Porcelain Paving: Strong, Sturdy & Stylish!

When we think of porcelain, what usually springs to mind first are exquisite pieces of pottery such as the famed vases from the Ming Dynasty. Certainly, it runs counter to intuition that such a delicate material would be remotely strong enough to be used for paving and tiling! The fact is that porcelain is actually the strongest type of ceramic and it is only when it is created to be extremely thin (as is the case with the aforementioned vases) that it is so vulnerable to being broken. 

Porcelain was developed in China around two millennia ago, from where it slowly began to spread to the rest of Asia and eventually to Europe. The English word 'porcelain' derives from the Italian word 'porcellana', which means 'cowrie shell'; the name was given to the material because it resembles this beautiful shell. 

Decorating rooms entirely in porcelain paving and tiles has been popular throughout history, with many such rooms being found in palaces such as the Galleria Sabauda and Museo di Capodimonte in Italy, the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain and at the famous Porcelain Tower in China. Modern examples include California's Dakin Building and the Gulf Building which, located in Texas, has an exterior porcelain logo measuring an astonishing 21 metres in length.    

What makes porcelain such a strong and durable ceramic is a combination of the materials it is composed of (such as kaolin, quartz, clay and feldspar) along with the extreme heats at which the material is fired. Hard and dense, porcelain demonstrates exceptionally low permeability and strong resistance to both thermal shock and chemical attack. 

Porcelain paving can be used with equal success in both the indoor and outdoor environments, where these qualities ensure a long service life with little maintenance. In addition to supplying an eclectic range of porcelain paving options, Greengates Builders Merchant also offer a comprehensive range of accessories.

• If you need to cut porcelain paving to size, you need the right blade. We recommend using specialist porcelain cutting blades from Ox Pro.
• When laying porcelain paving, use products from the leading ProJoint™ collection, which includes a primer and jointing compound.   
• Porcelain slabs can be made even more durable with Azpects Invisible Porcelain Sealer.
• Keeping the finished paving clean is easy when you use Porcelain Cleaner & Sanitiser, also from leading brand Azpects

Please browse our website to discover the complete collection and get in touch with our expert technical team if you need any advice on how to use these superlative products to achieve the most professional results.