Porcelain vs Ceramic Tile: Which One Belongs in Your Home?

Porcelain and ceramic are both fired clay. Porcelain is made from finer clay, pressed harder and fired hotter, so it absorbs half a percent of its weight in water or less. Ceramic absorbs more. That one number decides where each tile belongs.

Side by side

Where each one belongs

Choose porcelain for floors and wet areas. Entryways that see salt and slush, kitchens, bathroom floors, shower floors, laundry rooms and basements. It resists water, chips less, and stands up to grit underfoot. An unheated sunroom or covered porch in Ontario needs a porcelain that is rated frost resistant.

Choose ceramic for walls. Backsplashes, tub surrounds and shower walls carry no foot traffic, and the glaze keeps water off the face of the tile. Ceramic is lighter on the wall, easier to cut around outlets and niches, and costs less, which matters when you are covering a lot of wall. The classic 3x6 subway tile is ceramic. We keep several subway options in the showroom for matching an existing backsplash.

Three ratings to read on the box

• PEI wear rating, 1 to 5. It measures how well the glaze resists abrasion. Use 3 or higher for residential floors, 4 for busy entries and kitchens. Wall tile can be 1 or 2.
• Slip resistance (DCOF). For floors that get wet, look for 0.42 or higher. Polished tile looks great and is slippery with wet feet, so keep it out of bathrooms.
• Rectified edges. Rectified tile is ground to exact size after firing, which allows thin, even grout lines. It also demands a flatter floor, especially in large formats.

Replacing a tub surround or shower

Tile and grout do not keep water out of your wall. The waterproofing behind them does. When a tub surround fails, it is almost always because the board behind the tile was never waterproofed, and years of water through the grout have softened it.

The signs are loose or hollow-sounding tiles near the tub, grout that keeps cracking in the same place, a wall that gives when you press it, and mould that returns no matter how often you clean.

Re-grouting does not fix this. A proper replacement goes in this order:

1. Remove the tile and the wallboard down to the studs, and let the cavity dry.
2. Install cement board or a foam tile backer. Never regular drywall.
3. Apply a continuous waterproofing membrane over the board, including the seams, corners and the niche.
4. Set the tile, then grout.
5. Seal every change of plane, including where the tile meets the tub, with flexible silicone instead of grout.

Why tile costs more to install

Our floor tile installation runs $6 to $10 per square foot before HST, compared with $2.29 for click vinyl. The difference is time and preparation. Tile is rigid, so the floor beneath it has to be stiff and flat or the tile will crack. The layout is planned from the centre of the room so the cuts at the walls are even. Each tile is set in mortar, levelled against its neighbours, left to cure, then grouted and cleaned.

Large-format tile, patterns such as herringbone, heated floors and small rooms with many cuts sit at the higher end. For full project pricing see our installation cost guide, and for choosing a tile see the tile buyer's guide.

Common questions

Is porcelain tile better than ceramic?

For floors and wet areas, yes. Porcelain is denser, absorbs 0.5% water or less and resists chipping. For walls and backsplashes ceramic performs just as well, is easier to cut and costs less.

Can ceramic tile be used on a floor?

Yes, if it is rated for floors. Look for a PEI rating of 3 or higher. Ceramic suits light-traffic rooms. For entries, kitchens and bathrooms porcelain is the safer choice.

Can I just re-grout a leaking tub surround?

No. Grout is not waterproof. If the wall behind the tile is soft or tiles are coming loose, the backing has been wet for a long time and needs to be replaced and waterproofed before new tile goes on.