White Body Ceramic Tile 

Ceramic wall tiles are made with white clay. These tiles are for wall applications only because the glaze on these tiles cannot handle wear and tear of foot traffic and they aren’t as strong as porcelain tiles.

Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tiles are made from both white clay and “brown” clay, with water absorption rate of 0.5% or less. These are more durable than red body & white body ceramic tiles. 

Ceramic “Red Body’ Tile

Ceramic red body tiles are frequently referred to as “red body” or just “ceramic tile”. The clay used to make these tiles are red hence the term “red body”. They are not as dense as porcelain tiles and have a higher water absorption rate. These tiles are graded on a scale of 1-5, which determine the correct usage of the tile.

Ceramic tiles are graded on a scale of 1-5 per below with 5 being the strongest. Porcelain tiles are not usually measured by a PEI level as they are PEI 5.

PEI - Wall Only

PEI 2 - Wall & light residential floor e.g. powder room

PEI 3 - Wall & moderate residential floor e.g. bathroom/living room

PEI 4 - Residential & light commercial floor e.g. office

PEI 5 - All residential & heavy commercial floor e.g. hospitals, supermarket

- Rectified tiles are machine cut making the tiles the same size and the edges straight, allowing for a close installation with a 1/16” grout joint

- Non-rectified tiles have neutral uneven edges that are not of the same size and require a wider grout joint e.g. 1/8” in porcelain and 3/16” in ceramic tiles.

By industry standard, a large format tile is any tile where one side is greater than 16”. However, popularly known as a large format tile, are tiles where one side is larger than 18”. E.g. 24”x24”

Most popular grout lines are as follows:

- ⅙” (Rectified tiles)

- ⅛” (Non-Rectified Porcelain Tiles)

- 3/16” or ¼” (Ceramic tiles)

- Sanded Grout is used for wider grout lines e.g. 3/16” or ¼”

- Unsanded Grout is used for smaller grout lines and wall tile application e.g. ⅙”

This varies depending on size of the grout line, however as a standard, the following can be used:

- ⅙” or ⅛” grout joint (600 sq ft/25lb bag)

- 3/16” or ¼” grout joint (300 sq ft/25lb bag)

This is dependent on if the floor is level, but a standard measurement is 30sq.ft/ bag

Purchase the correct substrate for this application to allow the new tile to adhere to the surface of the existing tile “ECO Prim Grip”. Keep in mind that the floor will be higher than before, hence it may affect the closure of doors.