Let's Talk About Porcelain

 


For many the word porcelain is associated with ornaments, crockery and tableware. However, in 2015 a new type of paving began to arrive on the market. This year the leading manufacturers within the industry started to take note of the benefits of porcelain paving and initiated intense marketing campaigns focusing on a wide range of porcelain products.

 


Described as vitrified, ceramic or porcelain paving, these names all denote the manufacturing process that occurs to produce an extremely hard substance predominantly made from clay. Although the process to make each type is largely the same, each has a slightly different end product.

 


Ceramic tiles consist of a clay and quartz sand mixture; porcelain is very similar to ceramic however it contains a higher purity clay and it is cooked to a higher temperature which gives a harder, more durable product. Finally, vitrified paving has a water absorption rate of less than 0.5%, this low absorption rate results in an extremely hard material which is essentially scratch resistant. To avoid overcomplicating things, we will refer to all products mentioned above as porcelain paving.

 


Porcelain paving has all the qualities of natural stone paving with a few extra benefits chucked in for good measure, most notably the ability to withstand high loads and the resistance to scratching. Porcelain paving also has the characteristic paving experts love – fade resistance! This means your paving will retain its original look and texture far beyond that of natural stone paving. Finally, each porcelain flagstone is calibrated to a consistent thickness with a tolerance of less than 1mm (that's less than a credit card!) which makes the laying of porcelain paving quick and easy!

 


To ensure that we keep up with the competition, our Managing Director recently took a holiday, sorry, business trip to Italy to source the best porcelain paving currently on the market. Whilst there he forged a strong working partnership with a leading manufacturer of porcelain paving. So, as well as having access to all of the leading manufacturers of porcelain, we also have stock of our own porcelain paving available in four different colours. We can also ship stock directly to a customer from Italy within a week if you require more than we currently have in stock.

 


If porcelain paving is something that you are interested in and you'd like to know more, please follow this link to our porcelain paving page https://www.lsd.co.uk/material/manmade-manufactured-paving/vitrified-porcelain-paving. The products labelled with a “Hardstone” manufacturers label is our imported paving.

 


We understand that choosing between sandstone, limestone and concrete can be daunting without adding porcelain into the mix too. However, we are always at the end of a phone line to offer you expert help and advice and we will always endeavour to find the best paving to suit your needs whatever your budget is.