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Porcelain vs Ceramic Tile: PEI Ratings, Water Absorption, Cost Installed, Where Ceramic Is Perfectly Fine and the Three Places It Is Not
Flooring & Tile
Porcelain vs Ceramic Tile: The Dollar a Foot That Matters on Three Floors in the House and Does Not Matter on Any Wall
Porcelain is ceramic. It is a ceramic tile made from finer clay, pressed harder and fired hotter, until it absorbs almost no water and is hard enough to dull a drill bit. That is the whole difference, and it is worth about a dollar a square foot at mid grade. On a kitchen floor in a Barrie house, porcelain. On the backsplash above the counter, ceramic is fine and nobody will ever know. Here is how to read the box, where each one goes, and what the choice does to the price of a room.
The two tiles side by side
| Ceramic | Porcelain | |
|---|---|---|
| Water absorption | 3% to 7% or more | Under 0.5% (ANSI A137.1 definition) |
| Hardness, PEI on the box | Usually PEI 1 to 3 | Usually PEI 4 or 5 |
| Freeze-thaw | Cracks and spalls outdoors and in unheated rooms | Rated frost-proof when absorption is under 0.5% |
| Chip shows as | A different-coloured clay body under the glaze, usually red or white | Glazed: a lighter body. Through-body or colour-body: barely shows |
| Cutting | Snap cutter for straight cuts; easy | Wet saw with a good diamond blade; slow on holes and notches |
| Material, mid grade | $3.50 | $4.50 |
| Installed, mid grade, 12×24 floor | $14.75 | $15.75 |
| Setting materials | $1.25 either way; porcelain needs a modified thinset because it does not absorb water from the mortar, and the good setters use one on everything | |
The setter’s $10 is the same for both. He would rather cut ceramic. He would rather walk on porcelain.
How to read the box
Three things on the carton tell you what you are buying. The PEI rating is a wear test for the glaze, 1 to 5: PEI 1 is walls only, PEI 2 is bathrooms with slippers, PEI 3 is normal residential floors, PEI 4 is every room in a house including the front hall, PEI 5 is a shopping mall. Unglazed and through-body tiles are not PEI rated because there is no glaze to wear through. The absorption, or the word “porcelain” with a certification mark, tells you it is under 0.5% and frost-proof. The shade and calibre codes tell you every box is from the same run; mix runs and you get two colours and two sizes on one floor.
Rectified means the edges were ground square after firing so every tile is the same size to a fraction of a millimetre, which is what lets a setter run a 1/16 in. grout joint. Pressed-edge tile varies and wants 3/16 in. or wider. Most porcelain over $4 is rectified; most ceramic under $3 is not. The grout joint is where you see the difference before you see anything else.
Where ceramic is fine
Walls, anywhere. A kitchen backsplash is $20 a square foot to set because every tile is a cut around an outlet; the tile under that labour can be $2.50 ceramic and look exactly like $7.50 porcelain, because nobody walks on a backsplash. Bathroom and shower walls, the same, provided the waterproofing behind it is doing the work, which is its job and not the tile’s. Bedroom and ensuite floors in a house with no dog and no boots, PEI 3 ceramic has lasted forty years in half the houses in Ontario. Laundry room floors. A powder room.
If the house is heated and the room is dry-shod, ceramic at the right PEI is a good tile and the dollar you save a foot is real. On a 300 sq ft main floor, that is $300 in your pocket.
Where it is not
- The front entry, mudroom and back hall. Grit on boots is sandpaper. PEI 4 porcelain or an unglazed through-body tile, or you will see a path in the glaze in ten winters. In my own houses this is the one floor I never argue about.
- Anything that freezes. Porches, a three-season sunroom, the floor of an unheated garage or a cottage left cold. Ceramic takes on water, the water freezes, the glaze pops off in sheets. Porcelain shrugs.
- Shower floors. Porcelain mosaic. The floor sits wet, and ceramic at 5% absorption darkens, holds soap and grows the pink stuff in the grout faster. Walls are a different matter; see above.
- Over a heated floor, if the ceramic is a cheap one. The heat is not the problem; tile loves radiant heat and both kinds move it well. The problem is a soft-bodied ceramic cracking at a hairline in the slab that a porcelain would bridge. Tile over radiant heat, and why tile is at the top of that list.
- Any floor you intend to keep fifty years. The thing about porcelain is that it does not age. The glaze on a PEI 3 ceramic is a coat of glass a fraction of a millimetre thick, and glass wears.
A kitchen priced both ways
A 120 sq ft kitchen floor, 12×24 straight lay, plywood subfloor, membrane. Porcelain: 135 sq ft of tile with waste at $4.50 is $608, setting $150, setter $1,200, membrane $420, total $2,378. Ceramic: 135 sq ft at $3.50 is $473, the other three lines identical, total $2,243. The difference is $135 on a $2,400 job, or about 6%. The porcelain will look like this in 2066; the ceramic in a working kitchen will show the path from the fridge to the stove by about 2045. That is the trade, and for $135 I take porcelain every time. For the backsplash in the same kitchen, I take whatever you like the look of. The full tile cost table has every grade of both.
Questions people ask
Is porcelain tile better than ceramic?
Harder and nearly waterproof, so better on floors that take boots, water or frost. On walls and in dry bedrooms, ceramic at the right PEI rating does the same job for about a dollar a square foot less. Neither is better for a shower’s waterproofing, which is the membrane behind it.
How much more does porcelain cost than ceramic?
About $1.00 a square foot more at mid grade in Ontario in 2026 ($4.50 vs $3.50), with the same $10 setter and $1.25 setting materials. Installed, $15.75 vs $14.75. Premium porcelain runs to $7.50 and designer ceramic to $5.50.
What PEI rating do I need for a kitchen floor?
PEI 4 for a kitchen, hall or entry. PEI 3 is the minimum for any floor you walk on in shoes. PEI 1 and 2 are wall and bathroom tiles. Most porcelain floor tile is PEI 4 or 5 whether or not the box shouts about it.
Can you use ceramic tile in a shower?
On the walls, yes, over a proper waterproofing membrane; it is what most showers in Ontario have. On the floor, use porcelain mosaic: it sits in water and ceramic absorbs it.
Does porcelain tile crack more easily than ceramic?
Less. Porcelain is denser and stronger in bending. Either one cracks over a subfloor that moves or a slab crack with no isolation membrane, which is a setting problem and not a tile problem. Cracks and what causes them.
Price it with either tile
The tile and shower cost calculator lets you pick porcelain, ceramic or stone by grade for each room and shows the difference on the bottom line, HST included.
Sources and further reading
- Tile Council of North America: the TCNA Handbook methods for tile over wood, concrete and in showers, and the ANSI lippage and grout standards a tile setter is held to.
- Mapei Canada: thinset, grout, self-levelling compound and moisture mitigation product data: what each one needs from the floor under it.
