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Tiles / Indoor / Ceramic

Ceramic Tiles

The wall tile. Softer in the body, easier to cut, and available in glaze finishes that porcelain cannot easily reproduce.

The mosaic aisle, with borders, listellos and hand-glazed brick tile
Body
Glazed ceramic
Water absorption
3-10% by weight
Thickness
6-9 mm
Formats
2" × 6" up to 24" × 48"
Use
Walls, light-traffic floors
Origin
Spain, Italy, Turkey, Brazil
(01)What this is

Ceramic and porcelain are often compared as alternatives, but they are two bodies fired at different temperatures for different jobs. We carry both because most houses need both.

Ceramic is fired cooler, so the body stays more porous and softer. That makes it easier to work with: it scores and snaps cleanly, cuts neatly at inside corners, and lets a tiler finish a complicated wall faster. It also carries the widest range of glazes — hand-dipped colour, crackle, relief and high gloss are all ceramic finishes.

The trade-off is that it belongs on walls. A ceramic floor in a hallway will chip at the edges and wear through the glaze at turning points. We will supply ceramic for a floor if that is what you want, but it is worth knowing first.

(02)Who makes it

The housesbehind the range.

We buy this category deep from a small number of manufacturers rather than shallow from many. Knowing whose tile you are standing on tells you what to expect of the calibre, the lead time and the reorder.

A Cecafi white marble-effect ceramic floor in a living room with a low sofa and a timber coffee table

Marble effect, at floor scale

(01)   Cordeirópolis, São Paulo, Brazil

Cecafi

Brazil's largest tile exporter, and the scale that comes with it.

Cecafi is one of the brands of Cerâmica Carmelo Fior, made at the Cordeirópolis plant in São Paulo state. The group runs five factories across four Brazilian states and is the country's largest exporter of ceramic tile, shipping to more than sixty countries.

Ceramic World Review placed Carmelo Fior as the largest producer by volume in Brazil and eighth in the world, at over nine million square metres a month. For us that means a range which can be reordered without a six-month wait, in the wood-look and stone-look faces that most of a house gets tiled in.

Plant

Cordeirópolis, São Paulo

Group

Cerâmica Carmelo Fior

Output

9M+ m² per month, 5 plants

Exports

60+ countries

Collections

  • Albury Soft
  • Branco Neve Soft
  • Dream Soft
  • Vitra Plus
  • Velar
Cecafi online
A Lef Áviles marble-effect ceramic floor seen from above, with a sofa and a side table

Áviles, marble effect at floor scale

(02)   Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil

Lef Cerâmica

Dry-process ceramic, rectified and bold, in the middle formats.

Lef has been producing in Piracicaba since 1994, working the dry process that the São Paulo ceramic industry is built on. The output is floor and wall tile under the LEF, ViaÁpia and ViaRosa names, plus a porcelain line.

The range is rectified and bold in satin and gloss faces, running from 33 × 59 cm up to 74.5 × 74.5 cm. That covers the formats most rooms actually take, and the marble and stone effects are where the catalogue is strongest.

Since

1994, Piracicaba

Process

Dry-process ceramic

Formats

33 × 59 to 74.5 × 74.5 cm

Edges

Rectified and bold

Collections

  • Áviles
  • Tulha
  • Perlanova
  • Hanover Light
  • Cement Ivory
  • Prisma
Lef Cerâmica online
A polished grey marble-effect Incopisos floor running through an open living space

Polished stone effect, large format

(03)   Santa Gertrudes, São Paulo, Brazil

Grupo Incopisos

Forty years in the largest ceramic cluster in Brazil.

Incopisos has worked out of Santa Gertrudes since 1985. The town is the centre of Brazilian ceramic production the way Castellón is for Spain, and the group now turns out more than five million square metres a month across four brands: Incopisos, Bellacer, Vivence and Marmocerâmica.

The plant runs on clean energy with solid-waste recycling, zero water discharge, heat reclamation and replanting of the clay extraction areas. Worth asking about on a project chasing environmental credits.

Since

1985, Santa Gertrudes

Output

5M+ m² per month

Brands

Incopisos, Bellacer, Vivence

Plant

Zero water discharge

Collections

  • Linha Supreme
  • Coleção Ecoar
  • Allure
  • Belvedere Grigio
  • Michelangelo
Grupo Incopisos online

Product photography © Cerâmica Carmelo Fior, Lef Cerâmica and Grupo Incopisos, reproduced with permission. Brand names, collection names and product names are the trademarks of their respective owners, and appear here to identify the ranges we stock. Tile Warehouse is an independent distributor and is not affiliated with these manufacturers beyond that.

(03)Before you decide

Things worth knowing.

Check the wear rating before using it on a floor

Glazed ceramic is rated PEI 0 to 2, which suits walls and low-traffic rooms. Porcelain is the better body for a hallway, kitchen or entry. If a tile you like is only made in ceramic, one option is to use it on the wall and pair it with a porcelain floor.

Crazing is part of the finish

Fine cracks in the glaze of a crackle or hand-glazed tile are intentional, and they continue to develop for months after fixing. In a shower they can hold water and stain, so seal before grouting. If you want a wall that stays visually unchanged, this is not the right tile.

Handmade tile is intentionally uneven

Zellige and hand-pressed tiles are not flat or perfectly square. They need a wider joint, a tiler comfortable working to the piece rather than to a line, and around 15% extra ordered to allow for rejects. Worth agreeing before the wall starts.

Shade and calibre vary by batch

Ceramic is fired in batches and colour shifts between them. Order the whole job at once, check the shade code on every box before opening, and keep a spare box. Matching a batch later is difficult, and it is a common reason a repair remains visible.

(04)Technical reference

Typical figures for the range. Product-specific data sheets are available at the counter for anything you are specifying formally.

Standard
ISO 13006 BIII glazed
Wear rating
PEI 0-2
Thickness
6-9 mm
Joint width
2-3 mm, 5 mm+ handmade
Adhesive
C2TE, white under pale glaze
Grout
CG2 cementitious, epoxy in showers
Cutting
Score and snap, wet saw for mitres
Waste allowance
10%, 15% on handmade

Come and stand on it.

Ceramic is worth seeing in person, since a photograph does not capture how a glaze reflects light. Bring your paint colour and worktop sample and hold them against the hand-glazed wall.

Plan a visit(868) 242-2337 / 2481
Showroom

LP #61 Limehead Road
Chase Village, Chaguanas

Monday - Friday
8am - 4:30pm
Saturday
8am - 2pm
Sunday
Closed