Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112BY T HE BOOK brought to you by Ceramic vs. porcelain: examining performance, assessing needs of the consumer By Marianne Cox, director of marketing Interceramic USA In an industry where we are con- ditioned to believe that porcelain is far superior to ceramic, we must ask ourselves if this is a true statement. Why? Because it is not. There is no disputing that any form of tile (ceramic or porcelain) can be manufactured poorly while others are manufactured reputably. There is also no disputing that ceramic and porcelain live on opposite ends of the price spectrum. How do we fairly compare the two? We must discard two trains of thought. First, technically speaking, we eliminate from consideration any tile that does not meet ANSI A137.1. If tile fails to meet these standards, we should never consider it for any installation (Exception: some spe- cialty tiles where the performance parameters are not relevant, such as using Saltillo tile in some residential installations). Second, let’s elimi- nate the thought that the goal is to make money or upgrade for sake of making money, with no thought to the needs of the homeowner. Before we address what should be the true debate of the ceramic vs. porcelain conundrum, we should address the technical attributes of ceramic tile. ANSI A137.1 clearly defines TILE as “a ceramic surfacing unit, usually relatively thin in rela- tion to facial area, having either a glazed or unglazed face and fired above red heat in the course of manufacture to a temperature suf- ficiently high to produce specific physical properties and character- istics.” Porcelain is defined as a 90 TileLetter | July 2016