porcelain floor without grout gap????

[Researcher]

In China, the majority of residential properties use porcelain tiles and almost exclusively large format tiles 800mm x 800mm to 1000mm x 1000mm, although some older properties have 600mm x 600mm. What I have noticed is that the joint widths are always between 1mm to 2mm! Although I have not seen a 0mm joint yet.
I would have thought porcelain was quite a stable material, in that it offers little expansion, can anyone clarify this?
Over here manufacturers tend to recommend 3mm to 5mm, I often wonder why, perhaps it's cautionary or just inexperience? I guess in China, they've had decades of experience, in a market where porcelain is the primary tiling material.
Just came back from a sourcing trip, popped into a few of the local tiling stores (the whole street is populated with tiling stores: small and large! - certainly different from the UK! - another street is full of lighting stores!) Anyway, a very good quality branded tile (medium traffic, polished porcelain) at 800mm x 800mm is going for approximately 70 pence per tile! The mind boggles!

 

[Deleted member 1779]

I've also seen a lot of stone laid with zero to 1mm abroad.

But the key difference between property abroad and your standard UK house is that 99% of property abroad is a concrete structure reinforced with rebar.

Most properties abroad are built in the same way as commercial building:
Concrete and Rebar!

Most UK houses have a mix of wood (joists) and floorboards. (planks or chipboard).

The tendency for the substructure to flex in the UK is high.

Most UK houses have rather a lot of wood! - And that moves..

Abroad they are laying tiles using a sand and cement mix onto a reinforced concrete floor / wall. So movement is unlikely. Unless you count earthquake and Volcano...

Even your standard Spanish Villas tend to butt-up the tiles without a grout joint and it seems they follow the same logic that they are tiling onto solid concrete.

But I do sometimes wonder why we space tiles in the UK if tiling onto a a solid structure. (habit maybe?)

 

[White Room]

British standards tend to sway tilers views:smilewinkgrin: