Sourcing Porcelain Tiles in China: Glazed vs. Full Body Porcelain Tiles

Choosing the right flooring for your home, hotel or commercial space is a critical decision that involves balancing aesthetic appeal, durability, and functionality. Porcelain floor tiles are often the preferred choice for many home owners due to their exceptional durability, ease of maintenance, and resistance to stains and scratches. While tiles are being produced in many countries across the world, China has become one of the leading manufacturing hubs for tiles of all kinds. In another blog post we discussed all general details about tiles, such as the difference between porcelain and ceramic tiles, and where to buy them. If you have missed this article, you can find it here.

In this article we want to take a closer look at porcelain tiles, and the different types of tile bodies and tile glazings. We have structures this article in 5 parts, to cover all the main types of porcelain tiles. We are going from high quality to lower quality:

1. The Full Body Porcelain Tile
2. Glazed Porcelain Tile with Colored Body
3. Glazed Porcelain Tile with White Body
4. Double-Charge Tile
5. Soluble-Salt Tile 

Before we dive into the different types of porcelain tiles, let's very briefly review the general benefits of porcelain tiles. Porcelain tiles are a type of ceramic tile crafted from kiln-fired clay that is heated at extremely high temperatures. This process creates a dense, hard, and highly durable material that is known for its low porosity and water resistance. Porcelain tiles are exceptionally versatile and are available in a wide variety of designs, colors, and patterns to suit different styles and preferences. Whether you want a contemporary, classic, or rustic look, these quality tiles provide a wide range of aesthetic possibilities, making them suitable for both interior and exterior spaces. 

Porcelain tiles offer numerous benefits that make them a popular choice for both residential and commercial applications:

• Durability: Porcelain tiles are incredibly durable tiles and can withstand high traffic without showing significant signs of wear and tear. This makes them ideal for both residential areas, such as hallways and kitchens, and commercial environments like shopping centers and office spaces.
• Ease of Maintenance: One of the key advantages of porcelain tiles is their ease of maintenance. They require minimal cleaning; regular sweeping and occasional mopping are usually sufficient to keep them looking pristine. This low-maintenance quality makes them an excellent choice for busy households or commercial spaces.
• Stain and Scratch Resistance: Porcelain tiles are highly resistant to stains and scratches, which helps them retain their original appearance over time. Their non-porous surface prevents liquids from penetrating, making spills and stains easy to clean. Additionally, their hard surface resists scratches from everyday wear, ensuring longevity and durability.

Full-body tile, often referred to as unglazed, through-body, or technical tile, represents the pinnacle of durability and longevity in tile manufacturing. Unlike other tile types that rely on surface layers for their design, the composition of a full-body tile is homogenous throughout its entire thickness. The manufacturing process involves mixing natural clays and coloring pigments together from the start, so the color and pattern are not just on the surface but are consistent all the way through the tile body. Consequently, if a full-body tile were to be chipped, scratched, or worn down over decades of heavy use, the newly exposed surface would reveal the exact same color and texture, rendering the damage nearly invisible. This inherent robustness makes it the most resilient option available and the unequivocal recommendation for demanding environments such as airports, shopping malls, and industrial settings. Although this comprehensive manufacturing process makes it a more expensive option, its exceptional strength and hard-wearing nature ensure a lifespan that is unmatched by other tile categories.

Composition of Full Body Tiles

Full-body porcelain tiles, differ from glazed tiles in terms of their composition and manufacturing process. These tiles are made from natural clays and mineral deposits without the addition of a glaze. The entire body of the tile is composed of a single, homogenous material, with color and pattern running consistently throughout. This consistency is achieved through the use of natural mineral deposits or color pigments mixed into the clay before firing.

Appearance and Durability

Full-body porcelain tiles are known for their earthy, natural appearance and their exceptional durability. Because the color runs throughout the entire thickness of the tile, any chips or scratches that may occur are less noticeable than with glazed tiles, where damage to the surface coating can reveal a different color underneath. Full-body tiles are generally thicker and denser than glazed tiles, offering superior resistance to impact and abrasion. They also have high slip resistance, making them an ideal choice for areas that require a safe, non-slip surface, such as bathrooms, wet rooms, outdoor patios, and commercial settings with high foot traffic.

Maintenance and Stain Resistance

While full-body porcelain tiles are exceptionally durable, they can be more prone to staining compared to glazed tiles because they lack a protective surface coating. The natural pores in the unglazed material can absorb liquids, potentially leading to stains over time. To counteract this, full-body tiles often require the application of a protective sealant. This sealant provides an additional layer of protection but will need to be reapplied periodically to maintain its effectiveness. Despite this, full-body tiles are favored in many settings due to their high durability, natural appearance, and superior slip resistance.

Glazed tiles are perhaps the most versatile and widely recognized category of tile, offering nearly limitless design possibilities thanks to modern production techniques. The fundamental process involves applying a thin, impervious layer of liquid glass, or glaze, onto the surface of a ceramic or porcelain tile body before it undergoes firing. This glaze serves multiple purposes: it creates the final color, pattern, and texture of the tile, and it seals the surface, making it non-porous, stain-resistant, and easy to clean. While traditional methods involved simpler glazes, contemporary manufacturing has been revolutionized by high-definition digital inkjet printing. This advanced technique operates much like a sophisticated office printer, capable of rendering complex, high-resolution images, photorealistic patterns, and nuanced color gradations directly onto the tile's surface. This allows for the authentic replication of natural materials like marble, wood, and stone, providing consumers with an enormous spectrum of aesthetic choices to perfectly match any design vision, from intricate mosaics to minimalist solid colors. The only difference to glazed tiles with a colored body, is that the white body isn't as forgiving if a tile chips. The white body below the glazing is making the ship or crack much more visually recognizable, which is a real down side.

Double-charge tiles, also known as double-loaded tiles, are a clever innovation in vitrified tile manufacturing that combines durability with cost efficiency. The process involves fusing two distinct layers of clay powder together under immense pressure before firing them as a single, cohesive unit. The lower, foundational layer constitutes the bulk of the tile's body and is made from a standard, rudimentary clay mixture. The top layer, however, is composed of a more refined mixture of clay and pigments that will ultimately define the tile's visible design and color. This upper design layer is substantially thick, typically around 3 to 4 millimeters, which gives the tile impressive durability and a wear layer that can withstand significant foot traffic. If you examine the tile from the side, you can physically see the demarcation between the two fused layers. This two-layered construction allows manufacturers to create a robust and aesthetically pleasing surface while conserving the more expensive, color-rich materials for the top portion only, thereby gaining a significant price advantage over full-body tiles where the design and color permeate the entire thickness.

These types of tiles are getting rather uncommon, and many factories completely switch to production lines for glazed tiles. Thus you might not come across this type of tiles as much anymore.

Soluble-salt tiles represent a cost-effective method for creating polished, patterned surfaces that offer significant aesthetic appeal at an accessible price point. The manufacturing process is unique in that it infuses the design directly into the tile's surface before it is fired. Using a technique analogous to screen-printing, a design template is laid over the unfired tile body, and a solution containing water-soluble metallic salts is applied. This liquid solution permeates the substrate, penetrating approximately 1 to 2 millimeters into the clay body. During the intense heat of the kiln firing, these salts react and melt, creating a durable, pre-determined pattern that becomes an integral part of the tile's surface. Because the design is not merely a topical layer but is embedded within the tile itself, it offers better wear resistance than a simple glaze. Typically finished with a high polish, these tiles are prized for their glossy, elegant appearance and are a popular choice for residential and light commercial flooring where a sophisticated look is desired without the higher cost associated with more complex manufacturing methods.