Anyone come across this with porcelain tiles

[jgw1]

I bought some dark grey/black polished porcelain tiles and sealed them today.

I noticed BEFORE I sealed that on some of the tiles a weird inconsistency in colour. It looks like (always at the edge) they have had dust on them and only partially cleaned off.

Of course there is no difference in the polished finish (i.e. the inconsistency is under the surface) and when you look perpendicular to the surface you can't see effect (i.e. you can see it only when viewed at an angle) and finally the pattern does not follow the varaition in the actual porcelain (it looks like human or mechanical sweeps).

The tiles weren't cheap (£40 psm + VAT) and from a decent independent. Not sure if this is part and parcel of porcelain tiles or whether to take them back.

[whitebeam]

Did you grout before they were sealed

[jgw1]

They are not down yet this is straight outta the boxes

[TF Ed]

its not wax is it?

[jgw1]

I asked the lady at the tile shop specifically about wax after reading up on polished porcelain here and she said that it didn't have wax on it. Plus it is only on around a third of them. She also phoned up the supplier to ask about the need to seal them (although the answer was a bit wishy washy).

From that reaction though it doesn't sound normal.

One tile was chipped when I got it so I need to go back with it. I reckon that I'll bring it up then. Maybe order a spare too.

[Scott]

One tile was chipped when I got it so I need to go back with it. I reckon that I'll bring it up then. Maybe order a spare too.

Just the one?

[whitebeam]

Maybe check the rest to see if the colour is on all of them and how many may be chipped

[mikethetile]

may as well take all the ones back your not happy with and get them to change them

if you lay them then you have no comeback if the marks show on the finished floor

[kevan]

hi,with nearly all polished porcelain you get what is called AN OPTICAL HAZE can be seen in mostly natural light,exactly as you said in swirlls,dull edges.ive had to tell clients of this before doing jobs.better off using glazed tiles!regards kevan

[jgw1]

Yes!

http://infotile.com.au/pdffile/Publi...2010125423.pdf

The tiles are from China and I found an article that says that it is more common in Chinese tiles.

I think that from the three types of hazing I have shadowing or sealing marks from production (i.e. they haven't got it all over tile and have missed an edge).

I think that I can hide most of the problem edges under the kitchen units but will mention the problem when I go back to the tile shop.

Cheers!

[kevan]

hi again,just cover yourself and advise the client of the hazing,better to be safe than sorry,regards kevan

[jgw1]

Just the one is chipped the others are fine (checked them while sealing). The one that chipped was out of its box.

[jgw1]

Well I got 8 in, seemed to go down ok, only problem was that with all the shunting to get the tiles upto their spacers the whole tiles got slightly off axis. Hopefuly they won't hit the skirting when I finish them off!