ~~ hey, hey, HEY ~ are you picking on me?!? ~ well, actually i DO LOVE chicago, however i was not trying to imply that with my questiion (grin) ~ i am guessing after the answers i have gotten here, daltile is a commonly found tile if it is even available thru home depot ~ thank you very much, phyl from the northern subs of chicago p.s. the tile samples that she left here (one white ! one black) both have clay-colored sides ~ that doesn't sound like through color to me ~ yes?

is the front edge of the counter just going to be the squared off edge of the tiles? No. The homeowner is going to add a wood trim to the face. What does "rectified" mean??? I have not heard the term before. It used to be that rectified porcelain was strictly an imitation stone tile, It was made to mimick polished or honed stone, and did a terrific job of it, as you can see in the front entry I posted above. But in the last year or two, there has been a move toward glazed rectified porcelain, as well, as seen in the countertop pics. What "rectified" means is that with most tile, both conventional ceramic and porcelain, the tiles are stamped out of clay, and then baked in a kiln. As a result of skrinkage which isn't always uniform, the tiles can come out of the kiln different sizes, as well as not quite being exactly square, which is the reason many tiles must be set with a minimum 3/16" grout joint-- in order to be able to adjust them to account for these imperfections. With rectified tiles, what's done instead, is the tiles are baked in sheets, and then cut AFTER baking, thereby giving MUCH more accurate results. Because of that, the tiles can be set much tighter, like natural stone-- with a 1/16" grout joint. As for the manufacturer of the countertop tile, I don't know off hand. The homeowner supplied the tile.

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.