Advice on whether to seal glazed porcelain

[DIY beginner]

Help please! We recently tiled most of our downstairs (about 50 sq m)with porcelain 300 x 600 beige tiles - they are glazed porcelain from China purchased from B&Q (the only affordable porcelain we could see). We've never had porcelain floor tiles before, always carpet or vinyl.

Is it a good idea to seal the grout in the kitchen area (or all over?).

On researching this topic we were horrified to see the negative feedback on B&Q porcelain and now wondering whether the whole floor should be sealed. Will this help to prevent staining, or is it just a waste of time/money if the tiles are glazed?

Any advice gratefully accepted - and products to use - too late to change the tiles, tho'.

Thanks

Helen B

[Dave]

Hi Helen...if they are glazed then sealer will not take......have you the name of the tile..?

[beanz]

You should only need to seal polished porcelain tiles. If you're using a light grout, i'd probably recommend sealing that, just to make it easier to clean.

[merlecollins]

Glazed Porcelain by it's very nature is non-porous so any sealer won't soak in as it should and will always just lie on the surface and wear off in time.

If it's a good quality porcelain it shouldn't ever stain and therefore not need any protection.

[Dave]

Porcealin isn't very porous but it's the open pores in the tiles surface( un-glazed) that grab dirt and stains and the use of a special penetrating sealer like lithofin FZ impregnator or even LTP MPG sealer will work fine..and help in the cleaning and maintenence of the tiles.

[smurf21]

Correct me if i m wrong but if its glazed porcelain it does not need sealing only polished porcelaine needs sealing.........

[merlecollins]

CORRECT smurf21

[grumpygrouter]

Correct me if i m wrong but if its glazed porcelain it does not need sealing only polished porcelaine needs sealing.........

See Smurf, we agree on this too.....

[DIY beginner]

Thank you - I will seal the grout only.

The tiles are called Zafira - glazed porcelain.

Helen

[p bond]

Hi can you please tell me how you got on with your tiling with those tiles as i have bought the same tiles from b and q. Also if you have any left over and willing to sell them, please let me know as I am a few tiles short and I can't get them anywhere as B and Q said its all gone now.
Many thanks.

[DIY beginner]

Hi there

Sorry we have not even 1 complete tile left! We were actually short due to extending the area - tried to order more from B&Q and found they had some sort of supply problem. We had to resort to driving around buying up whatever we could - managed to get some from Northampton and then Stratford on Avon - in fact there were some in Stratford last time I went, but that was about 4 weeks ago - some had been returned. We even bought some square ones which we used for the edges (these are very slighly different in shade).

The actual tiles look really good and so far absolutely no problems - I sealed the grout with Aquamix and when a friend accidentally dropped some red wine on them, it cleaned up as good as new.

Good luck in finding more tiles.

Helen