The Perfect Flooring Tile Finishes for Every Home

Porcelain Tile is an extremely durable and water-resistant type of ceramic tile that is perfect for homes and commercial businesses. Porcelain is the perfect choice for areas where spills or leaks including kitchens, laundry rooms, basements, and bathrooms. In addition, stains and discoloration are even more unlikely to occur if the porcelain tiles have been glazed. Porcelain is also very heat-resistant and has a higher melting point than other materials.

You can select a porcelain tile that is made to look like another material in order to get the perfect style without sacrificing durability or blowing your budget: wood-look porcelain tile, stone-look, marble-looking, concrete-looking porcelain tiles, and more. Porcelain is made of high-quality materials, and comes in various sizes, colors, and finishes:

Matte Tile Finish

Full Polished Tile Finish

Porcelain tiles are versatile enough to be ground down to a high polish, much like how marble or granite tiles are. This grinding can create microscopic pores on the surface of the tile that the full polish masks from view. However, these tiny pores only affect the surface, so fully polished porcelain tiles are still water and stain-resistant, making them a great option for bathrooms or other areas that get wet.

Polished porcelain refers to an unglazed tile where the color runs all the way through the thickness. Since there is no glaze to wear away, the end result is an astonishingly dense and strong tile.

Glossy (Brillo) Tile Finish

A Brillo, or glossy, finished tile is a rectified glazed ceramic tile, typically used on walls. However, this simplistic and minimalist tile is versatile enough for a variety of environments whether that be in a residential or a commercial application. Brillo finished tiles add an element of understated elegance and are perfect for countertops, interior walls, fireplaces, and showers.

Brillo finished porcelain tiles come in an elegant glossy surface finish to simulate polished marble. When installed in a floor setting, Brillo tiles are a surefire way to achieve elegance that is both warm and inviting. Glossy tiles are a classic complement to your home that will last a lifetime.

Lapatto (Semi-Gloss) Tile Finish

The word Italian word “Lapatto” can be translated to semi-polished or honed. This innovative technology uses heavily textured indoor tiles that have been glazed and then polished on the surface of the texture to create a mixture of polished (gloss) and unpolished (matte) surface areas. This is achieved by briefly using an abrasive wheel to polish the tile’s surface, but not long enough to attain the luster of a typical polished tile. This process creates a special surface that reflects light from the polished areas while also leaving sections of the surface matte.

A Lapatto finish is a shiny texture that can be added to the surface of the tile in order to give a semi-gloss appearance. Typically, a natural tile is finished matte to give little to no sheen. JC Floor’s Semi-Gloss Lapatto tile finishes are used in conjunction with a natural finish tile and placed to highlight or accent specific spaces such as an entryway, waiting area or bathroom.