How Thin Porcelain Tile Rebirth from Porcelain Slab

When people choosing tiles for housing, a common conception is to select the thicker ones, which thought that the thicker the tiles, the better their quality is. However, this is not true. On the contrary, the thin porcelain tiles would be better choice.

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-floor-terrazzo

What is the thin porcelain tiles and what’s the story?

Earlier back to the year of 2009, a new concept of thin porcelain tile has come up in the most famous exhibition for Ceramics in Italy, Cesaie exhibition. Those new thin tiles were so thin that their thickness was measured only 4.5mm. They could be installed directly over the existing tiles without affecting the floor.

As no need of hard working to destroy the previous floor tiles, the project of installation would be cut from a complicated three-day working into an easy afternoon job. These ultra-thin stoneware tiles have the same durability and quality of standard-thickness porcelain stoneware tiles, in the meantime, they don’t fall short on style either. Available in large and modern sizes like, 60 x 120 cm and 90 x 180 cm in different color choices.

The advantages of using thin porcelain tiles

1. Can Be Tiled Over Existing Wall Or Floor Tiles
Thin porcelain tiles are perfect for tiling over existing walls or floors. The thin profile allows the tiles to be quickly and easily installed over existing materials.

2. Same Strength As Regular Porcelain
Despite their sleek design, thin tiles are surprisingly strong. With some thin porcelain tiles being just as strong as regular tiles.

3. Lighter
Just as strong as regular tiles, thin tiles are also lighter than regular tiles. This means they can easily be installed in areas where it would be harder to install heavier tiles. For example, thin tiles can easily be carried and lifted to high areas as they are light and can be easily carried.

4. Less Expensive, Same High-Quality Finish
Although the production of thinner tiles can be more expensive, the cost of them are similar if not cheaper than the thicker versions and they are of the same high quality you would expect.

Are thin porcelain tile and porcelain slab same thing?

Since both of them are belonging to the same type of Porcelain, with similar raw materials under the same production process, we consider the two kinds of products as the same one, including physical performance like outlook surface, water absorption, abrasion resistance, breaking strength, modulus of rupture, etc, and chemical property, like resistance to acid and alkali, resistance to stain, etc.

But in details, we still find the difference between these two as followings

1. Detailed working sizes,
Thin porcelain tiles: 600x1200x4.8mm, 600x1200x6mm, 1000x1000x6mm, 900x1800x6mm, 1200x2400x6mm
Porcelain slab: large format with various dimensions, including different sizes bigger than 1200x2400mm, thickness from 3mm to 20mm

2. Applications,
Thin porcelain tiles: exterior and interior wall, floor in door, panel etc.
Porcelain slab: exterior and interior wall, floor indoor and outdoor, panel, furniture table, kitchen counter-top, etc

How the thin porcelain tile rebirth from the porcelain slab?

First of all, let me update the situation with a clear and exact knowledge of porcelain slab globally.

Update situation on developing the porcelain slab

According to the statistics of porcelain slab research team, as of June 2022, a total of 192 porcelain slab production lines with specifications of 1200×2400 (mm) and above have been built around the world. Among them, there were 99 (accounting for 52% of the total) lines in China, Italy had 39 lines, India had 22 lines, and Spain had 14 lines.

In addition, after several years of development, the current porcelain slab industry is going through transformation from manufacturing thinking to product thinking, from selling goods to providing services, and from slabs applied on the floor or wall to the whole house customization.

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-wooden pallet

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-container loading

However, Compared with the prosperity of large numbers of porcelain slab production lines installed in China in 2020-2021, only 3 new slab production lines were put into operation in the first half of 2022, with a decrease of 89% compared with the same period in 2021. There are two main reasons for the apparent slowdown in growth:

First, the overstocked inventory of porcelain slab in China has caused some kilns suspended. Affected by factors such as the pandemic, rising raw material prices, electricity limitation for produciton, the ceramic market is now very sluggish. The end-consumer market of porcelain slab has not yet been fully opened, which results the problems such as overcapacity and overstocking of porcelain slab are becoming more and more serious.

Second, most production lines are built by leading enterprises and it's not easy for new enterprises to enter the game. In addition, some slab production lines would be built in local production regions to open the local market and supply for surrounding markets.

Q: How the thin procelain tiles survive in the surrounding of porcelain slab?
A: The particularity is in the market of redecorating the home.

When redecorating the house’s floor and wall, the benefits by using thin porcelain tiles, instead of normal thick tiles, are obvious in the following sheet.

Fox example of redecoration for 100 sqm floor’s & 280 sqm wall

Sr.	Details of project	Cost by normal tiles	Cost by thin tiles
1	Dismantling the old tiles	$1150	$0
2	Dealing with the basic layer of wall	$0	$800
3	Dropping the waste and wreckage	$360	$0
4	Remaking the water supply	$310	$0
5	Remaking the power supply	$1080	$0
6	Carrying all the materials	$80	$40
7	Construction including accessories	$1220	$1300
	Subtotal in USD	$4200.00	$2140.00

From the above data, we easily understand that it will cost forty two hundred US dollars by using the normal tiles, comparing only two thousand one hundred and forty US dollars by adopting the thin porcelain tiles, almost 50% money would be saved.

Further, if we compare the working period of such redecoration, 30 days for normal tiles and only 10 days for thin tiles. The economical characteristics of thin porcelain tiles would be distinguished.

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-panel-kitchen cabinet

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-kitchen panel

Where to find available thin porcelain tiles.

As explained, the production range of porcelain slab covers the thin porcelain tile. It’s not difficult to find these tiles in different provinces of China where the porcelain slabs are manufactured by mass. Here is listing the ratio of capacity in all kinds of production bases in China based on the total capacity of 3 million square meters per day.

1. Guangdong, 72%
2. Jiangxi, 8%
3. Sichuan, 6%
4. Fujian, 3%
5. Hebei, 3%
6. Zhejiang, 2%
7. Hunan, 2%
8. Other, 4%

We, Sunvin Ceramics, located in Foshan Guangdong, have a selection of thin-tile ranges, warmly welcome you visiting our local showroom to see more of our ranges and for more information on why thin tiles may be better for your project.

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-pattern-cloth design

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-pattern-rock style

La BoBo is the earliest brand in Foshan Guangdong to produce the thin porcelain tiles, designed with the texture of natural stone, sandstone and wallpaper, recreate the true style and feature of natural stone by using the latest stereo ink printing technology. Lighter in weight, more excellent in performance, it can widely meet the needs of all-space decoration of indoor and outdoor walls and floors, and create a unique style of environmental protection light life

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-integrated fitting construction-2

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-bathroom wall-marble

thin porcelain tile-600x1200-integrated fitting construction-1

The instruction on installation and tools to be used

Ground paving construction: the ground base and the back of the tile should be full of glue, so as to achieve no empty drum, reduce the probability of collapse.

Exterior wall paving construction: the wall base and the back of the brick should be full of glue.

Inner wall paving construction: wall base glue after the direct wet paste on the wall

Illustration on main process of installation

Main tools for carrying, cutting, drilling, paving etc.

Should any more detailed information on thin porcelain tiles be requested, please feel free to go through our pages in our website, www.sunvin.com.cn, or leave your favorable comments. THANK YOU!