A thinner tile can be cheaper and easier to lay.
Porcelain or gres? a medium rectangular format or a large format? a polished or glossy finish? When we choose the tiles for our home or business we have to face many decisions: asking ourselves the right questions is fundamental for the pieces to give us the result we expect.
What tile thickness are we going to choose?
One of the aspects that we must also take into account when choosing the tiles for our project is the thickness of the tiles: are we going to choose the thinnest tiles possible, are we going to go for standard tiles or do we need thick tiles for our project? As always, everything will depend on the use we are going to give to the tiles, their finish or our budget.
Technological advances in the ceramics industry have allowed tiles to become thinner and thinner, with thicknesses of between 3 and 5 millimetres. This has many advantages when it comes to undertaking a project, as they are lighter and use less raw material, therefore facilitating logistics and reducing costs compared to traditional tiles. However, such thin pieces tend to be less resistant, so it is important to reserve them for less intensive uses, mainly wall tiling. Another advantage of this type of tile is that, since they are lighter, they are also easier to handle and lay.
The next step up in terms of thickness are conventional tiles, which are approximately 10 mm thick, both in gres and in white body. Their main advantage is their extraordinary strength: they support much more weight than ultra-thin tiles, so they are perfect for flooring. Can they be used both indoors and outdoors? Technically, the answer is yes, but let’s not forget that certain exteriors require special performance.
20mm thickness When is it necessary?
This is precisely where the extra thick tile collections come into play, above 20 mm. When is their use recommended? When we work with exteriors where we can encounter extreme temperatures, either very high or exceptionally low. Of course, these are also the tiles we recommend for those places where the temperature difference between day and night is very high.
As they are pieces of a special thickness, their installation process also has its specific characteristics, as it requires a certain amount of experience on the part of construction professionals and the use of special glues and materials. Its cost is usually higher than that of pieces of conventional thickness, but its technical characteristics make it the ideal material for certain spaces.
Therefore, there is no single recommended thickness for an overall project. Depending on the different spaces we are going to build or renovate, we can combine pieces of different thicknesses, always using the most suitable for each of the uses.
Do you want to know our products? Visit our “products” section on the website or click here. You can also access the latest news in the new catalog by clicking here.
Follow us: