Does porcelain tile require special care?
According to the consultant, porcelain tile would be very durable and easy to care for. Back home, we did a little reading about it on the internet and read a lot of horror stories about porcelain stoneware. Soaps shouldn't get on the floor, dog urine stains it, if you scrub too hard on the same spot, you'd be left with a dull, light-colored stain, and so on. You'd have to scrub the floor with all kinds of products and soak it over and over again. There are even videos of the floor being treated in dozens of steps, including using a single-disc machine. It's definitely too complicated for us, we could just go back to oiled parquet. However, we have also read that glazed stoneware is available, but not very often. Do these glazed stoneware tiles have any drawbacks, I haven't found anything about them online? What is your experience with them?
Answers
I've had polished thin stone tiles in my kitchen for 12 years with no problems! The bathroom is brown matte, cleaning is no problem and has never had any stains.
Only thing was it was almost impossible to drill through, you need glass drills with water for that.
I think you have something mixed up? There is natural stone (tile) such as marble, granite or Solnhofer slabs, they are really more sensitive and require special care.
Porcelain tile is just tile, and compared to wood floors, for example, it is very easy to care for and clean. We only have porcelain stoneware in our house, and it's surprisingly easy to clean.
In detail, of course, it depends on the surface and surface treatment of the tiles. If they are glossy, for example, it can happen that some of them become matte.
I have 1978 porcelain stoneware in my hallway and dining room – no problems. Perhaps it depends on the surface.
We've had porcelain tile in the kitchen, hallway and bathrooms for 1.5 years. So far very easy to maintain and clean. I haven't had any concerns so far either.
After 1.5 years, we also can't report anything negative (despite small children and cats, i.e. urine residue, vomit and sometimes urine), but we also suspect that it depends a lot on the surface.
Of course, don't leave dirt lying around for days, but clean it up as soon as you notice it.
